How to make fundraising efficient and effective as possible
by marufjony · 36 things on Twos
- Know your numbers
- Know the amount of money we will need to keep the business going before it gets acquired or goes public
- Have a clear picture of where we are today
- Capitalization table
- See everyone who currently owns the equity in your company
- Cash burn rate
- Knowing how much you spend on a monthly basis today
- Use this to estimate the amount we are asking for
- How much time you have left before you run out of money
- Capital Structure
- Lays out debt and equity of how we have built the business so far
- Who you owe what and the order they get paid back in
- Number of common shares given to founders
- Number of common shares given to friends/family
- Number of shares allocated to the employee pool
- Warrants issued
- Options for outside options to buy equity from the company for a set price
- Set your funding goals based on
- Where you are
- Where you want to be
- What stage you consider your company to be in
- The period of time you want investor capital to cover
- What milestones you expect that capitalization to reach
- What the company valuation is today?
- How much debt/equity you are willing to give for capital
- Target the investors you wish to reach
- Researching their needs to position your startup to gain their interest
- Understand the funding process
- Seed rounds
- Pre-seed rounds
- Early stage rounds
- Series A, B
- Create a roadmap to maximize the time you spend in the fundraise itself
- Customers paying for your product/service is the best way to raise capital
- Worst thing you can do is allowing fundraising to distract you from building your business
- Build a plan to make your funding campaign effective