This document provides advice on fundraising by framing it as a sales process. It recommends identifying potential investors by researching their funds and past investments. Build relationships by asking questions and getting introductions before pitching. Develop a strong pitch deck with your vision, metrics, and financials. Treat fundraising like a sales process, with an initial pitch, deeper dives, and partner meetings over 2-8 weeks to close the deal. Have confidence in your plan and alternatives if needed, as fundraising success rates are low.
Starting a business / Tips to Help You SucceedArjola Ajdinaj
Start and Develop Your Own Business
Tips to Help You Succeed
Do that thing you love.
When the going gets tough, your passion will inspire you to carry on.
#entrepreneur #marketing #success #motivation #money #entrepreneurship #startup #love #smallbusiness #businessowner #inspiration #work #smm #social #media #socialmedia #ceo #founder #businessman #businesswoman #newyork #paris #london #germany #marketingonline #onlinemarketing #marketingagency #usa #ama
Unique challenges and opportunities for female entrepreneurs (female founders and female leaders) and an explanation of the services offered by Women Strategy.
Starting a business / Tips to Help You SucceedArjola Ajdinaj
Start and Develop Your Own Business
Tips to Help You Succeed
Do that thing you love.
When the going gets tough, your passion will inspire you to carry on.
#entrepreneur #marketing #success #motivation #money #entrepreneurship #startup #love #smallbusiness #businessowner #inspiration #work #smm #social #media #socialmedia #ceo #founder #businessman #businesswoman #newyork #paris #london #germany #marketingonline #onlinemarketing #marketingagency #usa #ama
Unique challenges and opportunities for female entrepreneurs (female founders and female leaders) and an explanation of the services offered by Women Strategy.
Heads-up with financial startups: tips to be successfulAdam Greene CPA
After thinking it over and over, have you decided to quit your job and become an entrepreneur? Good for you!! There are hundreds of opportunities out there and even though starting a business might not be easy, I applaud you being brave enough to follow your dream. And as building a company or brand takes a lot of time and effort, I would like to share some financial tips that I hope will keep you from making very common mistakes that can lead to a step back in your process.
These are slides from a talk I gave in 2016 at the DisruptAsia conference in Colombo, SrI Lanka about raising money for a startup company. In addition to concepts I also went through some of the journey of WSO2 funding.
We help frustrated business owners to achieve breakthrough business results by improving both the performance and profitability of their companies.
Peak Road’s interim management and project teams can provide hands-on help at varying levels within an organization. We primarily work with executives and owners to place interim leaders in a variety of functional areas, such as C-Suite, Business Development, Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing Operations, Product Management, and Sales.
Approached to talk about lead funnels and marketing automation, I suggested we change the topic to be relevant to the problem:
- Where to Start & Attracting an Audience
- Managing Audience & Growth
Marketing is the crutch of product mediocrity ... if your offering is good enough, you don't need for marketing and any form of active sales diminishes ... your "sales-funnel" turns into something that much more closely resembles a pipe ... almost every lead that comes in the top is a conversion through the bottom.
------
Socialising and Sharing the Love & Expertise @ 2 Day Startup Accelerator with Entrepreneur Social Club in Melbourne Australia
> http://www.entrepreneursocialclub.com.au
> http://www.meetup.com/Entrepreneurial-Social-Club
> https://www.facebook.com/entrepreneursc
9 secrets for successful women entrepreneursBusiness Glory
Running a successful business is challenging. If you are working from home or you have your own office or store, have kids or not, it takes a lot of determination and hard work to have your own successful business.
From $0 to $10M in 2 Years with Sales Development with Manny Medina of OutreachTenbound
From $0 to $10M in 2 Years with Sales Development with Manny Medina of Outreach at The Sales Development Conference September 21st, 2017 in San Francisco.
tenbound.com/conference
Keynote - The One Metric That Matters (and Other Things You Should Know About Building Startups): Gina Bianchini, Mighty Networks
Building a startup is hard, so hard that it’s easy to question the sanity of those that do it -- never mind more than once. And yet, those are the people who succeed, again and again. Gina Bianchini is one of those serial entrepreneurs. Bianchini digs deep into building startups, from initial idea, to creating a lasting culture, and a real business.
