Start Up Basics with Nat Turner

Our speaker for the evening was Nat Turner, co-founder of Invite Media, a stealth company funded by First Round Capital. Despite being the youngest speaker in our series, Nat has quite a bit of experience having run a VC funded start up. Nat briefly discussed his start up history as well as his current projects and then segued into his topic for the night, "Start Up Basics."

Nat started with a few Do’s & Don’ts for our start up teams. These included (but were not limited to) focusing on the product, getting the first version out "into the wild" for feedback, talking and listening to potential customers, and crafting the perfect pitch.

Nat presented his view of the funding landscape in order to put things into a clearer perspective for our companies. Particular attention was spent identifying the differences between angels and VC’s within our relative geographic area, and how to maximize your interactions with the two groups of potential investors.

The presentation then progressed naturally into commentary and insight regarding terms and term sheets. Nat then highlighted two types of funding structures for seed stage agreements, the first being convertible debt and the second being a priced equity round. The descriptions and explanations for the two structures were accompanied by clear examples to support them. Nat also discussed the importance of board composition and surrounding yourself with strong adjunct team members including the concurrent role of lawyers in the process.

In closing, Nat stressed the overarching importance of building a product that investors simply cannot ignore. The teams enjoyed Nat's perspective-- a perspective with which many of the early stage companies could readily identify. Many chose to stay afterword to speak with Nat individually and Nat graciously obliged.

We are fortunate to have had Nat speak to us and our thanks go out to him for his time and insight.