Ken Founder of Tango, now named one of Google’s favourite Chrome extensions of 2022. They raised $14m from investors including Atlassian, Slack and Tiger Global.
Let’s dive into a nail-biting moment.
Ken Babcock’s latest business, Tango, is young. Things are going well.
He has expressed commitment from Slack Ventures and Atlassian. Now is the perfect time to get a lead for a round of company fundraising and put pressure on other investors to close the deal.
It feels like now or never.
To add to the urgency, Ken’s wife is due to give birth in 1 month.
The perfect deadline, right?
Two weeks in, the momentum of fundraising is at its peak. And Ken’s wife gives birth early.
Co-founders are volunteering to step in, meetings are on hold. But phone calls and check-ins are still rolling through, perhaps not even a day after his son is born.
No one was telling him that he had to, but this saying kept ringing in his head…
“Time kills deals.”
Ken’s battling with feelings of guilt, sleepless nights and trying to pitch on Zoom with a newborn in the background.
And constantly asking himself:
“When is going to be the right intersection of my abilities, timing of momentum and enough of a break so that I can adjust?”
Less than 1 week after his son is born, Ken lands a meeting that is going to close the company fundraising deal. The partnerships were strong. And the term sheet arrived the following week.
But, to add to the stress, recession predictions were resulting in venture capital term sheets being taken away from people.
There would be no rest until the money hit the bank.
Ken’s race is long, hard and full of emotional pressures that were unavoidable.
In this week's episode, he addresses,
Ken’s reflections are critical, realistic and honest — giving us an insight into the pressures of being a founder in venture capital company fundraising when he was supposed to be on paternity leave.
Tune in below.