2023 W24 - Always ask for a price
Every week I post about one thing that happened at Rows. We're building in public! ---
📣 This is a public service announcement!
3 weeks back, we announced a new funding round we closed. Now it's time to pay the invoices.
I want to leave a reminder that should be forever imprinted on every founder's brain:
No matter how long the relationship you have with a partner, if you're asking for help with new work, especially custom work like a new funding round, ask for a price ahead of time.
This includes:
Settle the amount of legal costs with new and existing investors (as low as possible) as soon as possible, ie at term sheet time.
Ask the lawyers for a quote or a ceiling to the hourly quotes.
Ask the accountants for quotes if you need to involve them in DDs.
Model this in a spreadsheet, put it in your actual budget. Yes, the budget will show a spike in cost, but better to map it anyway. Better yet, do it in a better spreadsheet, Rows.com.
We're quite lucky to have good partners, and as spreadsheet people we're typically quite on top of this, *but* we've had a few scares before, especially as some details emerge that can be complex.
Expectations change in a matter of weeks, so its better to have it in writing when everyone's mega aligned on getting your round done.
All in all, rounds should be quite standard, which means that if you have your data and terms in place, there should be no big surprises.
Ask for a price.
- H
