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MenuI´m currently looking for a consultant who can support me in reaching out to investors to close our seed round this summer.
We´re a sustainable fashion e-commerce retailer based in Czech Republic and are now looking to expand to Austria and other European markets.
We are already registered on several platforms and have had a good response and a few investor meetings already but no deal closed just yet.
We have all required documentation and would therefore only be interested in the actual support of reaching out to business angels and VC´s. If you´re available for the task and think you have relevant contacts feel free to contact me.
Answers
I have helped more than 500 startups worldwide.I can help you in raising funds. Feel free to check the profile ratings.
#Founded first startup in year 2001 - 18 years of business experience.
#CEO of leading Startup Consulting Firm,
# Investment Banker - Angel Investment, A Series for startups.
# Startup Lawyer - Corporate legal matters.
#Full Stack Developer - Software Architecture Web/App
# Experience of AngelList - Connected to Angel Investors/VCs worldwide
# Mentor, Advisor & Consultant for Startups
# Author of Startup Easy - A Practical Guide
Featured on CNBC Young Turks, TiE the Knot, Startup Weekend & Startup Grind
I can't help you reach out to the investors directly, but I can give you some advice on the best approach, when to follow up, platforms for building investor list, tools for reaching out etc.
Feel free to schedule a call.
You can use LinkedIn to reach out to investors.
I am connected with many investors on LinkedIn. Just today the personal adviser to Kevin Harrington-Original Shark from ABCs Hit Show, Shark Tank connected with me.
Here is how it goes to find investors:
1. You define who you want to reach and where they should be located.
2. You optimize your LinkedIn profile so that it shows what you do and what is in for a potential investor.
3. You search for your ideal investor on LinkedIn.
4. Once connection has been accepted you start a dialogue.
5. If the person seems interested in what you have you make an appointment via Zoom or Skype or phone.
6. Talk with the potential investor and if all makes sense arrange a meeting in Prague or in their city.
The example above happened because I also publish videos on a regular basis.
I am happy to jump on a call and answer all your questions.
The first thing is what is your startup? What’s do you have? The pitch, the idea, the model, the team...in others no one unless they just want to get your mo eh can help you here blind about the startup.
So pitch the folks here first. If you’ve got something good, powerfully differentiated with protection, any kind of validation plus support in your ecosystem - not just prospects but their customers as well buying in, suppliers, etc..,, then it’s far easier to get help on resources.
Notice what I said - resources. Do not ever make the assumption to go by the book. That’s wrong. The best ideas almost always attract resources - sponsoring cash, facilities, research, supply and prospect support, customers customer support. Many times you can go very far without ever needing to raise formal capital and especially from angels or VCs. The more you need that the sooner, the more likely you are less validated, not vetted or that you are inna complex, longer time and resource intensive venture.
To the former, in manufacturing, devices and materials and allied services across medical, CPG and industrial markets, we help with the finer strategy, the deals and the appropriate reach through to connections, pitching, planning and formal if needed fundraising and debt financing.
Related Questions
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Where could I find a list of the top 100 VC firms in Silicon Valley?
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 :)Hernan JaramilloHJ
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How does one raise funds for a business subsidiary without selling ownership of the "brand" identity?
In my experience, every step you take to complicate your company's structure and ownership rights reduces the likelihood of investors providing your venture with seed funding. To attract seed funding, investors expect a single-minded laser focus on the entrepreneurs' assessment of his or her best path to validating their business and growing it into a very large business as quickly as possible. So the very idea that you are reliant or considering taking multiple paths to success is likely to act as a red flag for most experienced early-stage tech investors. Also, until there is significant traction achieved, an investor is expecting to own everything generated by the business. There are rare occasions where a particular asset, brand, domain or other component of the business can be spun-out (usually in the case where it's a distraction from the core business but there's inbound demand from a buyer), but when I say rare, I mean this happens so infrequently that it's not anything that should be reasonably expected in the course of planning. Speaking candidly, this entire strategy creates a perception (accurate or unfair) that you are undecided on a number of the key questions you need to be sure of before you have a good chance of raising seed funding. I'd be happy to talk to you about what you're doing and help provide some clarity based on what I hear. I encourage you to review my references as I have been helpful to many other Clarity members on these types of issues.Tom WilliamsTW
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Is it possible to hire a marketing agency with equity?
