Supercharge your Angel Investor Fund Raising

On , In Angel Fund Raising, Audio Course, How To, Podcast, By Andrew
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As many of your know, I’ve been working on a set of tools designed to help you if you are going through the fund raising process for a new or existing company…a friend suggested I should try to bring together some of the unique experiences I’ve had and help other entrepreneurs who are looking to get investors for a new or an existing business.

I wish I could thank this pal for urging me to start this but right now, I want to chase him down and beat him to within an inch of his life with a large inflatable mallet, because this really isn’t easy. What would be easy would be to take an existing book or series of blog posts from others and pull something half assed together – but what would be the point….?

No – I want to create tools which are all the things I wish I had when I spent a year or so spinning my wheels trying to raise money the first time around. What could have saved me months and allowed me to get my first company to market that much sooner?

Those are the tools I want to get out to folks….those months could have meant increasing the chances of survival and success….now, the business did well, but they don’t always…months matter!

You can always try to raise money for your business with advice from friends and the like, but in my view, we all need all the help we can get when its something as critical as realizing our dreams for starting a business…So, I’m doing my best to bring together learnings from a number of years and experiences but *whew* it really isn’t easy because I throw away probably half of what I create because I want them to be that good for you – if you are raising money for your business, because lets face it, you don’t have the time to mess around on crap.

If you watched the short video on ‘Who is the Funding Guru?’ – you’ll know that I was asked to sit on the Small Business Council by the UK Government and with a small group of entrepreneurs I worked on funding and other issues relating to entrepreneurs and start-ups…that brought me together with some amazing folks on both sides of the table – entrepreneurs and investors. I think I can help if you are looking to raise funds for your business…

So – before I rant some more…the course should be ready in March (huge amounts of fingers being crossed…so much so that its making it tough to type…OK, I’ll uncross them until I’ve finished typing).Until then, I wanted to take the audio portion from one module which focuses on “How to Supercharge your Angel Fund Raising”.

This audio module will ultimately have video, pdf support and other elements but in the meantime – thought I would get the audio out there and start helping you if you want to find and get those angel investors so you can start building that amazing business you have been dreaming about…the great thing is, once you understand how powerful this technique can be – then you can use it for speeding up you fund raising now and for every funding process you and your friends go through… Get the audio course here

Andrew

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Great Tips for Starting a Catering Business: Inspirational

On , In How To, Podcast, Raising Money, By Andrew

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(MP3 Download Below)

Today’s posting is an inspirational podcast.  If you have an interest in starting a catering business then you must listen to this interview.

There are some critical elements in today’s interview with Chef Khalil that I’d like to call out…

Chef Khalil has leveraged his passion to not only start a business with different revenue streams but he’s also using his passion and common sense approach to growing a business which is making a difference to kids and other people.

There are many elements to take out of this interview but the one’s which I gained are:

  • Constantly learning – taking courses, signing up to news letters in your space, keeping up to speed on your area, never resting on the accomplishments you’ve had but be constantly growing and striving
  • Finding mentors who can teach you – even if it means working for free
  • Steady growth – don’t assume instant success, test the waters, plan and don’t over-extend yourself either financially or emotionally – keep a balance in your life
  • Sacrifice – Chef Khalil re-invested his profit into his business while managing his startup and a full time job – he knew what he wanted to achieve and was focused on achieving it
  • Partnering – Its common for companies to leverage affiliates and partnerships online  but Chef Khalil is using this approach for his culinary business – its always possible to leverage partners and your community for any business
  • Vision – know where you are going,  why you’re going to get there then figure out the how and do it

So – I highly recommend that you listen to this brief interview with Chef Khalil – its inspiring because he is using his passion to help others but his common sense approach to business should be a course taught in every business school throughout the country – especially in this time of economic challenge. The key thought I took out is – if you want to be your own boss, you can achieve your goal if you have a passion, a commitment and are prepared to sacrifice to achieve it – even if it takes time – because, everything worth anything ‘always’ takes time…it doesn’t matter if we’re talking business, personal life or a good bottle of wine – everything worth anything always take time, focus and passion.

Listen to this interview, give Chef Khalil and me your comments and let us all know what you gained from this interview. I hope you gain as much as I did…

If anyone would like to reach out to Chef Khalil – his web address is:

http://www.CateringToYourWhims.com

Thanks to all my readers and especially, to Chef Khalil.

Any more questions?  Reach out via the contact page above and join my mailing list by adding your name and email in the box to the right. I’ll also send you some valuable downloads to help…

Andrew

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Podcast: Raising Millions – Interview with Andreas Stavropoulos, MD @ Draper Fisher Jurvetson

On , In Podcast, Raising Money, VC Garage, By Andrew

 

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Andreas_DFJ_pt1  (Parts 2 & 3 below)

I was fortunate enough to spend some time chatting with Andreas Stavropoulos, a Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ). DFJ is an innovative, forward thinking Venture Capital firm that has a passion for creating a networked Venture Capital firm that can identify investment opportunities and deploy capital throughout the world.

In this podcast, Andreas takes us through a number of important points – such as the selection criteria he and DFJ go through when considering making an investment in a company.  While chatting, I made a few notes which I wanted to make sure I called out -

DFJ tend to invest particularly early in a company’s life cycle – I asked if an entrepreneur needed a full team, customers and other key milestones before they would be taken seriously – Andreas took us through a number of critical considerations but to quote his immediate response…

“We’ll take two people and a dog seriously – Its never too early to connect with us.”

