Seeking Investors

To reach the point of seeking out venture capital, Rashmi Sinha, cofounder of SlideShare, explains that the company developed in stages: SlideShare got to the point where it could no longer just grow organically and needed outside funding. "Your first investor [is] possibly your lawyer," interjects Jonathan Boutelle, Sinha's cofounder at SlideShare. He describes the process of an outside entrepreneur trying to navigate the world of Silicon Valley like peeling through the layers of an onion: first, there are the lawyers and advisers; then angel investors; and in the center, venture capitalists.