Resources
Books, Articles, and Service Providers
Advice on Negotiating Tactics
My favorite book on negotiating tactics is Never Split the Difference by retired lead FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss.
The philosophy of Pitching
Pitch Anything explores the psychology and philosophy of pitching. I find myself referencing it frequently when helping companies trying to win or close critical deals.
Allocating Initial Equity
Slicing Pie (https://slicingpie.com/) is very popular tool for allocating equity among founders. It can short-circuit fights about which co-founder contributed more value to the company.
Pricing Your Solution
Patrick Campbell, CEO of ProfitWell, wrote a long and insightful blog on how to approach pricing in SaaS companies. Well worth the read if that applies to you.
Van Westendorp’s Price Sensitivity Meter provides a systematic approach to finding the ideal price for your target customers. This Wikipedia article provides a good introduction.
Foresight created a free spreadsheet to help you manage your cap table and calculate outcomes in an exit scenario.
Exit Calculator
Founder Institute compiled statistics on traction, valuations, team sized and more for pre-seed, seed, and series A companies.
Startup Funding Benchmarks
US Government SBIR grants are a great alternative to equity funding for many startups. TurboSBIR is a paid service that can help you identify and apply for those grants. This is not an affiliate link, but they have offered a discount for anyone who uses that link to sign up.
Non-dilutive Funding
Investors look for evidence that you have de-risked your startup and validated your assumptions. NFX created an excellent framework for understanding the increasing levels of proof in this blog.
Demonstrating Validation
Angel Returns Spreadsheet
Debt Funding
Debt funding can be a good option for startups before they are mature enough to raise money from Angels or VC. 7 Figures Funding provides a service that will match you with an appropriate vendor. This is an affiliate link.
Angel University, from LAUNCH, created a useful spreadsheet for calculating your likely returns and appropriate investment amounts based on your wealth and intentions. It’s free, so you might want to check it out HERE.