Heads-up with financial startups: tips to be successfulAdam Greene CPA
After thinking it over and over, have you decided to quit your job and become an entrepreneur? Good for you!! There are hundreds of opportunities out there and even though starting a business might not be easy, I applaud you being brave enough to follow your dream. And as building a company or brand takes a lot of time and effort, I would like to share some financial tips that I hope will keep you from making very common mistakes that can lead to a step back in your process.
These are slides from a talk I gave in 2016 at the DisruptAsia conference in Colombo, SrI Lanka about raising money for a startup company. In addition to concepts I also went through some of the journey of WSO2 funding.
We help frustrated business owners to achieve breakthrough business results by improving both the performance and profitability of their companies.
Peak Road’s interim management and project teams can provide hands-on help at varying levels within an organization. We primarily work with executives and owners to place interim leaders in a variety of functional areas, such as C-Suite, Business Development, Engineering, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing Operations, Product Management, and Sales.
Approached to talk about lead funnels and marketing automation, I suggested we change the topic to be relevant to the problem:
- Where to Start & Attracting an Audience
- Managing Audience & Growth
Marketing is the crutch of product mediocrity ... if your offering is good enough, you don't need for marketing and any form of active sales diminishes ... your "sales-funnel" turns into something that much more closely resembles a pipe ... almost every lead that comes in the top is a conversion through the bottom.
------
Socialising and Sharing the Love & Expertise @ 2 Day Startup Accelerator with Entrepreneur Social Club in Melbourne Australia
> http://www.entrepreneursocialclub.com.au
> http://www.meetup.com/Entrepreneurial-Social-Club
> https://www.facebook.com/entrepreneursc
9 secrets for successful women entrepreneursBusiness Glory
Running a successful business is challenging. If you are working from home or you have your own office or store, have kids or not, it takes a lot of determination and hard work to have your own successful business.
From $0 to $10M in 2 Years with Sales Development with Manny Medina of OutreachTenbound
From $0 to $10M in 2 Years with Sales Development with Manny Medina of Outreach at The Sales Development Conference September 21st, 2017 in San Francisco.
tenbound.com/conference
Keynote - The One Metric That Matters (and Other Things You Should Know About Building Startups): Gina Bianchini, Mighty Networks
Building a startup is hard, so hard that it’s easy to question the sanity of those that do it -- never mind more than once. And yet, those are the people who succeed, again and again. Gina Bianchini is one of those serial entrepreneurs. Bianchini digs deep into building startups, from initial idea, to creating a lasting culture, and a real business.
Seed funding and angel fundraising remains a art more than science. As someone who is heavily involved with startups and angel investors, here I have tried to answer the common question from entrepreneurs, startups and investors.
Raising your first seed or VC round requires dedication and understanding of what investors want to see in a startup, and how they are best triggered to give you their fullest. This presentation contains 5 must-dos and 7 suggestions for structuring a coherent and actionable fundraising process at the seed stage
There is no science around which Start Up will Succeed, but over the past 20 years or so there is sufficient data available to begin making some observations about Why Start Ups fail. Being in the Start up ecosystem for the past 18 years or so, e have made an Initial list of 10 observations. The list is not exhaustive by any chance, yet deserves a look!
The 10 Biggest Questions We Received From Tech Startups - NextView VenturesNextView Ventures
These were the most popular blog post we created in the last six months for our startup blog, The View From Seed. This site is dedicated to seed-stage tech startups in the web and mobile spaces. NextView is a leading seed VC located in Boston. Topics include raising venture capital, hiring a COO, content marketing and blogging, and more.
Beginner's Guide: How to raise Seed and Series A Funding for Your Tech StartupsRakesh Soni
This is a short beginners' guide to learn about startup fundraising particularly Seed and Series A round.
CONTENT:
Introduction
Startup Funding 101:
What is funding and why do you need it?
Types of funding
When to raise and how much to raise
Understanding exit
Key players in fundraising
What matters to founders?
Understanding dilution
How to determine the valuation
Understanding controlling terms
How do VCs work?
Seed and Series A Funding:
Are you ready for funding?
Preparation
How to raise: processes, tips & tricks
Recommended Reading
Q&A
All the things an entrepreneur or start-up needs to know. Is it about the idea? Is it about a great product? How to build a team? Do I need a business plan? How do I raise money? What is a great business strategy?
