OVERVIEW

• How much capital, when & from whom

• Priced rounds vs. notes

• Pitching 101

• The process

HOW MUCH CAPITAL, WHEN & FROM WHERE

Act as if you have money in the bank. Do not wait for funding to be your start

Dissect your business into milestones

What do you need to do to ‘prove’ something (i.e., demand, build product…)

Think about the time & resources needed to get there

Cushion the above as 90% of the time it takes longer

Depending on your milestones and amount needed, you can raise from:

Yourself, Friends & family

Angels

Seed VCs

Bigger VCs

NOTES VS. PRICED ROUNDS

Notes

Easy, cheap, fast & flexible

They usually have a cap on valuation but not always

Seed VCs view the cap as the valuation

They convert into equity when the future equity round is done

IMO: great for short rounds (when you believe equity round is < 1 year away)

Priced rounds

Can make it easier for future rounds

Are not much slower or expensive if have vanilla terms

For seed investors, valuation is the same as the cap on a note so you might as

well (downside protection)

PITCHING

Yes, you want a deck (even if you never use it)

Practice, practice, practice

You are telling a story

Do your homework on your audience

Your job in Pitch #1 is to leave them wanting a 2nd

meeting NOT to tell them everything you know

OUTLINE OF A PITCH/DECK

TEAM!!!

Market Size

Problem (or opportunity) in the market

Solution & your unfair advantage

Demo (even if just a design)

Traction

Next steps in the business

Competitive landscape

Amount raising & use of funds

Next Steps

TIPS

Stay high! Use or don’t use the deck—deck should be engrained in your

brain If two in the room, know your ‘roles’ Be able to be fluid (answer questions, etc.) but never lose

control of the meeting Investors want to back entrepreneurs that they will enjoy

working with--be authentic, pick up on cues, try for chemistry… Don’t ‘hide’ your weaknesses or competition—better to be on

offense vs. defense Learn from every meeting. Your pitch should evolve every time

as you learn

PROCESS

Have one

Recommendations:

Have a guinea pig meeting

Schedule three and have a day or two between each

Revise!

As one falls out of the funnel, put the next one in

No more than five at a time in your funnel

FOLLOW-UP

An art vs. a science

Keep in mind…

Next steps discussed

Schedules shared

Excitement levels

Names/firms they responded to

Your audience

Use momentum to help keep them moving but careful with false deadlines

Q&A