This is the second post of a series about Talend’s recent Round C Fundraising.
Previous Post: Reflecting on our Recent Series C Fundraising – Introduction

The beginning of this process is usually very complex – getting the first appointment, getting a chance to pitch. After months of preparation, we officially launched the road show in September.

First, we contacted VCs that we’d worked with before and invited them to hear our story. And then Fabrice, Marc (Brandsma), and I went out on the road. Throughout September, we criss-crossed the country, with a few quick trips to Paris and London thrown in. We compressed around 50 meetings into 4 weeks, taking between 5 and 8 meetings per day. We were severely jet-lagged.

At the same time we were closing Q3 business, so we needed to optimize our time on both fronts. It’s really helpful to have hard deadlines, even if they’re self-imposed. If you compress your time, you optimize your time. It’s best for both sides to work quickly. Does the VC understand the value proposition? Yes or No. And on to the next.

We had a lot of success with the VC community. 99% of the VCs I talked to were interested in our market, our positioning, our open source model, our growth trend, and our management team. We were very encouraged.

September was the month it became evident that the economy might be in serious trouble. In the U.S., the sub-prime mortgage crisis surfaced with the Federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Lehman Brothers closed its doors after 158 years, reporting a $4 billion loss and filing for the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. The term “Black Monday” appeared again in the news for the first time in 21 years. And the Federal Reserve and central banks in Europe and Asia pumped $180 billion into money markets in an attempt to free up a lending freeze between banks

We noticed alright, but still thought that this was probably a glitch in the system and that the economy would quickly get back on track.

Bertrand

Next Post: Fundraising in October – Leveraging the Market