The father of all demos: how to make a product demo that stands out Moriya Kassis
For a startup, there is almost nothing more powerful than a great product demonstration.
When done correctly, a demo allows the customer to see and feel how things will be better if they buy (and worse if they don't). And so, good demos don't have to be perfect for the product. They have to be perfect for the audience.
Learn the best practices of the Product Demo: What should you know? How should you prepare? What is the Just Right amount of work for you to do? Also, how to deliver both the best product and the best message to go with it?
As it's easy to mess up a Demo, learn how to do it in an interactive session that moves you fast forward to an outcome.
Similar to [FOUNDERS WEEKEND 2015] ToutApp >> Tawheed Kader, "Fundraising as a Sales Process (Crushing the Series A)" (20)
We're developing augmented reality software to help clinicians with pre-surgical planning by providing them with patient-specific, high fidelity 3D holograms that have been derived from the same data used to generate conventional CT scans and MRIs.
The Atlas is unlocking the $1.6 trillion local government market with a platform city officials use to build and buy better stuff more quickly...all without ever selling to cities.
AI to predict the risk of vehicle accidents using over 40 external factors including road and environmental conditions - for Usage Based Insurance and Safety usecases.
Pilota created AI algorithms that can predict flights at risk of disruption. They use this to proactively book travelers on a new flight for free during expected disruptions.
Esports is growing exponentially, but is still a highly fragmented industry. Juked is changing the game by creating the internet's first one-stop-destination for esports entertainment.
GamerzClass creates gaming masterclasses for all the biggest esport titles. Carefully designed with the best players in the world, they aspire to help gamers reach their maximum potential both in and outside of the game.
eino is a prediction platform; they help companies increase revenue in capital planning and supply chain management by analyzing possible future scenarios and determining prudent actions.
Bliinx aggregates business interactions between professionals and their contacts so that they can get up to speed on relationships without jumping through a bunch of platforms. They also generate company-wide relationship insights that boost business development initiatives and customer ROI.
2. ABOUT ME
• Founder at ToutApp, we build software to
empower sales people
• Raised Advisory, Seed, and Venture Capital
• Fell in love with the art of selling
@tawheed 2
3. GOAL
Share what I’ve learned about Fundraising so that you can go
from being a seed-level company to a solid venture backed
company.
@tawheed 3
4. KEY CONCEPTS
1. Why you should think about fundraising as a sales process
2. What to do before you fundraise
3. How to actually run your fundraising like a sales process
@tawheed 4
5. HOW YOU THINK ABOUT FUNDRAISING
@tawheed 5
“We’re getting ready to
raise our Series A. We’ve
got great traction.
Revenues are growing.
Our customers love us.
We’re looking to raise
$3m to $5m.”
6. HOW INVESTORS THINK ABOUT YOU
@tawheed 6
• As a VC, I can only fill X
board seats
• With my $Y fund, each deal
I make needs to have a
likelihood of returning > $Y
• There are only about 15 to
20 seriously important
companies every year
• Should I buy what you’re
selling?
9. PRINCIPLES OF SELLING
1. Who is the right buyer for what you’re selling?
2. Understand your buyer, what do they care about?
3. Why should they choose you? What makes you unique?
4. How do you articulate and pitch them on Why You? Why
Now?
@tawheed 9
10. HOW YOU THINK THOUGHT ABOUT FUNDRAISING
@tawheed 10
“We’re getting ready to
raise our Series A. We’ve
got great traction.
Revenues are growing.
Our customers love us.
We’re looking to raise
$3m $5m.”
11. A CLEARERWAY TO PITCH YOUR DEAL
@tawheed 11
“We believe X is going to
happen. Our seed round
allowed us to prove Y. We
think with another $Z in the
bank we’ll be able to tackle
this problem and get to the
next stage. And when we do
that, we’re going to make a
lot of money in a market
that is worth $AA.”
