Uber founder Travis Kalanick’s advice for startups that need to fundraise

“If you're a seed stage company, go for funding as late as you possibly can. Go as long as you can scrapping. Get your technology and your traction as far as you can, and you will guarantee yourself the best fundraising process. That includes a quick process. That includes a competitive process. That includes good terms at the end of the day.”

But if you’ve already raised venture capital, it’s not exactly the same because you might have employees and can’t afford the risk of waiting until the last possible moment:

“There's a timing element to it, but again, I would say push it out as far as you possibly can. If you're doing some good stuff, eventually those VCs are going to start reaching out to you. And you're going to say, ‘Oh, I'm not really raising.’ And they're going to try to preempt. And then you know it's time to do a real process.”

Full video: Tech co “Travis Kalanick Startup Lessons from the Jam Pad - Tech Cocktail Startup Mixology“ (Oct 2010)