What do you ideally need in place to raise Seed Funding? Will an idea and a good team get funded or do you need company with hundreds of customers?

It entirely depends on the kind of business you have. If you have a tech startup for example, there are pretty reliable assumptions about each round of funding. And a business plan and financial forecasts are almost totally irrelevant to sophisticated tech investors in the early stages of a company's life. Recent financial history is important if the company is already generating revenue and in that case, a twelve-month projection is also meaningful, but pre-revenue, financial forecasts in tech startups mean nothing. You shouldn't give up more than 10-15% for your first $100,000 and from that point forward, you should budget between 10-20% dilution per each round of subsequent dilution. In a tech startup, you should be more nervous about dilution than control. The reality of it is that until at least a meaningful amount of traction is reached, no one is likely to care about taking control of the venture. If the founding team screws-up, it's likely that there will be very little energy from anyone else in trying to take-over and fix those problems. Kevin is correct in that the board is elected by shareholders but, a board exerts a lot of influence on a company as time goes-on. So board seats shouldn't be given lightly. A single bad or ineffective board member can wreak havoc on a company, especially in the early stages of a company's life. In companies outside of tech, you're likely going to be dealing with valuations that are far lower, thus likely to be impacted with greater dilution and also potentially far more restrictive and onerous investment terms. If your company is a tech company, I'm happy to talk to you about the financing process. I am a startup entrepreneur who has recently raised angel and VC capital and was also formerly a VC as part of a $500,000,000 investment fund investing in every stage of tech and education companies.

Stop thinking you don't have the skills to do something. You can learn anything if you decide to, but assuming up front that you can't (forever) is dangerous. my2cents

Have you considered crowdfunding? Investment grants will be able to take care of funding but crowdfunding has the benefit of taking care of funding and providing a customer base.There are many examples of teams without a fully working prototype being successful on these platforms. Kickstarter will be off the table but you have some great options with Indiegogo (https://www.indiegogo.com/) and the Brazil specific network Catarse (http://catarse.me/en) Of course, you will have to focus on things like presenting your story and getting attention for a bit but if you are successful you will have money for a prototype, access to a customer base and exposure that could bring some helpful people onto your team - even the angels and VCs you'll need to get to the next level. Message me if you need some help - I'm not personally an expert in crowdfunding but I can connect you with some of the best in the business.

I like to take a rule from the Steve jobs playbook and use simple circles... one larger than the other but no more than 2. your most immediate target (realistic reachable) and one of the "enemy" competitor company. or overall untapped market cap. **for this to be effective you must provide as accurate projections as possible** no bar graphs and as little or no text as possible... remember that a deck is a companion to the speaker... avoid bullet points and use the deck to entertain rather than educate... is not a class is a pitch. :)

I haven't seen a deal structured this way. Usually they get 6-10% equity I exchange for some small amount of money ( ~ $25k ) and tons of mentorship. 15% for $20k seems high ( you are valuing your company at $133k ) but there might be more to it. Accelerators are great specially for unknown founders. It gives them a fair chance of connecting to the people that well connected founders have access to and really get a shot at proving themselves. The accelerator should have access to great mentors, investors and previous successful founders. It should also be vested in the success of the company ( thus the equity ). If you sell them equity for the $20k, you don't owe any money if you fail. They get equity ( in very favorable terms ). If your equity turns out to be worth nothing ( I.e your company closes ) it's a loss for them and you but you should owe any money. Best of luck!