[Fundraising for Startups] Lesson 8: The four numbers you need to have handy if you *ever* want to raise money.

I wish more entrepreneurs understood that investors want to invest in trajectories -- not products.

It's not about your widget. Or the color of the button. Or the total addressable market. Or anything else that your local angel group tells you.

It's about the business.

And businesses are about numbers.

...

As an investor, there's rarely anything more frustrating than meeting a founder that doesn't know the numbers around their own business.

At the very least, you need to memorize these four things and be ready to talk about them at any time with no notice:

• Revenue (or Monthly Recurring Revenue if you have that)
• Churn
• CAC (cost of customer acquisition)
• LTV (lifetime value)

Even if your business is still early, you should have reasonable assumptions around those numbers.

The more data (read: sales) you have to back those numbers, the more likely you are to actually raise money for your company.

It sounds simple... because it is.

Remember: investors want to invest in businesses, not startups.

-P

P.S. other investors and other funded founders will confirm exactly what I'm telling you above -- join me in the community.