Sevetri Wilson - Resilient

1 Cover

2 Title Page SEVETRI WILSON

3 Copyright

4 Dedication

5 Introduction

6 1 Coming From Where I'm From Triple Threat

7 2 The Difference Focus

8 3 Bootstrapping versus Raising Capital Professional Services to Startup On the Bootstrapping Process Repeatable and Predictable Revenue, Regardless Money Can't Be the Only Motivation

9 4 Idea to Product: Building a Startup Starting With Funding Starting Without Funding What Not to Do When Starting a Company You'll Never Get Going Unless …

10 5 Building a Team Hiring and Finding Freelancers and Others Out of the Gate Contingency versus Retained Recruiters Get Out of the Way

11 6 I Hear You, But I Need Capital Financing Terminology Preparing to Raise What Legal Documents Should I Use?

12 7 Raising a Pre-Seed $400,000 Pre-Seed, Better Known as a Friends-and-Family Round The Pitch

13 8 Accelerators and Pitch Competitions? Bang or Bust

14 9 Raising My Seed Round

15 10 Product Market Fit Sales: Remember Predictable, Repeatable Revenue?

16 11 Raising a Series A

17 12 Holy Crap—A Pandemic! Prioritizing Mental Well-Being

18 13 The Murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and BLM The Talk I Had With My Team The Role of Philanthropy in Creating Equity Systemic Issues Facing Black-Led Technology Companies

19 14 My Hopes, and Losing an Icon The Role Technology Plays On Building Generational Wealth

20 Appendix

21 Glossary

22 Rate Sheet Resilia's Investor Deck

23 Online Resources

24 About the Author

25 Index

26 End User License Agreement

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SEVETRI WILSON

Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the Web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available:

ISBN 9781119773870 (Hardcover)

ISBN 9781119774037 (ePDF)

ISBN 9781119773931 (ePub)

Cover design: Paul McCarthy

Cover image: © Getty Images | Baona

A special thank you to my tribe, support system, and everyone who continues to show up for me in unexpected ways. Thank you to Jeanenne for feeling that my startup and business story should be told .

Thank you to my Mama and Daddy, who taught me to be Resilient. Even in death, you continue to give me life .

This one is for all the aspiring entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurs who have faced the ups and downs of starting something. It's for the team members who have stayed on throughout the journey to build something special even amidst the unknown. It's for the resilient builder in all of us .

You can't always be first, but you can be better.

—Sevetri Wilson

Before the coronavirus spread across the globe, we were just settling into a brand new office in New York City and positioning our executive team to grow from there—all while maintaining our office in New Orleans, which allowed me to keep my promise to cultivate talent from the place I'm from.