A successful Series A round brings rapid growth and serious change.
With millions of funding in the bank, a whole range of business operations become not only possible, but integral to continuing the growth curve.
To enable this stage of growth, there are practical fundamentals senior teams need to get right.
How to remain strategic and not get caught up in menial tasks?
How should security and compliance processes evolve?
How to stay in the goldilocks zone of office capacity?
How to keep productivity high across globally distributed or hybrid model teams?
In this guide, we’ll cover the common practical IT challenges and opportunities encountered by senior teams at Series A level and share key insights from our network of c-suite executives who’ve been there and done it, so you have a template for success when your funding arrives.
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£16.1M
average Series A raise
$300K
47% of Series A startups spend this or more per month
First things first…
your
high
level
priorities
Strategy
At Series A, the roles of the CTO and other executives must become more strategic. Even if you don’t want to, it’s inevitable you’ll become less acquainted with the detail of the codebase or product you’re building (and especially of the company’s internal IT) and more focussed on planning and alignment. By enabling others to make the right decisions, you can be more aware of how you scale and proactively maintain the right ratios between your chapters of growth.
Series A is a more volatile environment than your startup will be used to. Rather than getting bogged down by problems other people in the team can solve, operating strategically enables you to stay ahead of emerging opportunities, respond quickly to unexpected threats, and make timely decisions.
10-30%
Typical purchase investment
Investors
Series A investors typically purchase 10% to 30% of the company. This means they have a strong voice in the big decisions that define your startup’s future. The founding team will still maintain control over the board, but it’s a given that you will be challenged more than you’re used to.
Don’t allow tensions and differences of opinion to spill over in meetings. The best way to manage your investors is to proactively seek approval from them on your key strategic plans.
Hiring
As a founding member of a company that might have rapidly scaled to 30 people, the challenge of letting go of control can be very real, as can new challenges such as scaling your company culture.
One piece of advice is not to hire for the first month. Scaling prematurely burns cash, and it’s hard to course correct when you have hundreds of employees. Even if you already have a resource plan in place, take the time to find the right person. Strategically, quality is better than quantity. 10 new hires who are unfamiliar with the infrastructure will cause more menial work than five who can be onboarded correctly.
