I'm David Gunnarsson, and I’m the CEO of Dohop. We operate out of Iceland and currently have a team of about 70 people. 

Our company specializes in B2B solutions for airlines, focusing on simplifying connected travel.

This includes making the sale and servicing of connected journeys—whether they involve multiple flights or combinations of air and rail travel—more efficient for airlines, and streamlining the booking and traveling process for customers. 

We work with around 20 airlines worldwide.

We raised $8M in November 2020 from VCs. We signed the term sheet in December 2019 and were supposed to close it by March 2020, but there were tons of delays as a result of COVID’s impact on travel tech. We ended up closing the deal nearly 11 months later.

In addition, in 2022, we raised follow-up funding from the same investors, and in 2023, we raised $7M in venture debt from BlackRock. 

The venture debt was part of a smaller equity round that occurred last year. We’re currently planning a $15M round, with a mix of current investors who will invest pro-rata, and about $10M from new investors.

It really came down to looking at the traction we had in each phase with our airline partners. We initially raised when we started seeing real traction — we had about $5M in ARR and had been selling to 3 or 4 airlines.

This signaled that we had something valuable, and we saw an opportunity to accelerate hiring and scale up our operations faster than the market was growing.

The timing and the amount we raised were aligned with our growth. 

During COVID we saw our revenue dramatically drop because we were earning through individual tractions, so we raised funds through a convertible note to take on less risk.

This was tough because our valuation took a massive hit after our revenue numbers dropped, but we were still able to raise $8M. This was half of the previous valuation, which was still quite generous given the circumstances.

Instead of raising a large equity round at a time when valuations might be low, we decided to opt for venture debt to focus on reaching profitability.

As for our valuation we didn’t really have much of a say here. We let our investors take the lead in deciding what was right for us based on the traction we were seeing.

Our goal with raising the money was mainly to speed up hiring so we could keep up with our airline customers' growth and turn our operations into something that could scale up well. 

But then COVID hit, and a lot of the funds we planned to use for growth ended up just keeping us afloat since our revenue took a huge dive.

As things progressed, we shifted our focus toward getting close to profitability. We started thinking more strategically about how we used our funds, focusing more on investments that would really help us make money and scale in a sustainable way.

We spent a lot of time with our investors. We got to know them initially in October, received a term sheet in December, and were supposed to close in March. 

We ended up closing in November, which gave us a lot of extra time with them.

If I had to give advice on choosing investors, I'd spend time with them describing your business and listening to how they respond and go about problem-solving. 

A lot of this comes down to how well they’re able to deal with tough situations when shit hits the fan.

What became clear to us was that our investors behave well when the shit hits the fan. That was clear based on the conversations we had with them throughout the process before the raise.

They were fair with terms and valuation. They described tough situations from their other businesses, and how they went about dealing with them. They knew what they were doing.

They fired our CFO in a meeting, pre-raise, and he's not here anymore. They were clear that we would need a good CFO at some point. 

When you have that kind of straight-shooting early, and you’re someone that works that way, you know it’s a good fit.

You need to find people that work and that you feel are a fit for you. That comes down to the CEO, the person who's going to be running point for the rest of the investment. 

It doesn't have to fit with your entire executive team, but at least the founder.

We initially reached out to around 70 potential investors. 

From those we heard back from about 50, with 25 that expressed interest. We then progressed to actually meeting with 15 of these investors.

From those meetings, we entered into term sheet discussions with 3.

It turned out that the investor we liked was one of the earliest we talked to, which gave them a bit of a lead time over the others.

This early timing made it possible for them to give us a term sheet before any other investors. We only moved forward to due diligence with those who offered term sheets.

There was obviously a huge challenge with COVID and we basically had no revenue. What we did was just sheer force of will. 

We expected to close at the end of March, so our backs were completely against the wall. We raised the convertible note from current shareholders. 

We cut a bunch of people from the business. We relied on the Iceland government support, which was amazing.

We fought through. We signed up 5 airlines during COVID. They were happy to sign deals for post-COVID. 

That was the biggest thing. We shot straight every step of the way. We were super transparent with our investors, and we pushed forward on things. 

We believed that we would work it out. And it ended up working in our favor. Sheer willpower did the job for us.

We were lucky to be so far along in the due diligence process, but closing in November 2020 after signing a term sheet in December 2019 was a long time to hold out.

I'm always amazed that we now make more in a day than we made in a month, the month we raised $8M. I'm still at a loss as to why anybody would invest in that. 

But I know we are confident in our ability to figure things out, and we usually do. It’s been proven that we land on our feet.

Plus it's been fun, it's always been fun.

If you're completely in the shit and have no concept of how to move forward, then you might want to consider stopping. 

But if you have an inkling there's a light at the end of the tunnel and it's still super fun, you get along with your team, then you should just move forward.

Develop a big, compelling vision and ensure you can articulate it convincingly. 

It's so important that you can communicate why you are the right person to turn this vision into reality.

While you can learn about term sheets and legal details, the ability to tell your story effectively is what will truly set you apart. Also always aim to raise more money than you think you'll need.

Plans rarely go exactly as you expect, and having extra capital can give you crucial flexibility. The stories you often hear are about outliers, but most businesses, including ours, are not those outliers. 

We're building solid businesses that might not become the next Facebook or Amazon, but can still achieve great things and provide good returns.

Lastly, make sure that you take money from investors that are on the same time horizon alignment as you are.

For European tech founders, SEP is in the consumer internet space. They are good people with human values. 

They shoot straight, and they’re super supportive of the right businesses. They also care about the companies they invest in.

I'm always deep into books and podcasts. This morning, I was reading "Amp It Up" by Frank Slootman, the former CEO of Snowflake. He’s known for his effective, sometimes ruthless, leadership style.

Another read I recommend is "The Hard Thing About Hard Things" by Ben Horowitz. It's just phenomenal for understanding the complexities of running a startup. 

I also revisit "Radical Candor" by Kim Scott because it's excellent on the nuances of communication and feedback. I'm a big consumer of content, and love books and podcasts that teach me more.