The Art of Startup Fundraising

4Crafting the Pitch

By now you should have a little more clarity on your vision, expectations, and a launch pad for success in fundraising. At this point, what assets do you need to start approaching investors to get that capital? How should they be optimized to propel success?

The Business Plan Problem

Don't even think of launching a startup or asking for funding without a comprehensive business plan that includes the details of your marketing, fundraising, and how you plan to repay financing. But as you're writing up your business plan, be careful—even the best business plans can be virtually useless when it comes to raising capital.

Far too many startups fall into the business plan trap. They spend extensive periods of time, and often resources, to create the perfect business plan. They believe it has to be impeccably polished—and cost a lot of money—to earn them fundraising requests. Often, spending too much time creating a “perfect” business plan costs entrepreneurs and their ventures the first mover advantage, and lots of precious time that could have been spent making sales.

People may request your business plan. Often this is an antiquated formality. Sometimes it will be used as a tool to judge your experience, effort, organization, and market research, whether you have your cash flow projections right, and whether you are being realistic or just overselling a pipe dream. It's rarely a conversion tool that secures funding. In fact, the decision to give you money is ...