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This is a presentation I gave to founders at Startup Next in Malaysia on ‘How to get funded’ from venture capitalists and Angel investors. This article mainly serves that startups that are looking to raise angel rounds to get things going, or in some cases, a proper seed round.
Simply put, founders know they need to raise investment from venture capital and angel investors, but the how to go about it is unknown. This is a high level walk through of how a founder needs to prepare, go through the process and avoid silly mistakes (Such as asking for an NDA).
The key topics of the presentation discussed are:
- Requirements – what investors care about (AKA the basics)
- What you need to prepare before raising
- How to approach investors
- How to manage the process
- How to close the round
- And ‘no nos’ that founders should not do (Silly mistakes)
Throughout the deck I have provided links to templates and blog articles I have written to absorb further content on specific topics. I highly recommend founders to do some reading and there is so much content available on the internet. Also, reach out to founders who have just raised cash, or ideally done it a few times. They will be able to give you invaluable insight on how to get things done.
Be smart, but mainly, work really hard
There are no short cuts in raising other than to put in hard work and take the whole process seriously. Some founders think raising will just happen and they ‘have better things to do.’ Trust me. if you need to make payroll and you aren’t profitable, I can’t think of a bigger priority than keeping the lights on.
Take it from the Unicorn that almost wasn’t
I talked to a founder of a Unicorn last week who said:
“The early days were hard. When we were raising Seed, we weren’t able to make payroll that month. If X hadn’t invested just then, we would have shut down the business.”
So strap yourself in for the ride and make it happen!
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