178: Venture Capital Funding for Hardware Startups
Toph Day, CEO of Elevate Ventures, shares advice for hardware startups on navigating venture capital funding, emphasizing the importance of clean legal structures and avoiding complex SAFE agreements in favor of convertible notes. He discusses the necessity of building relationships with investors a year in advance and ensuring the firm invests in hard tech at the appropriate stage. Day also highlights the strategic value of partnerships over early hiring and the danger of feature creep, advocating for a 'narrow and deep' product focus to de-risk the development process.