Raising Capital in 90 Days? Not a Chance.
We debunk the 90 day myth to raising capital.
Raising Capital: Friends, Family, and Stock in the Early Stages
In the last month, we’ve had three founders come to us with questions and problems related to raising money for their early stage start-ups. In the next few installments, we’ll cover critically important issues of executing an early stage raise. Early Stage: Your Money Plus Sweat Equity In the early stage of your company, it's likely you will be funded using your own money plus sweat equity. Most investors you'll seek for follow-on rounds will expect that you did both, as it
Raising Capital: When Investors Say No, Part 11
We’re moving back to raising capital this week and dealing with getting the dreaded “No” from investors. Anyone who’s raised money has heard this many times. This week we’ll discuss what it means and how to deal with it. When the Investor Says No Hearing a no from an investor can be very difficult. Typically as a founder, you’ve sunk your heart, soul, and sometimes a significant amount of your bank account into your start-up. After months of work on your business plan, financ
Raising Capital: Your Market Messaging, Part Five
Last week, we started with an overview of your marketing efforts for your outline business plan (OBP) and why this is so vital to investors. Today we are going to take that a step further by reviewing your target audience and overall message. The most important point about market messaging is that you want to reach the people who are likely to buy your product as efficiently as possible. To do this, there are a few key pieces of information that you need to know. Who Are Your
Raising Capital: Marketing Your Business, Part Four
Last post, we helped you define your product features, benefits, and your 3Cs. The next step in generating your outline business plan (OBP) is the marketing section. Throughout your fundraising process, investors want to know that you’re going to spend their money wisely, getting great returns worthy of a significant investment in you and your company. How you handle marketing in your OBP and initial discussions with them is one key piece of information that they will use for
Raising Capital: Defining Your Compelling Case for Customers, Part Three
Last week, we discussed defining your product. This week we’ll take the next steps by taking you through how to reveal and define your 3Cs: Your Compelling Case for Customers™. This starts with determining your product features. Features These are properties or characteristics of your product. For example, three features of a dress shirt are its color, size, and type of buttons. Each one is measurable and has an associated “metric” such as blue for color, medium for size, and
Raising Capital: What’s Required? Strategy and the 3Cs, Part Two
Now that we’ve given you a brief overview the Outline Business Plan, let’s get into the details of two of the main components: defining your product and your Compelling Case for Customers™. Your Product Defining your product may not sound like a big deal, but it’s a critical piece of your success. It’s the beginning of virtually everything that you do in your business. Many companies—especially startups—don’t have a product definition that communicates exactly what they are s
Raising Capital: The Outline Business Plan, Part One
Know what it really takes to raise capital? An outline business plan is one of the three components that will help you develop your business
Gratitude and Raising Capital — What They Have in Common
This is the first in a series of weekly articles focused on business start-up, raising capital, growth, exit, and problems that companies have in these areas. Feel free to substitute the word “service” instead of “product” throughout the series, as concepts apply equally well to nearly all types of businesses. First up—inspired by the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday—is that all start-ups require the effort of a team of people. While there are usually one or two founders driving
