As it turns out, raising money for your startup is actually a lot of hard work. Between building a product meriting a good valuation, figuring out how much of your company you’re willing to give up, networking, researching potential investors, crafting intro emails, perfecting your pitch, networking, writing up term sheets, figuring out the best way to spend the money and more… it gets exhausting pretty quickly.
But when the paperwork is filed and the money’s in the bank, it’s time to celebrate. Chicago startups have raised nearly $1 billion so far this year, and we caught up with a pair of them to see how their teams celebrated the news.
Influencer marketing startup Popular Pays raised a $5.2 million Series A earlier this year. The company closed the round in early April, and they said they plan to use the funds to expand their team.
“Before that happens, we wanted to take a weekend to celebrate the work we’re doing and align on our company values,” said Popular Pays creative strategist Andrew Spena.
The team gathered at Camp Wandawega in mid-May, taking a weekend for the team and their guests to celebrate what they called their “Weekend Worth Sharing” along the camp’s lakefront campus.
Chicago video tech company PhenixP2P raised a $3.5 million Series A at the beginning of April, and they had quite the party the day they closed the round.
"The day we closed our Series A round, the team went to lunch at one of our favorite ramen places in River North,” said COO Tripp Welge. “The celebration continued that night with some of our local investors and significant others who joined us for some cocktails and a bigger celebration. We were lucky we closed on a Friday! It was back to business on Monday, as we have a tremendous opportunity ahead of us as we continue to raise the bar for how video is delivered over the internet."
Photos via featured companies.
Has your company closed a round recently? We want to hear how you celebrated: tag us on Instagram or mention us on Twitter, and be sure to use the hashtag #techlovesCHI.
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