Subscribe
Sign in
What are the main steps to successful fundraising? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fundraising just like sales is a process which needs a custom approach, but there are main important factors, what are they?
After successful launches of 3 products from LabiOffice suite, our team is finally ready for fundraising 🤗
Any advice on the best practice and approaches to fundraising?
40
Replies
Best
We are just about to launch your AI based all-in-one Fundraising platform TeQatlas https://teqatlas.com/ Check it out:)
Up to 3x faster fundraising experience)
Hey @cn__katie ! Thanks! Sounds very interesting! Are you planning to launch on PH?
@ivanna_wendel yep) we are about to launch on PH soon (still some preparations with video production), while our product is ready and you can explore it now, create your dossier, deal and make yourself and your company visible for investors)
@cn__katie I'll definitely try it! Thanks! And fell free to update me with the launch on PH!
@cn__katie this is pretty cool, are you accepting beta users?
As you said, it's a sales process. My tip is to start warming up investor relationships early, before you are actually fundraising. If you can avoid your first interaction with them being you asking for money, that's ideal. So it can be things like asking for feedback on your product, or getting their advice. Given they are on your target list, they should have some expertise in the area you are working on, so tap into their expertise. Then when you go back a few weeks or months down the line and say you are raising you are knocking on an open door.
I've found investors are pretty open to helping out and giving feedback!
Here's some other tips I wrote up a while back: https://taskablehq.com/blog/foun...
Hey @ivanna_wendel ! Great database you might find useful - was shared on PH in the past:
https://www.openvc.app/
Also Sequoia template:
https://www.slideshare.net/Pitch...
Of course the #1 "tip" is to build a product that people love with the metrics to back it up.
But independent of that, here are a few additional recommendations:
• Workshop your deck and story with other founders and advisors. It's hard to accurate interpret your message as a founder when you're so close to the problem/solution.
• Try to schedule all your first meetings within a two week window. This helps create momentum and de-risks a long, drawn out fundraising process.
• Know your audience. It can help to research the investor you're speaking with before the call to understand what they're interested in, past investments, and other characteristics to tell a story that resonates.
GL, Ivanna! :)
Thank you for the tips @rrhoover 🤗
Appreciate the support!
These are all highly valuable points. I agree that sometimes it gets really hard to convey a vision on to others and explain what we are aiming for and what problem are solving 🙂 Even though in our case its a no brainer 😂
And regarding building up relationships with the investors. Do you believe that cold outreach still works? Or it is better to look for warm intros instead of mass mailing a deck to a list of pre qualifies VS and angels?
@ivanna_wendel I would try to get a warm intro from someone that can endorse you and/or the company. If that's not possible, go cold directly with a personal email and a few bullet points about the company (what you're building, traction, team, etc.). Some investors also prefer to receive a copy of your deck in that email too.
@rrhoover @ivanna_wendel warm intros definitely help! We just launched a program that helps founders w/ their Series A raise, SoCal Venture Pipeline. https://www.alliancesocal.org/pr...
- Go for relationship first and not money first.
- Accept small checks
- use SPV
Make a strategy and timeline before you start with clear goals and deadlines. My team and I created a CRM of 200-300 target investors with rankings for priority and connections, wrote out personalized emails for each investor, used DocSend to track the analytics for our deck, and never missed a single scheduled meeting but were always flexible for investors who needed to reschedule.
We learned that introductions from our personal networks worked significantly better than cold outreach and that one good investor can help you close your entire round (since they want trusted partners in the round with them who they often know).
Here are a couple of things that you can do:
(1) Have a clear understanding of how you plan to operate your business. The most important part of a business plan is the financials. Share this vision with any organization, individual (Banks, Venture Capitalist, Accelerators, Incubators etc) from whom you intend to raise funds. Please include financial projections for the next 3 to 5 years.
Research your investors to find out their strengths and weaknesses, and ways they can add value to your company in addition to their investment.
(2) Engage influencers who can help spread the word about your company.
(3) Crowdfunding: Using any of the online and offline marketing strategies get small donations from numerous people to fund your startup and gain first adopters for your products.
Create a rap group, record a hit, become famous, record a track with an advertisement for your product! Profit🤗
What stage are you at? Do you have some nice (clean) data from your 3 launches to help support your story, @ivanna_wendel ?
We actually just launched our FREE Fundraising Tools Suite on Product Hunt today - https://www.producthunt.com/post... .
Investor Billboard, Data Room, and Investor Update Templates.
The key is to create assets that tell your story in a way that yields dollars for investors. Would be happy to connect and chat further.
Slive