20 VC 052: How To Make The Leap From Seed To Series A with Ari Helgason @ Dawn Capital

Ari Helgason is a VC at Dawn Capital in London and a former entrepreneur with operational experience in both London and New York. Prior to Dawn, Ari founded SaaS sales and workflow management system World on a Hanger and ecommerce clothing marketplace Fabricly.com. More recently, he launched ecommerce sites for fashion and luxury brands in London and New York. Ari is an alumnus of the Y Combinator startup accelerator and he regularly visits Silicon Valley where he has extensive relationships.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• How Ari made his move into the VC scene?
• Why Ari decided to bootstrap his first business?
• Does Ari believe that Founders should always be fundraising?
• Should Founders take more money than they need, ‘a war chest’?
• What type of goals do VCs want to see from founders?
• What do investors expect from startups at Series A?
• How can founders learn what KPI’s make sense for their business?
• How can founders know when is the right time to fundraise?
• How can startup founders get their foot in the VC door?

Items Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

• Predictable Revenue: Aaron Ross (Mandatory Reading for All SaaS CEO’s)
• Elon Musk: How The Billionaire of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping Our Future
• Saastr by Jason Lemkin
• AVC.com

As always you can follow Harry, Ari and The Twenty Minute VC on Twitter here!