Regulations never sleep

Regs never sleep. And they can wake you up early. Early in the day and early in the startups life-cycle.

When pitching for an early round, it’s tempting to think “Investors at this stage just need 1 slide or 2 to present our classification and a vague regulatory plan. In any case, they can always ask later, during the due diligence”.

Experience proves that investors have done their homework:

1. They know that a reg plan is a key component for success (and that the lack thereof is a serious concern).
2. They need more than a few slides to be convinced that a plan is solid.
3. And it is better if they can read it “now” (rather than after they have decided to invest in another startup which had a plan at the ready).

Based on when this “now” is, the contents of the plan are different of course. Early plans are less specific, and more uncertain than later stages plans ; this is true on all aspects (timing, scope, classification). Early plans are more likely “not to survive first contact” like a famous general said, yet “no battle has ever been won without one”. But they are super useful whatsoever, if anything to map clearly the known-unknowns (sorry for the repeating generals’ quotes).