Half the price of the round.
Many will disagree, but I’ve thought about this a lot.
Your existing investors have good reasons to invest today at the next round price, or for say, a small discount (15–20%) to the next round price. “Bridge” rounds from existing investors are often with 10–25% discounts.
But new investors — that’s different.
Your existing investors are already in for a dollar. They’ve already put in $X. Putting in another 5% of $X is not only minor, but more importantly, the price is sort of irrelevant due to dollar cost averaging.
If you want me to invest as a new investor before there really is a round … I need a 2x step up to when the real round closes as a new investor into the company.
Otherwise …
It’s better to wait.
Start-up investing is incredibly risky.
