The Ultimate Guide to Fundraising: How to Get Ready, Find the Right Investors and Negotiate the Deal that Works for You
Fundraising is a daunting challenge, even for the best finance professionals, and downright scary for startup founders with no finance experience. According to Fundable and Entrepreneur, 565,000 startups are launched every year and just under 3% receive angel and VC investments.
That is why we decided to dive into this subject in the next three months in three parts:
GETTING READY
LOOKING FOR INVESTORS
NEGOTIATING YOUR TERM SHEET
6 Tips on How to Write Investors’ Updates and Build Investors’ Trust
One of the most frequent complaints I hear from investors is that founders don’t communicate regularly with them, and even when they communicate they don’t give investors the information they are looking for. Here are six tips on how to effectively structure regular investor updates.
Top Five Challenges Female Founders Face and How to Overcome Them
In its recent report, S&P Global analyzed earnings and share price data of U.S. -based companies between 2002 and May 2019, following 5,825 new executive appointments for roles of CEO and CFO. About 10% of those appointments were women.
The data showed that …
Three Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Fail to Secure Funding
Fundraising is a daunting challenge, even for the best finance professionals, and downright scary for startup founders with no finance experience. According to Fundable and Entrepreneur, 565,000 startups are launched every year and just under 3% receive angel and VC investments. Entrepreneur identifies three main reasons startup founders fail to secure funding that we further address in this article and the corresponding video.
When Should Early Stage Startups Raise Money?
For early-stage companies and founders, few questions get asked more in the startup world than, “When should I try to raise money?”
Although it would be much easier if there was a simple answer to this question, each founder and their respective startups face different obstacles when traversing the path to the point of fundraising.
The Best Way for a Startup to Get Funded Faster is To Build Successful Relationships with Investors
Investors are not running a charity. The reason why investors make investments is that they believe they will make a profit. For them, it is a business transaction, that is researched heavily and thoroughly thought through. This further means that investors want to know the business they are bankrolling really well and minimize their risk as much as possible. Thus, knocking randomly on their digital doors to ask for cash is not the best way to get funded fast. In fact, contacting investors only when your company needs capital will elongate the search needlessly.
Should You Raise the Same Amount of Money as Your Comparables?
Many startup founders wonder whether they can use the funding needs of a comparable company as a guide to see how much money their company should raise. It seems like a good idea, but it is NOT!
While comparables are very important and help you determine the exit, or the terminal, value of your company, the information that they give you should NOT be used blindly.
In this article and the corresponding video, we discuss the four reasons why you need to adjust the comparables data before it becomes relevant for your company.
Pros and Cons of Raising Money via an ICO
Cryptocurrencies, or new investment vehicles of startups using blockchain technology, have gotten a lot of publicity recently, especially with the rise and fall of Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency. Just in 2018, $21.5B was raised via ICOs, or Initial Coin Offerings. If you want to learn what an ICO is all about, you can start by reading this.
In this article and the corresponding video, I would like to focus on the advantages and disadvantages of ICOs as investments, because sadly many investors still significantly underestimate ICO risks.
How to Look For Angel Investors If You Are a Female Founder
When I meet first-time entrepreneurs, almost every initial conversation eventually turns to “How and where do I look for angel investors”? This process is especially arduous for female founders. In 2018, Fortune magazine reported that only 2.2 percent of all venture capital funding in the U.S. went to companies founded solely by women, and another 10 percent went to companies with at least one female founder. So what do you do?
Is Crowdfunding For You
Crowdfunding has become a very popular way to raise money among startups. In 2017, 17.2B was raised via crowdfunding campaigns in the U.S. alone. Business.org lists best crowdfunding sites with detailed comparative statistics and is a great resource for beginners.
In this article and corresponding video, we discuss two types of crowdfunding, how to choose which type is the best fit for your venture and which factors you need to consider in each case.
“Victoria is one of the smartest, and most talented financial analysts out there. She has created the financial models for 2 of my companies, to which we have raised over $20M using her financials and valuation reports. She is very professional and always makes you prove the assumptions:) She will always be a vital part to my businesses.”
“Victoria truly helped “break me in” as a CEO and startup founder. With her guidance, we’ve discovered the best routes to forming a business model according to the specific needs of my company. From monetization avenues to acquisition strategies and everything in between, Victoria patiently guided me and diligently crafted a meticulously laid-out plan and financial model I feel confident, even proud, to present to prospective investors, as it points to the breadth & scope of work we’ve accomplished together. Victoria is also extremely generous with advice, resources, and introductions. I currently work with a marketing team she introduced to me and I am very happy with them, as well.”
“Victoria really distilled down the financial model to the inputs that need to be discovered in order to determine business viability. Her attention to detail and experience show in taking those inputs and filling out the rest of the model. These are the real numbers that you need for investors.”
“Victoria provided me with great knowledge for the financial projection and reviewed my pitch deck where she provided me with great pointers. She definitely is somebody I count as my inner circle of advisors and recommend her as the go to person for any start up.”
“We are a couple of engineers going through lot’s of trials and errors trying to launch our startup so meeting with Victoria was priceless in terms of getting a fresh unbiased perspective on our business model and getting advice on how to move forward.
