The Art of Startup Fundraising by Alejandro Cremades

There are different measures of outperforming. Outperforming the competition – This is the best approach and will definitely help your pitches and presentations to investors boost your results and negotiating power. Now that you know how to entice investors, the next step is to understand the best ways to attract capital for your start-up: Remember that you’re selling an investment in your company, so if you want to secure it, you have to make yourself and your business appear presentable and worth investing in. In terms of character, they’re looking for someone they can get along with easily, who is coachable, has put their heart into the project, is open to receiving feedback from others, etc. These include having a well-thought-out business idea and plan, proof of demand, consideration of the safety of their capital and time, and so on. When presenting yourself and your business to potential investors, it’s important to understand what they want and their expectations from you. “So, what do investors really want? In asking this question, it’s often easiest to first address what they don’t want.” The amount of funding should have a built-in cushion for any overages as well as a budget for marketing to raise more funds. The best place to start is to create a business plan that incorporates your fundraising plan as a way to ensure you meet your key milestones. Once you’re ready to perform fundraising, remember to do everything that would make it successful, such as making connections, marketing, proving yourself and the product as well as having the right mindset and expectations. This puts you in a stronger position in terms of fundraising and negotiating, as well as building investor confidence in terms of minimized risk. If you really want to raise capital for your startup, you can apply a better approach to this: build your product and service first and then build some traction so that your business will keep running regardless of additional funds. But from an investor’s standpoint, this actually poses a significant risk. Typically, entrepreneurs and opportunists view fundraising as an opportunity to get someone to invest in their dream business and make it a reality.

“Before rushing into preparing pitching materials, meeting investors, and hammering out funding terms, it is critical to get your mindset, expectations, math, and strategy right.”

The Art of Startup Fundraising by Alejandro Cremades