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MenuHow much dilution should I expect when raising a super angel round for 700k?
I am a startup founder with 5 customers (50K revenue in 5 months) for a a B2B SAAS product.
We will add another 3-4 customers in another month. I want to raise a super angel round for 700K.
I have no idea how to go about it. What should I do?
Answers
Im an investor and advisor. As many people as you ask, you will get different answers. The best and most successful way to raise capital is to start with people you know, aka friends and family. If friends and family are insufficient as they often are, then you need to find angels. If you dont know anyone, network. They arent hard to find. It might be a good idea to find a few prominent local people to serve as advisors and get their help in raising money. The worst part about raising money is that it almost always deflects from running the business. If you want to discuss this further, Im available.
The first step is to do the valuation based upon the appropriate method of valuation out of 10 methods available. Then a capitalization table shall be prepared for pre-money valuation. The dilution should be appropriately as per the valuation and fund required. Feel free to setup a call with me, I'll make it simple for you. My company can do the valuation and prepare all the required documents for you.
First, it is not always necessary to raise funds; one can always bootstrap. What does an investor look for while funding? Primarily three things: team, the idea and the trump card -- traction. Angel investors in India typically take up 20-30% of equity for investment worth INR 1-3 crores. This is relatively a large chunk of the company, but it is so because hardly one of the 10 companies an angel invests in will give returns and most of the money has to be made via these deals.
You can read more here: https://yourstory.com/2014/03/startup-valuation-equity-dilution
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
Related Questions
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When raising money how much of equity do you give up to keep control? Is it more important to control the board or majority of shares?
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.TW
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How much equity is typically taken by investors in a seed round?
From my experience I would not advise you to go with Venture Capital when you're a start-up as in the end they will most likely end up screwing you. A much better source for funding would be angel investors or friends/family. The question of how much equity should I give away differs for every start-up. I remember with my first company I gave away 30% because I wanted to get it off the ground. This was the best decision I ever made. Don't over valuate your company as having 70% of something is big is a whole lot better than having 100% of something small. You have to decide your companies value based on Assets/I.P(Intellectual Property)/Projections. I assume you have some follow up questions and I would love to help you so if you need any help feel free to call me. Kind Regards, GiulianoGS
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As a startup, is it better to find a way to pay for services (i.e. design) or trade equity for it?
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