“I have the greatest appreciation for Victoria’s contribution in analyzing financial trends and developing the monetization strategies for my business. She is not only an experienced financial analyst, but she is also very creative and gave my business many important suggestions. I felt comfortable and willing to reveal information easily, which helped make the valuation process easier. Victoria can see the big picture almost immediately, and at the same time she is a stickler for details. These attributes make her a perfect financial advisor and mentor for entrepreneurs. Further, Victoria, once given a task, is completely dedicated to it. She has a keen ability to process and synthesize information and make the right decisions, and she comes with the highest recommendation.”
“Victoria is an amazing resource that every start-up should have. She is whip smart and diligent. We worked with her on the valuation of our company and she’s been an invaluable resource in refining our assumptions, revenue and expenditure models. If you think you understand the fundamentals of your own business model, talk to Victoria and get ready to learn so much more!”
“I had the pleasure of working with Victoria for building a working financial model for my business. Her expertise and acumen are not only impressive, but her personable nature made her a joy to work with as well. She was able to offer valuable insights and direction as we strategically built out a financial model, utilizing reliable data assumptions that translate to a usable document for my business. The result and end-product proved the value of both the time and monetary investment. I couldn’t recommend her enough as a resource for any entrepreneur looking to build out a financial model, financial roadmap and/or valuation of their enterprise.”
“Victoria Yampolsky came highly recommended by a colleague of mine and I’ve been fortunate to work with her! She completed the valuation and the financial model for our startup, EnergyPoints. Her unique framework for modeling early-stage ventures allowed us to refine our business plan and use strategy and industry standards to credibly formulate assumptions. Victoria is a Columbia Business School grad and CFA, and her company, The Startup Station, has done 100s of valuations and has an impressive track record. She presented her valuation to two national banks with our accountant, and in both scenarios, she was praised by the level of detail that went into her extensive valuation. I can’t recommend her highly enough!”
“Victoria was a key advisor for Predictive People – as an early stage startup we had tons of questions and we needed professional guidance to sort them out. I am really glad we had her by our side to solve them all, ending with a solid business plan and financial projections. I can’t recommend her more, she’s professional, fast, empathetic, and incredibly smart, a true partner for any startup.”
“Victoria is trustworthy, knowledgeable and customer-focused startup strategic CFO. I’ve been impressed since day 1 with the responsiveness, thoroughness and overall professionalism of Victoria. According to the traditional scenario of almost all early stage startups, the founders are involved in all processes of the company formation. So I am no exception without having a financial education, without professional Excel skills – I nevertheless decided to build a financial model on our own. Honestly, it seemed impossible. But in the end, we did it in a total of 3 weeks. I want to express my deepest gratitude for professionalism and incredible talent to motivate all of our team members. Victoria has a unique ability to get into the essence of the business very quickly, to think very flexibly and innovatively – which is very important for our startup.
“I was a student and client of Victoria through The Startup Station and cannot highlight enough how helpful the process was for our company in reaching our first funding milestone and personally for me. Victoria is a fantastic teacher and recommend her financial modelling courses to anyone. We also worked one to one to refine our company model/financial roadmap and Im proud of my newly developed, ninja-level Excel skills. Paraphrasing from someone famous “Clarity trumps confidence any day of the week” and it’s what I feel from working with Victoria.”
“Building a financial model with Victoria and The Start Up Station for a mutual client was an illuminating experience!
“Victoria is a rare find in the startup world. She’s brilliant with startup financial strategies and has this no-nonsense work ethic that proves to deliver results. Victoria worked with a participant of 2020 Startups, a startup founder, and within a couple of months the founder raised capital. Victoria has done several workshops and speaking engagements at 2020 Startups and is always insightful and held in the highest regard by the audience.”
“Victoria and The Startup Station Team were absolute game-changers for Ovaterra. Victoria served as my right-hand CFO through fundraising, M&A, liquidity crises and more — always guiding the ship with calm, detail-oriented and strategic advice. I would recommend her and her team to any Founder or executive who needs a strategic, fractional CFO to guide your business to the next level.”
“Victoria, we raised $1.4M! It’s finally 
“In business, and especially with startups, getting to a place of clarity around the business and financial models can be challenging even for the most experienced professional. Victoria brings the right mix of business and financial know-how and quickly understands the moving pieces. As such, she’s able to provide an excellent product, a deeper sense of understanding about the project based on its’ needs, and a sense of calm and assurance that the challenges faced will be dealt with in a way that drives growth.”
“I had the pleasure of working closely with Victoria as fractional CFO of our startup. Her expertise in business and financial modeling is truly exceptional. Victoria played a pivotal role in helping our company think through every aspect of our business, and her ability to create a comprehensive model was nothing short of impressive. She not only provided a clear plan for our future but also identified areas where we could improve and grow.
“If you’re raising capital and want to shine when pitching to investors, I highly recommend you choose Victoria Yampolsky and the Startup Station as your resource for high performance results. Victoria is extremely well versed in all aspects of raising capital and the startup landscape. She provides clients with outstanding tools, applicable advice and thoughtful insights to support their fundraising efforts.