Hello! This is a very good question, my name is Humberto Valle, and I'm the founder of www.Unthink.me a small globally known inbound marketing agency. We have helped many tech-related companies such as Software Developers who work on equity as well as traditional payments. For our marketing agency, we have also taken equity in combination of 'cash' payment. So yes, there are many opportunities for startups to hire or partner with an individual or agency on equity. The trick, I would assume is where in your lifecycle do you approach someone to work with you/for you for equity promise? At the end of the day, marketing agencies are not a hail mary approach to growing or making a company sustainable - its all about management and strategic market fits - if your plan is to hire an agency to have them do what you want, you may not find anyone who would be interested, possibly not even for payment. It is very understandable that you want to save your burn rate but you have to be respectful of someone's skillset - for example you mentioned doing 75% equity and the rest based on results - so commission? A good established marketing agency is not in the business of a startup, so unless they have a CEO who gets distracted, any good leader will not take on 'external opportunities' from what they are doing right now - aka a marketing agency won't work on hopes and dreams - which is what this is right now. As a business owner, startup entrepreneur and leder of your team you have to make critical decisions and hiring and spending on marketing is one of them. For example, I would consider myself to be globally recognized ( not a lot but decently enough) on topics that revolve around marketing strategies - my suggestion to you would be to look into marketing agencies and hire them directly while you are also focusing your expertise (is it manufacturing? logistics? sales? what is it? focus on that and outsource/partner the rest such as for example you could look for an existing expert in cosmetic distribution or connections at some of the larger retailers, give them that structure (% equity + commission %) butkeep that that equity to a minimum (don't offer, ask for them to value their own worth and negotiate from there)Humberto Valle Texas Real Estate Investor, Wholesaler, & Airbnb SuperhostHV
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How do startups figure out their pre-money valuation when when talking to investors before their company is making any money?
I'm both an active angel investor and entrepreneur who has recently raised capital. I'll start with what is standard in Silicon Valley and then apply various multiples and discounts where relevant. For an angel or early seed round, the current going rate is $3m-$5m pre-money via a capped note or priced round. Priced Rounds typically most often use the "Series Seed" docs and Convertible Notes typically are 18-24 month terms with a 15% discount. I don't mean to be argumentative but Marco is incorrect that valuation can be avoided by a capped note. And in general, there is no way to avoid setting a valuation except via an uncapped note, which is almost unheard of. Setting your cap and discount will have a significant impact on your cap structure, the same (and in some cases) worse than a priced round. This $3m - $5m range is what I'd call current market value in the valley for "ideation-stage" capital. This is that there is a team in place, typically some form of MVP and in some cases some very basic market data supporting the general thesis of the raise. In the other market I'm familiar with (Canada), the range for the same stage of capital is $1m - $3 with most being in between $1m and $2m and most preferring priced rounds over notes. These rounds rarely have a real lead since the raise is typically $500k or less, so if you price it reasonably, most (good) angels will accept the terms as is. The low and high end of the ranges are discounted and pushed by the credibility presented most often by the team (done it before, worked for a notable company, had some relevant success) or strong evidence of the thesis being correct. It's also the Founder's option to price the round at the top end of reasonable or provide what you might consider a discount, depending on the kind of investors you are courting. So while this is what I'm seeing as "current market conditions" there is price elasticity in any market. The best way you know if you've priced it right, is if people are buying. Any angel investor should be able to give you a conditional answer after the first meeting (subject to playing with the product, reading terms, meeting the rest of the team). Any angel investor in ideation stage capital who can't give you a yes, no or subject-to yes in the first meeting is not worth pursuing IMO. Any investor who can't close within 3 meetings or conversations won't close (9 times out of 10). Happy to talk to you about the specifics of where you're at, what might help you improve your odds and generally get you closer to the point where you're ready to raise.Tom WilliamsTW
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When to ask for funding for your startup?
I think if you're going to pursue a studio approach, you should assume that you will not be able to raise much in the way of outside equity funding. Most investors do not want to invest in a team that is pursuing multiple projects at the same time for a variety of reasons. To the extent that any of your apps have demonstrated any kind of initial traction, there is a reasonable chance that you can recruit competent growth professionals who could be compelled to take a big portion of upside, but I'd caution that true experts (as defined by people who have done it more than once at 100,000 plus users) would rather do this for their own app or be a cofounder in the overall venture so be careful about professionals who present themselves as experts who are all too willing to venture for a largely performance-driven deal. With regards to proof points for funding, assuming you want to abandon all others in favor of the one that gets the most traction, I've written several related answers here on Clarity about the benchmarks for angel and seed funding so I encourage you to review my profile and look at previous answers. If you'd like to talk by phone, I'm happy to help.Tom WilliamsTW
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