Contenu connexe Similaire à Fundraising for Early Stage Startups (20) Fundraising for Early Stage Startups2. © Bold Kiln 2018
About Me
● Two years of active angel investing via OperatorVC (essentially an
angel fund)
○ 9-10 investments so far (few now raising subsequent rounds)
● Three years of bootstrapping Bold Kiln - One stop shop solution
provider for startups
○ Was (also) working on some products (ed-tech, SaaS) which we
ran for a while (but failed to grow per se)
● Five years of strategy consulting experience (The Monitor Group)
● IIT Delhi (‘08); IIM Ahmedabad (‘10); Army kid; (Half) marathoner
4. © Bold Kiln 2018
● When should I raise money?
● Should I raise money? Why/Why not?
● Other sources of capital
● Platforms to leverage
● How much money should I raise?
● What is my startups valuation?
● How do I find the right investor - ($ + ♡ + ….)?
● Building a great pitch
● Common mistakes during fundraising
● Post fundraise - do’s / don’ts
We’re going to talk about...
5. © Bold Kiln 2018
● ‘Starting up’
● Bootstrapping strategies
● Raising >$1mn
● ICOs
We’re not going to talk about...
6. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Not pre-product / pre-revenue
● Can you delay it?
● When you absolutely need it; NOT just when it’s available
● When you need $ for a kink in the growth curve
When should I raise money?
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● Why?
○ Constraints to growth
○ Crazy network effect business
○ Key experiments
● Why Not?
○ To make things easy
○ To have money to spend
○ FOMO / Peers
Should I raise money?
8. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Revenue
● Debt
● Grants - Govt.
● Grants - Corporate
● Crowdfunding
● Incubators / Accelerators
● Friends / Family (?)
Other sources of capital
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● Raising
○ AngelList
○ LetsVenture
○ Tracxn
○ IAN / CAN / MAN / ...
● Learning
○ Paul Graham Articles, Zero to One, YC - Demo Day pitches,
blogs
○ Ask.
Platforms to leverage
10. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Plan for ~12-18 months
● Add 10-20% of a buffer
● Do NOT raise for <12 months
● Think through backwards
○ Key milestones to hit for the next round?
○ What you need to hit them?
○ Account for screw ups
PS. Good idea to speak to potential investors for your next round now;
get a sense of their thoughts / KPIs they’d like to see / ...
How much money should I raise?
11. © Bold Kiln 2018
What is my startups valuation?
● Forget DCFs / Excel models / …
● 10-20% dilution
● Broadly 2-15Cr (rough range)
● Supply - Demand
● Cap Table is everything.
12. © Bold Kiln 2018
Finding the right investor
● It’s a hard problem
● Money (+ money for subsequent rounds?)
● Strategic? (Access / Experience / …)
● Attitude / Niyat
● Previous investments
● Bigger problem: Wrong investors
○ ‘Lala’ investors
○ Doing it to be an ‘Angel Investor’
○ Overtly concerned with exit options
13. © Bold Kiln 2018
Building a great pitch (deck)
● Outcome based design
● How is the deck being consumed?
● (Likely) Email:
○ Concise
○ Self sufficient sans a voice over
● Be transparent
● Simple to understand
● Keep data on excel files; send those as well (or eventually)
14. © Bold Kiln 2018
Common mistakes during fundraising
● Business *will* suffer. It’s okay.
● NDAs
● Beating around the bush
● ESOP Pools (Option Shuffle)
● Investment Banks / Intermediaries
● Deal structuring
15. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Do:
○ Monthly email updates to all your investors
○ Clearly specify ‘Asks’ from your investors
● Don’t:
○ Miss the updates
○ Cover up / hide the bad or f*cked-up bits
○ Feel shy to reach out for help / advice / sounding board / …
Post Fundraise - Do’s & Don’ts