The workshop "How to raise venture capital (VC)financing ", organized by the Chilean Venture Capital Association (ACVC) and sponsored by Amazon Web Services (AWS), ended successfully.
Some thirty participants, including entrepreneurs and members of the teams of accelerators and incubators, had two days to learn about how this industry works locally and globally, as well as its importance. "VC has an impact on people's quality of life (...) in addition, its access is democratic, since it finances good ideas and good businesses regardless of who they belong to", said Magdalena Guzmán, executive director of the ACVC, at the beginning of the workshop.
Regarding the things a VC looks for in a startup, scalability is one of the most important factors, said Cristóbal Silva, general partner of Kayyak Ventures and director of the ACVC.
For his part, Andres Meirovich, managing partner of Genesis Ventures and director of ACVC, urged not to be afraid of asking investors for high amounts. "Many times that mistake is made," he said.
Evelyn Von Bischhoffshausen, principal of Kayyak Ventures, recommended that in early stages startups look for local VCs and then target foreign funds, but taking into account what they need. "The relationship that the fund has with the startups depends on their size. That's why it's good to map VCs and talk to other entrepreneurs (about their experience)," he added.
The legal aspect was in charge of Francisco Guzmán, partner of Carey Abogados and president of the ACVC. In addition to explaining the different alternatives of relationships between startups and VCs, he advised to always have advice. "If you don't, you can miss many mistakes and come out very badly off," he warned.
In addition, the lawyer explained why the most important part of fundraising is the valuation of the startup. Later, Sebastián Gilbert, partner of Dadneo Capital and director of ACVC, went deeper into the subject and detailed all the aspects involved, clarifying that the process has a part of science and a part of art.
"Science because there is a financial part behind it and art because there are many soft things that end up affecting the value of the startup," he said. Even so, the valuation has to have a foundation, in which there must be the commercial value, but also the value that is being delivered to the client, as well as the team and the technological solution, among others.
Sebastián González, head of venture partnerships Hispam at Wayra and director of the ACVC, referred to the perspective of corporate funds and how they manage to energize the industry. He also recommended entrepreneurs to always tell what they are doing, "because everyone competes for the attention of VCs".
The last block was in charge of Federico Antoni, managing partner of ALLVP, and Pedro Pineda, co-founder and CEO of Fintual. The former interviewed the latter about the startup's VC capital raising process.
Antonio recalled that although at first they had doubts about financing Fintual, later "when we met the team, it generated an abysmal conviction in us". For his part, Pedro also spoke of the importance of the relationship with the fund and what should be prioritized. "It's not the size of the check that matters, but the value that the VC can bring you," he said.
