Fundraising
You must master fundraising if you need outside investment to grow your business.
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Raising money from investors is a long, arduous process, so many founders seek help.
In response, a whole cadre of people specializing in that sprang up, often called fundraising facilitators. The problem is that most of them appear to be ineffective at best and harmful at worst.
How demoralizing is spending hours on a pitch deck and associated materials only to get ghosted by the investor or receive an automated form rejection?
There's a paradox that impacts most startups early in their journeys. You can't make your product without money, and you can't get money without a product.
In this interview, Caroline Arzoo, Director of Partnerships at OmniSync, and I discuss the different options for funding a startup, with a focus on non-dilutive funding.
The first money you raise for your startup will probably be from people who already care about you and your success, your friends and family.
VC investment is a double-edged sword. It can launch your startup like a rocket, but it can also cause it to explode on the launch pad.
Learn how taking venture capital investments can destroy your company.
When the economy gets rocky, raising funds for your startup is more challenging.
In this article, I show how to adapt your fundraising strategy and position your company for maximum success.
Money from investors should fuel your startup's exponential growth. But a lousy term sheet can leave the company spluttering on the launch pad with nothing to show for all your hard work.
Founders constantly strive to grow their companies and maximize their valuation. Unfortunately, sometimes a high valuation can hurt your company.
If you're thinking about raising funds for your startup, you might be asking what your company worth right now, the pre-money valuation? I'm going to pull back the curtain and explain to you how investors look at valuing your startup.
Learn about dilution and how your ownership shrinks as you bring in investment. The decisions you make, and the terms you negotiate, can drastically alter your payout at exit.
Should you bootstrap your startup to greatness or take outside investment to accelerate your growth?
Most investment pitching now happens over video conferences, so mastering remote fundraising is critical.
I see a ton of bad pitches. I want to share the top ten fundraising mistakes and how you can avoid them.
Iris Fujiura, Chapter Lead of the Silicon Valley chapter of Golden Seeds, and an engineer/executive working on rockets and launch systems, provides great insight into angel investor priorities, and what makes for a successful funding pitch.
When you talk to an investor, they expect you to show financial projections. How can you do that when you are pre-revenue?
Why are so many strong startups failing to raise their A-Rounds?
When you are raising funds for your startup, one of the biggest questions is, “How much should I ask for?”
Asking investors to sign your NDA before seeing your pitch will kill most deals. Why is that?
Why do angels & VC demand 20X or better returns? It all comes down to the economics of startup investing.
Every early-stage investor wants to hear about your market opportunity. How big can you plausibly get if everything goes well?
That usually means sharing your TAM, SAM, and SOM. But what are they, how do you calculate them, and are they really the best way of showing your market potential?