12. IT TAKES MONTHS TO PREPARE
IT SHOULD TAKE WEEKS TO DO A DEAL
Identify
Potential
Buyers
Build
Relationships
& Understand
Develop Pitch Fundraise
@tawheed 12
You are NOT Raising You ARE Raising
(months) (weeks)
13. PREP #1 – HAVE A PLAN
1. How much runway do you have?
@tawheed 13
14. PREP #1 – HAVE A PLAN
1. How much runway do you have?
2. Plan to kick off fundraising when you have 6 months of
runway left
3. Based on your financial model, figure out how much money
you actually need to raise
@tawheed 14
15. PREP #2 – IDENTIFY POTENTIAL BUYERS
1. There are hundreds of VC firms
2. There are more ways to raise money than just VC
3. There are VCs and Investors that care about stage, category,
business model, and even about the type of founder you are
4. Don’t just aim for Sequoia to write you a $20m check
@tawheed 15
16. PREP #2B – RESEARCH BUYERS
1. Identify your ideal buyer by
doing your research on the
firms
2. Crunchbase, LinkedIn,
TheFunded and funding
announcements
3. Don’t just look at firms, focus
on actual partners; you’re
getting married
@tawheed 16
18. PREP #2B – RESEARCH BUYERS
1. Find investors that have invested in your broader space and
category in the past; ideally with successful exits
2. For clues, look at the types of investors that have placed bets
on your competitors
3. Look at their fund size. There are lots of cues to pick up here
@tawheed 18
19. PREP #4 – BUILD RELATIONSHIPS
1. You’re not raising
2. You’re mapping out the people you want to target
3. You’re figuring out how to get introductions
4. You’re looking to build a longer term relationship
5. You’re looking to get advice
6. You’re asking a lot of questions
7. There is no deck
8. BTW. You’re not raising
@tawheed 19
20. PREP #4A – RELATIONSHIP HACK
1. Talk to Portfolio company CEOs
2. Ask them the type of investors they are, ask them how they
add value, ask them for advice
3. SELL them. The more portfolio companies you have as
customers the easier it’ll be for you to sell down the line
@tawheed 20
21. PREP #5 – DEVELOP YOUR PITCH DECK
1. Don’t leave this for the last minute or for “after” you get your
meetings
2. Treat this with respect. It requires you to have a very deep
understanding of your business, your numbers
3. A huge part of this is for you to develop your unique vision
for what you want out of your company
@tawheed 21
22. PREP #6 – DEVELOP YOUR SUPPORT STRUCTURE
1. Have strong customer references you can call upon at a
moment’s notice
2. Have one spreadsheet with tabs outlining the core metrics
around your business
3. Have a clean set of financials
4. Have a shared Dropbox folder ready to go with everything
@tawheed 22
23. GET READY
You’re going to meet some of
the smartest and most
successful people on Planet
Earth. Enjoy it.
@tawheed 23
25. MUST DON’TS OF THE PROCESS
1. Don’t spent too much time with Associates or Principles
2. Don’t spend too much time if you haven’t gotten to meeting
with the partnership after the 2nd or 3rd meeting
3. Don’t be shy. You’re raising. OWN IT
4. Don’t do your favorite firm first. First 6 pitches are for
practice
@tawheed 25
26. PREPARE FOR BATTLE
1. You need to maintain your positivity,
you need to be assertive, you need
to drive forward with conviction
2. You need to make the entire process
dead simple easy for the investor to
say “Yes”
3. You need to consistently be asking
the tough question, are you
interested in “buying”? What are
next steps?
@tawheed 26
27. CONSIDER THE STATS
1. 0.5% of people attempting to raise money end up raising
2. 20% of startup founders who raise end up with something
that is worth something
3. 0.1% chance you’ll make money from your venture after you
raise
@tawheed 27
28. BE THE UNICORN
1. Solo Founder
2. No Prior CEO Experience
3. No Network
@tawheed 28
29. HAVEA PLAN B
SO YOU FEEL CONFIDENT
1. What part of your business can you re-focus to start
generating cash?
2. How can you cut expenses? Reduce burn? Extend runway?
1. Are there alternative exit scenarios?
2. Take a long hard look. Is it time to move to the next idea?
@tawheed 29
30. IF YOU DO RAISE
1. Pause and Reflect
2. Think carefully about what you’re going to do with the
money
1. If possible, create a rough pitch deck for your next
fundraising
2. Buckle up
@tawheed 30
31. TRUST IN THE PROCESS
Identify
Potential
Buyers
Build
Relationships
& Understand
Develop Pitch Fundraise
@tawheed 31
You WILL Raise
32. ABOUT ME
• Twitter: @tawheed
• I blog, a lot: tawheedkader.com
• Email: tawheed@gmail.com
@tawheed 32