Ok. Wow. What a story! I'm shaking just reading that. 

I'm unclear on why $3.5 million from FLOODGATE, Reid Hoffman, and Eric Ries was not enough.

With such endorsement Serres could’ve raised money in a drawn-out road show that would distract him from Rally for months. Or the crowdfunding evangelist could do something completely unprecedented: “Eat his own dog food” and raise cash–for a multimillion-dollar venture round–from the Internet in one manic flash. By opening the round to investors around the world, Serres theorized, he could capitalize on the attraction of his brand-name investors, set a definite time line and condense the fundraising process into a matter of days.

Dog food it was. On May 15 he broadcast Rally’s venture round over AngelList, a social network for startups and investors, and watched as the offers poured in … and kept coming. Over 12 days the single father embarked on a voyage that would have felled a lesser man: fielding nearly 3,000 e-mails; traveling to Texas, Louisiana and Washington, D.C.; and pitching to 70-plus investors, often with his 4-year-old daughter, Madison, in tow. By the end he’d reeled in 18 new backers and put another $4.4 million in the bank–all without a call to social services.

Questions I have:

1. Why did he need that much money?

2. Why did he need it so soon?

3. Why did he need it from so many investors?

I gotta re-read the story: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jjcolao/...

Maybe making it rain is a new company wide initiative. 

Doubt it though...

Lol, I like the KnowNow reference. :-)

"Thursday, May 24

(...) 10 a.m. Breakfast with Todd Rulon-Miller, former CEO of KnowNow."

Oh! Right, I forgot about that detail. Thanks, Arnaud. :)

Todd Rulon-Miller. My favorite San Jose Sharks fan in the world!

8:19 p.m. Ferriss phones and asks to see a pitch deck–the PowerPoint presentations founders use to raise cash from investors–ASAP. Serres frantically calls creative director Jeff Castellana to update the company’s deck.

10:15 p.m. Ferriss calls back, saying, “This is the most beautiful deck I’ve ever seen.” He commits to invest and asks to reserve space in the round for Kevin Rose, founder of Digg and recent Google Ventures partner.

I want to see that deck.

Me too.

Perhaps Tom Serres would share with us if we asked nicely? https://angel.co/tomserres

Optimizing for amount raised or valuation isn't usually a good sign -- limits exit options.

Raising from 21 professional investors now counts as 'crowdfunding'? Haven't there been other 'party rounds' with a similarly large mix of angels/firms recently? (Is ~$7.9MM the largest such party round?).