Startup Sales — 5 Common Sales Mistakes by Founders
August 12, 2025
Founders are responsible for the first sales a startup will make. For many founders, this is one of their very first experiences of sales and mistakes are often made.
Hello everybody. Today, we’re talking about what your seed valuation should be.
Well, there’s a really wide range. In today’s market, I see everything from $3M to $30M valuations labeled as pre-seed and seed.
The factors most investors care about at this stage are: founder backgrounds, traction, market size, tech advantage. Usually it’s best to survey 3–5 friendly investors you know in the space to get a range.
However, my main message is start as low as you’re comfortable and then keep increasing the price. You might raise your 1st $100k at a $3M cap and then raise the cap to $5m for the next to $250k, $8M for the next $500k and so on. If an investor ever challenges you — tell them you increased the round due to overwhelming demand and you promised the team or your other investors that you wouldn’t dilute them further at that valuation.
Alright, thanks a lot for watching and best of luck out there.
