My thoughts…<p>1. How much and at what valuation?<p>The answer to this is harder to think about with convertible notes, so I’d tend to think about it the way the VC in your first priced round will think about it. For them, today, they’ll want to, after the round, own ~20% of the company. “Today” is important because that number will fluctuate. A year ago, when money was flowing freely, that number may have been as low as 10%. In a few months, if things tighten up further, it may get as high as 30%. But my sense of the market today is 20%.<p>While it seems wacky, everything else in your first question then flows from this. If you raise $1M, and the VC wants 20%, then your valuation after the round closes (post-money valuation) is $5M. Raise $2M and it’s $10M. Raise $3M and it’s $15M. Etc… to some rational limit.<p>So the two numbers you’re really trying to figure out are: 1) how much the VC you want to talk to targets owning in your company; and 2) how much you need to get to the next milestone. If for #1 the answer is greater than 20% then it means either VCs aren’t as excited about you or venture markets have even further seized up. For #2, once upon a time I’d probably have said think about what you need for the next 18 months. Today, as I think we’re headed into tough times, I’d probably be thinking about what you need for 24 – 30 months.<p>By the way, at Cloudflare we raised our first round in 2009, the last period where venture markets were really seized up. In our first round we raised $2M and sold the VCs ~30% of the company. But 10 years later when we went public, in spite of raising another $200M+, the founding team still owned 25%+ of the company and held super voting shares giving us full control. So sweat these fund raising questions a bit, but mostly just focus on building a great business.<p>And, again, this is assuming venture not angels. And assuming a priced round, not a SAFE (convertible debt). But it can provide a good mental model to think about what you’ll do when you get to your first VC-led round.<p>2. Financial projections?<p>Focus on costs, not revenue. Assume you’ll generate no revenue. Think about how long, with that assumption, whatever you raise will last you. Today (again, winter is here or coming soon) think 24 – 30 months until you can raise again.<p>3. EU or US investors?<p>10 years ago the answer probably was US. Today venture is much more distributed. I’d think less about where and more about who. And think about the individual, not the firm. It’s so much easier having conversations with people who “get” your space. At Cloudflare, we made a list of the top 10 cyber security investors. We then found ways to meet those 10 people. The number two person on our list offered us a term sheet within 15 minutes of the start of our conversation. Rest is history.