11 Secrets That Made These Entrepreneurs Millions

“These 11 mega-successful entrepreneurs, and members of The Oracles, share the most important piece of advice that helped them close millions of dollars in deals. Their tips will save you years of wasted effort and help you mirror their success.

1. Build a strong foundation.
If raising capital, first seek advice from investors. It’s a smart way to avoid rejection and learn how to improve your pitch deck. Execute your company goals, return with an improved pitch, and eventually, you’ll land investment (it took us three years from the first meeting).

“It took us three years from the first meeting [until we landed our first investment dollars].” –Melanie Perkins

Here are some hard lessons we learned. One, don’t promise to raise capital by a certain date; you’ll look like a failure if you don’t close the deal in time. Two, avoid needing capital. Investors ironically want to invest in companies that will succeed regardless. Three, don’t prematurely raise capital. Grow your company as far as possible alone; you’ll learn many important lessons and how to execute. Most importantly, you’ll have time to figure things out without a ticking time bomb as you ramp-up expenses. (We had our first company for five years before landing investment for Canva. This ensured we learned many critical lessons before turning up the heat.) —Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva, who just doubled her company’s valuation to $345 million.”

Read the full post here.