The 2020 DocSend Startup Index Year in Review

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This week's Startup Index Newsletter features our most-read Q&As and all of our reports and supporting content for the Fundraising Playbook we developed in 2020. We recognize it has been a rollercoaster of a year for everyone and, through our focus on helping founders succeed, hope our research-based reports, insightful Q&As, and support programs have helped you achieve your goals. We are already working on new reports and ways to help founders and VCs in 2021, so until we're back in early January, dig into our best Q&As, fundraising reports, and more, below.

Happy Holidays! — The DocSend Team

Our Five Most-Read Q&As in 2020

I Just Raised a $3M Seed Round from Top Silicon Valley VCs. This Was My Step-by-Step Process.

Fundraising in 2020 has been tough for many founders. Read Brent Franson's story and process of how he successfully raised a seed round for Most Days, during the pandemic.

How Esther Crawford Built, Grew, and Sold Her Startup, Squad, to Twitter

Read our Q&A with Esther Crawford, co-founder and CEO of Squad, where she details her story of building and growing her startup for four years then choosing to sell it to Twitter instead of raising a Series A.

How they Raised: Handsome

In our Q&A with April and Nikki Dominguez, founders of beauty career and education marketplace Handsome, they share how they aced investor outreach to go from no traction to a successful pre-seed round.

How Challenging Conventional Sales and Marketing in a Downturn Can Lead to Increased Growth

Read our Q&A with Sam Levan, co-founder and CEO of MadKudu, on what B2B marketing and sales trends he saw in Q2, dealing with unforeseen challenges, and his advice for early-stage founders planning their growth strategies in today’s climate.

Two VCs on How to Build Trust Online Before You Send a Pitch Deck

We did a Q&A with both Caitlin Bolnick of OpenView Venture Partners and Sheel Mohnot of Better Tomorrow Ventures on what’s changed in investing now that it’s done online more than in-person and why it’s important for founders to build trust before they pitch.

The 2020 DocSend Startup Index

The Pre-Seed Round Defined

To date, information and trends around the pre-seed round of investment have been mostly anecdotal and the process has been relatively opaque. But now for the first time, the DocSend Startup Index, a unique set of data on startups at different stages, is de-mystifying what it means to be a pre-seed startup. DocSend studied the fundraising process of 174 startups at the pre-seed stage in 2019 and analyzed data to understand which pre-seed startups were successful in fundraising and why.

You can read the full pre-seed report, ungated on DocSend's website.

The High Stakes and Hard Work of the Seed Round

As a follow-up to the pre-seed report published earlier in 2020, DocSend studied the fundraising process of 175 startups at the seed stage in 2019 and analyzed data to understand which seed startups were successful in fundraising and why. Through comparing data from our first seed report in 2015, our analysis shows how the seed round has evolved since then and how the process and expectations have become more intensified today. You can read the full seed report, ungated on DocSend's website.

The Anatomy of a Series A Raise

Succeeding in Series A calls for a more qualitative approach. The rounds are much bigger and the meeting acceptance rate is much higher. Story-centric decks stand out to investors, most of the infrastructure/logistics vetting has already taken place in earlier rounds. Investors want to see scalability and positioning for the future. Successful Series A decks differ from Seed decks, focusing less on the Problem, Solution, Product, and Competition sections. You can read the full Series A report, ungated on DocSend's website.

Pitch Deck Interest Metrics

We know there’s been a lot of uncertainty in the startup community in 2020, especially among founders who are currently fundraising, or are looking to fundraise in the coming months. To help gauge VC appetite for pitch decks, we began tracking three key metrics using the 2020 DocSend Startup Index (VC interest, VC time spent reading, and founder links created). With these new data points, we launched the interactive Pitch Deck Interest metrics to provide a weekly update on activity in the fundraising marketplace as a leading market indicator.

COVID Impact Report

As we moved further from the initial shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, many startup founders had to find a new path forward. Based our startup survey, we released the DocSend Startup Index: The COVID Impact, which is a snapshot of how startup founders were operating in the month of April.

The Funding Divide (infographics)

Our goal through the DocSend Startup Index was to offer founders information and insights into the often opaque world of VC decision-making. While analyzing VC-founder interactions through our platform, it became clear that some of the factors that affect a founders’ ability to fundraise are actually outside of their control. This funding divide can be caused by multiple things including gender or diversity of the founding team, average age of founders, and even where the founding team is based. It’s become clear that a change is needed in how the fundraising marketplace serves minority and underrepresented founders.

Through our research we hope to share critical data on where and how the problem manifests throughout the fundraising process. While we don’t yet know the solution to the clear funding divide, we’re committed to highlighting the data we have available and helping to find a solution.

Read the Funding Divide infographics on gender, minorities, and bias.

Supporting Fundraising Founders

Active VC List

In March, as the pandemic brought uncertainty in fundraising, we compiled a list of VCs who are actively looking for deals. We divided their activity levels into three main areas: focusing on their current portfolios, reviewing deals, and offering term sheets. You can still browse our Active VC List.

DocSend Fundraising Network

On June 25th, we formally launched the DocSend Fundraising Network (DFN). This is something we have been very passionate about here at DocSend. Our goal with the DFN is to surface meaningful new deal flows for VCs while helping founders who have quality ideas, but might be underrepresented or without easy means to get in front of the right investors through current channels. Since its launch, over 1,000 founders have applied by sending us their pitch deck to analyze and receive feedback on. We reviewed those submissions and highlighted DFN trends from Q3.

Pitch Deck Interest Metrics Update

This week, VC interest went down 2.66% from last week while founder links created dropped by 7.85%. The average time spent on pitch decks increased ever so slightly and crept back toward the 3-minute mark. (retweet our tweet)

Read our analysis of last week's fundraising marketplace activity.

Listen to the latest episode of the Funded podcast!

In the latest episode of the Funded podcast, we hear how Topper Luciani, Founder of Goodfair, learned the importance of being your authentic self while raising money and how he somehow managed to save his company after one of the most devastating curveballs in fundraising - a pulled term sheet.

Subscribe to Funded on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or search "Funded"

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