EARLY STAGE FUNDRAISING

‘Show Me The Money’Tech Meetups

/ aristos peters

My Big ‘Early-Stage’ Picture

1 EIS Investment & 3 sweat Investments (but not an angel)

Founder Institute, Seedcamp, Oxygen (& other ‘new/program’ accelerators)

WeKlik (investment ready, fundraising & corp fin)

Angel Groups (Networks & Clubs)

Keiretsu Forum (Angels, HNWs, Family Offices)

Beer & Young (growth/expansion finance for £1m+ T/O)

Funding – What’s Out There

Program or the New ‘Accelerators’

Debt: Borrow against assets or near future opportunity (Sales contracts, IP, etc)

Grants (sector, location)

Funding Organisations (SEIS & EIS seed funds, VCs, Angel Networks/Clubs)

Competitions

Crowdfunding

Go get a fundraiser / broker / intermediary (Individual or Corporate Finance)

The Door Opener

An Executive Summary template / Structure

Killer introduction1 – 2 pagesHeadings:

- Investment Outline- Business Summary- Customer Issues (the problem)- Product/Service- Target Markets / Sales Channels- Sales & Market Strategy- Competition- Future opportunity / Exit

The Approach

It’s a different landscape with its own language.

Think of it as a campaign (?Months, people, £money)

95+% of businesses approaching investors …. No guarantees. Many don’t get to the deal negotiation stage

Getting Ready

Investment Ready > Often just means developing the tangibles of biz plan, ES or pitch-deck)

Deal Ready (The smart stuff) > Get: advisor/mentor, financials stress tested, traction, benchmark, exit & valuation). This is called ‘de-risking.’

Above all, tell your ‘investment or opportunity’ story (not your product/service or business story)

Some Turn-offs

The overload: “Here’s all our data (50 pages & 4 attachments), tell us what you think.”

The drip feed: “Here’s the biz plan, finances will be ready next week.”

No start-up experience but plenty of blue chip CV.Everything Outsourced. “We have selected an agency

to manage our sales.”Opportunity greatness overrides all other

considerations.Flowery, vague, over spun, hyped up, dressed-up and

totally entangled with ‘marketing speak.’No acknowledgment of possible uncertainties or weaknesses.

No early chunky salaries – Be exit motivated.

Investor Questions

How many investments done to date? How would you get involved / what do you offer (especially

if young or new angel)? Smallest & largest deals (£?) How many in last 12 months (or 24)? How many times have you syndicated with others? Would it be ok to contact any of your past/current

investments for references? Would or could you bring in any colleagues on the deal also

(if you’re not taking the whole deal amount) Will you be looking to follow-on if necessary? Have you managed to exit yet? Had any failures yet

(references)?

I’m done – thank you very much

Linked In requests > I am not an open networker or collector of profiles. If sending me a connection request, say why you want to connect.

If emailing me > Send a really good executive summary. No NDAs, no business plans and no email outlines.

Remember > When fundraising you are in competition and YOU WILL get filtered. So do everything you can to NOT get filtered.

Questions?

/ aristos peters

blog > > http://weklik.wordpress.co.uk

twitter > > @ w e k l i k

linked in > > http://www.linkedin.com/in/aristospeters

email (We Klik) > > apeters @ weklik.co.uk

email (Keiretsu Forum) > > apeters @ keiretsuforum.com