The Art of Startup Fundraising

2Raising Capital for Your Startup

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.

Speeding Up the Machine

Some opportunists and entrepreneurs see the promise of funding or financing as the chance to get someone else to put money on the line to build their dream into reality, especially when it is a product or tool that can only be brought to life with major money. (Space exploration and revolutionary health-care progress are great examples of this.) But these types of fundraising missions represent big risks for investors. And if you've tried walking into a bank for a startup loan, you already know that it's going to be a challenge.

There is another way to approach raising capital for your startup. It's meant to speed up the machine, not build it. This can really present the best opportunity for both fundraisers and funders. By building the product first, entrepreneurs establish that ownership, control, and lead. They also have the opportunity to build and hone a business model that works regardless of additional funds. That's a much more powerful fundraising and negotiating position to be in. On the other side of the table investors are able to put their money to work with confidence, in a startup that has a product, and one which is proven to work. More money just helps to speed up the achievement of various milestones, and to magnify the successes ...