Video
This Week in Startups
Taking the Leap on Valuation, Strategic Retreats
Taking the leap on valuation, strategic retreats (VC School)
Investment Strategy
Funding is a significant milestone for startups to accelerate their journey. You need to get ready before you reach out to the investors. Create a winning pitch deck, be ready to convey your financial status and your potential to investors, find out how to make a hot-shot presentation, negotiate with investors and get ready for due diligence.
Here are some sources that you can benefit from to find out how to proceed on your way to creating an investment strategy.
Reports
Videos
Podcasts
Podcast
The Startup Chat with Steli and Hiten
Due Diligence During Fundraising on Apple Podcasts
The Startup Chat Podcast, Steli and Hiten talk about due diligence during fundraising.
Podcast
Alex MacCaw – 20VC
How To Successfully Negotiate with Investors, What Value-Add Do VCs Really Bring & Why You Should Only Have Operators on Your Board
Listen to this episode from The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch on Spotify. Alex MacCaw is the Founder & CEO @ Clearbit, the marketing data engine for all of your customer interactions, from customer understanding to prospect identification to personalising every sales and marketing interaction. To date, Alex has raised $17m in financing from some incredible people including Geoff Lewis @ Bedrock, Ash Fontana @ Zetta
Podcast
Kurt Rathmann – 20VC
Raising $105m in Just 13 Months Over 3 Separate Rounds, The 5 Core Ways VCs Can Add Value & How Founders Can and Should Fully Leverage Their Cap Table
Listen to this episode from The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch on Spotify. Kurt Rathmann is the Founder & CEO @ ScaleFactor, the startup providing an automated bookkeeping solution at its core, bringing all of your company’s important financial information into one place. To date, Kurt has raised over $105m with ScaleFactor from the likes of Byron Deeter @ Bessemer, Coatue, Canaan Partners, Stripes Group and Firebrand to name a few. As Michael @ Coatue told me before the show, there is no way Kurt
Guides
Guide
Geoff Ralston – Y Combinator
A Guide to YC Demo Day Presentations
Y Combinator has helped over 1000 companies with their presentations. This guide summarizes what we’ve learned and describes how to create an effective demo day presentation.
Guide
Aaron Harris and Jason Kwon – Y Combinator
Series A Diligence Checklist
This checklist includes all the pieces of information you’ll need to have ready once you sign a term sheet. Having all of this together in one place (a data room) before you sign a term sheet will cut as much as a week off of your closing process.
Guide
Y Combinator
Series A Guide : Fundraising, Series A
YC’s Series A team put together a guide on advice for raising a Series A round. They cover tactical strategy, preparation, investment materials, process, and closing.
Guide
Geoff Ralston – Y Combinator
A Guide to Seed Fundraising
The most comprehensive guide on why, when and how to raise money for your startup.
Guide
Aaron Harris – Y Combinator
A Guide to Preemptive Funding Offers
Funding rounds happen in one of two ways. Either a founder asks for money and gets it, or an investor offers money and the founder accepts it. This may seem simple, but the dynamics are complicated.
e-Books
Blog
Blog
Aaron Harris and Jason Kwon – Y Combinator
A Standard and Clean Series a Term Sheet
YC has invested in so many founders over the years and have seen hundreds of Series A term sheets, and knows what good terms look like. This is what a Series A term sheet looks like with standard and clean terms from a good Silicon Valley VC.
Blog
Geoff Ralston – Y Combinator
Transparency in Startup Investing
When you raise a round with many investors, it is hard for the investors to keep track. Here is a proposal to make this better by sending all investors a concise summary of what has happened in the deal, along with all the documents needing their signature. A template is provided.
Blog
Aaron Harris – Y Combinator
“Angels,” Angels, and VCs
Many early stage investors call themselves “angel investors” but within this are many types with varying degrees of effectivness and control of their funds. Every founder should be aware of what kind of angel investor they are before accepting money from them.
Blog
Aaron Harris – Y Combinator
How to Optimize Your Fundraising Round
Important factors for getting a good deal include price, investor, dilution, amount raised and speed. Here are ways to think about getting the right deal for your startup and closing it.
Blog
Aaron Harris – Y Combinator
Process and Leverage in Fundraising
Running a proper process when fundraising is essential. Here’s how to do it and when and where to use leverage while fundraising.
Blog
Aaron Harris – Y Combinator
How to Build Your Seed Round Pitch Deck
Y Combinator has helped thousands of founders create pitch decks for their seed round fundraising. Here is the YC Seed Deck Template that works.
