How do I sell and win over a big company to partner/fund me to create their (cooperate) accelerator?

Strange, I answered this question a few days ago here: https://clarity.fm/a/2890 but this seems to be a repost of the exact same question. Andrew's comments are spot-on about building a waiting list while you build your product. You want to be able to point to a meaningful uptake of customers and transactions early after launch. The challenge of raising VC with a product that is already launched is that the data available to investors has to be compelling enough to believe you've got all the pieces more or less in-place for significant growth with their investment. Depending on if you have a strong enough team, you might be best to not build and launch the product but get enough customer validation of the demand for you to try and raise pre-launch. Because they can always "wait" to see if in 3-6 months, you're much better than you were or if you're still at the same level. To be absolutely clear, once you launch, the burden will be on your data to show exceptionally strong and significant metrics in order for you to raise a seed round of $750,000 or more from any VC firm or fund. Dan is missing one key point in his investor analysis scorecard and it's the most important when VCs evaluate new investments, even at seed and that's TAM. Total Addressable Market. Put another way, it's "can this business become a billion dollar business?" If a VC firm doesn't believe with conviction that your business can achieve that, then you're not going to get an investment except in the rarest case where you're a proven team with enough great traction that they'll consider the seed bet a "blind to see the flop." But this is extremely rare and shouldn't be considered a possibility for most entrepreneurs. I'm happy to talk to you in a call about the realities of fundraising for startups.

As someone who is deeply involved with startup studios, here are a few hints. 1. First, calculate your optimal scale of operations. In our startup studio this was about 12-15 people core team + dedicated ceo-s for each startup experiment 2. Raise funds for the studio, for at least 12-18 months. Your options: - use your own money - do agency work - get direct VC investment (hardest one, you will need traction) - get corporate financing 3. Raise funds for your startups that are ready for it. More on the topic here: https://medium.com/@aszig/startup-studio-advice-2-how-to-raise-funds-for-a-newly-created-venture-builder-cfff0602d14#.4it9foo5h

I actually created a list when I was raising capital for my startup. Hope it is of use, I visited at least 1/2 of them so happy to give any directions on how to approach them. http://blog.tareasplus.com/100-fondos-de-capital-de-riesgo-en-silicon-valley/ Happy to jump on a call :)

Likely you won't like my thoughts about this. When I give talks about business bootstrapping, I suggest people only work ideas which meet my "Sunset Rule". Sunset Rule - You should be able to go from idea to first sale, before sunset, or best consider other ideas. This also relates to your MVP. If you can't dream up an MVP + sell it before the sun goes down, best consider other ideas. Years ago, I was at an Internet Marketing Party mixer in Austin, TX + sat to visit with a friend. She was down because she was starting a new business + had spent months working on a business plan + determined she required $80K to bootstrap her business + then had spent another several months looking for investors. A buddy of mine + I sat with her for 15mins + slightly retooled her idea. She launched the next day for a one time investment of $144/year (cost of a Meetup.com account) + was generating some significant profit in a few days. Chunk down your MVP, so you can manually make sales by the end of the day... for $0 investment + you'll know for sure you have a profitable business. If you can't sell one unit, by the end of the day... best consider some other idea...

There is a famous saying in Silicon Valley "if you ask for moeny you will get advice, ask for advice and you will get money". With this said, I'm a strong believer that is more important to get the right investor than to get a good valuation or a lot of $$. Money is the same everywhere, green. So what you should focus is in: -Did this investor (or firm) actually knows about my market -Have they invested in companies in the same industry/sector -Have they invested in competitors? In future clients? In future partners? -Do they have expertise in the technology in using? Do they know people that do? (PhD, others ex entrepreneurs ~ possible mentors) All this questions would help you filter BEFORE you start looking and even approaching investors, which will save you time and frustration. Once you have done this filter/research, there are several tips to move forward. I wrote one trick here: https://medium.com/@JDcarlu/1-trick-to-get-a-vc-bd36f9dbff5b My friend and CEO, wrote a great post here: https://medium.com/@pyjamastartups/11-hacks-to-get-meetings-with-investors-in-silicon-valley-14b4851ab3e8 My advice applies to everywhere, Hernan's is more focus to Silicon Valley. This should help you start. Good luck !!