Fundraising

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

Do you have an amazing startup idea, but not sure how to fund it? Have you heard about equity and convertible debt, but completely confused how they work and which one is a better fit? In this article and the corresponding video, we introduce you to three main financing vehicles.

Investing in early-stage startups is very risky. There is a lot of uncertainty around the business model, the product-market fit, and the team’s ability to execute. It is thus no surprise that investors are understandably cautious and jaded, especially given the dismal statistics of the startup success rates. In this article and the corresponding video, we discuss three strategies you can employ to de-risk your startup, calm investors’ fears, and position your company as a more attractive investment.

Fear of public speaking is a common affliction for many people. As a startup founder, not only do you have to face it head on, but the stakes for you are also much higher. You are not just doing it to win a competition at school, or to get a promotion at work. You are pitching your dream, your idea that you have been developing into a fledgling business for months, a company ready to soar and it’s up to you to give it its wings. In this article and the corresponding video, we discuss four strategies for making a lasting impression on investors and getting funded faster.