You’ve got your idea, you’ve assembled a team and set your goals. All you need now is some funding. Easy, right? Not quite. Running a start-up is hard and attracting the right sort of funding is even harder.
One man who could help you is Jason Trost, CEO and co-founder of social betting start-up Smarkets. He pitched his company at last year’s GeeknRolla and has been running Smarkets three years. This is what he hoped someone had told him before he set out on the start-up path…
Get a lawyer: “Once you’ve got your great idea and found your co-founder – which is probably the hardest decision you’ll make as astart-up, you want to find a lawyer”. He recommends Chris Grew at Orrick as well as Barry Vitou and Danvers Baillieu from Winston & Strawn.
Getting noticed: “By far the most important thing when meeting VCs is the introduction,” says Trost. “Spend a lot of time meeting networking with investers and founders. If you’re new to the space you need to find who the key people are.” For a who’s who of the angel investors, he says you could do worse than look through GeeknRolla’s investment panel…
Have a tough skin “People think you hear “no” a lot but I don’t think I heard no once from VCs – they just don’t email you back. ‘Interested’ basically means ‘no’,” says Trost.
Raising money: You many have to choose between the types of funding available. Straight-forward equity financing is different to convertible note financing, which is faster but converts to equity at a later stage.
Disrupt 2026: The tech ecosystem, all in one room
Your next round. Your next hire. Your next breakout opportunity. Find it at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, where 10,000+ founders, investors, and tech leaders gather for three days of 250+ tactical sessions, powerful introductions, and market-defining innovation. Register now to save up to $400.
Save up to $300 or 30% to TechCrunch Founder Summit
1,000+ founders and investors come together at TechCrunch Founder Summit 2026 for a full day focused on growth, execution, and real-world scaling. Learn from founders and investors who have shaped the industry. Connect with peers navigating similar growth stages. Walk away with tactics you can apply immediately
Offer ends March 13.
Hiring: Trost says “The first hire you make is the most important decision you make outside of choosing your co-founder – we spent six months finding somebody.” Most important attributes? “Look for people who are do-ers and closers – the most important thing in start-ups is doing, not theorising.” Salaries vary a lot, but Trost gave the ballpark figure of £20,000-£25,000 a year and equity share options range from 0.01% to 10%.
Office space: It may be over-run with students most days, but Trost says the British Library – with its free wifi – is a great place to work for early-stage start-up with no fixed abode – he worked there for three months.
Networking: There’s tons of different events in London: Seedcamp, Barcamp. open Coffee, DrinkTank… And it’s important to have nice business cards. I’d spend time on it and make sure a professional design it.”
Marketing: “Think about it a lot sooner than you think you need to”, The key is look for patnerships where you can send people traffic an they give you revenue.” Start-ups should, he says, be able to explain their business in one sentence.
VIDEO AT TIME CODE 1.04