It’s interesting that identifying investment opportunities very early is part of the DFJ culture – I gathered it was a key focus and a strategy for identify the best opportunities for a significant return.  Andreas repeatedly made the point that if a particular segment (Cleantech) or Geography (China) is ‘hot’ then the returns are likely to be impacted through competition. The ideal is to identify these segment and geographic opportunities before the herd catches up. So – DFJ works to identify opportunities which might be too early for some other VC firms. In fact, DFJ can point to investments they’ve made in industry changing companies such as Hotmail, Meetup and others which seem like obvious investments now, but DFJ invested so early in these companies lives that, in some cases, they were little more than a handful of passionate business builders and a big idea!

On this podcast interview, we also explored what DFJ and Andreas are looking for when they receive a submission for funding – for these points you would be smart to listen to the podcast, but briefly – be self filtering, take a look through the background and portfolio of each of the Principals in DFJ and make sure you know who to reach out to and why your proposition is relevant to them. Just starting the email with a reasonable rationale for wanting to connect, and not using some form “Dear Sir/Madam” template will already put you ahead of the crowd who are also trying to raise millions of dollars just like you.

…and here is a critical point. DFJ and Andreas read ALL submissions…in other words, you don’t have to be referred by a pal, a classmate or priest…you can just email, cold, with a smart, reasonably comprehensive 4-5 page summary of the investment opportunity and providing its interesting to DFJ – they’ll meet with you and then you can begin the dating process that may turn into a real relationship.

Again, listen to the podcast – and you are welcome to add you questions or comments – I’ll happily ask Andreas to respond, focusing on those which will benefit the largest number of readers.

So – thanks for reading, let me know if you have any questions or comments and I’d like to hear if you have heard of any other Venture Capital firms who are just as open at DFJ to cold calls from entrepreneurs? Is this abnormal or normal as far as you know? If you have heard of very open VC’s please post them in the comments – this could be helpful to others.

DFJ’s  stated mission is “…to identify, serve, and provide capital for extraordinary entrepreneurs anywhere who are determined to change the world”. Its no surprise that DFJ value the passion of the founding team  members almost above the size of the opportunity – partially, I would suggest, because all of the DFJ team have that same degree of passion for the business they are building and their own goal to positively change the world.

Thanks again Andreas – you and DFJ are a star act!

Andrew

PS – for a short time I have an audio course which could seriously help your fund raising. I’ll soon bundle it with a broader course so it could be pulled from availability at any time.

PPS – More info on Andreas and DFJ: http://www.dfj.com/about/

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  Andreas_DFJ_pt2

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Podcast: Raising Millions – An Interview with Erik Benson, MD @ Voyager Capital

On , In How To, Podcast, The Funding Guru, VC Garage, By Andrew

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 (Erik Benson Interview with the Funding Guru Part 1)

TheFundingGuru_Erik_pt1

Today’s podcast is an interview with Erik Benson, an MD at Voyager Capital in the Pacific Northwest.

Erik_ Benson

Erik takes us through a number of areas including:

  • What makes Voyager Capital different than it’s peers in terms of the value it brings to it’s entrepreneurs.  Come listen to find out about three key areas of value that Voyager delivers – keep an ear out for ‘GTM’, ‘HPT’ and “PEP’. (A blog first exclusive for The Funding Guru!)
  • The kinds of companies Erik invests in and the types of companies he’s looking for…
  • Erik also gives us some tips on how to get noticed by Venture Capitalists if you are NOT plugged into their advisory network or alumni group. Take a listen to get a tip that could help you with Voyager and most other VCs.
  • One key sound bite is Erik believes its never too soon to met an entrepreneur – he lets you know how you can reach out to him in the podcast.

Could Voyager Capital be right for you?

Voyager  tends to invest between $500K – $3m (first round)

  • Commits in the range of $7m per investment
  • And they are actively looking to find another 7-8 new companies to invest in with the current fund

Please consider joining the mailing list and we’ll keep you updated with when other great interviews like this come along. There are more lined up that you will NOT want to miss.

Thanks for your time Erik and thanks for your time listener!

Was this podcast helpful? Post a comment and let me know…

Andrew

TheFundingGuru_Erik_pt2 

(Erik Benson Interview with the Funding Guru Part 2)

TheFundingGuru_Erik_pt3 

(Erik Benson Interview with the Funding Guru Part 3)

NOTE: Podcast music is called Rocket by Kevin Macleod

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Podcast: Raising Millions – Venture Capitalist Interview – Eric Hjerpe, Kepha Partners

On , In How To, Podcast, Raising Money, By Andrew

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 (Part 1)

TheFundingGuru_EJ Interview (Part 1)

Podcast Continued below…

Are you looking for Venture Capital Investment? Would $5 million dollars help you take your business to the next level? Well, despite the challenging economy there are still people out there looking to put money, experience and contacts to work helping entrepreneurs make the next generation of great companies – and lets face it – the economy could use the boost!

As ever – it will be the entrepreneurs, business builders and their financial supporters who will lift their communities and their countries by building great companies which tap into the innovation of their founders and employees to deliver products and services which meet our needs.

Today I was lucky enough to interview a partner of a young and fast moving Venture Capital firm called Kepha Partners – as promised, I focused on very specific questions that you’ll need the answers too if you are looking for to secure a $2 or $3 or $5 million dollar investment in your company.

This was a fantastic interview and I really appreciate Eric’s candor and the simple way he outlined what it really takes to go out there and secure significant amounts of money from Venture Capitalists. He not only covered what he finds important when considering investing in a young company but takes us through the benefit of his experience to take us through many of the critical elements all entrepreneurs should consider when talking to ANY Venture Capital firm.

Again – A fantastic Interview! Worth listening too over and over again…

These were some of the questions I asked Eric –

  1. Tell us about you and your venture capital firm
  2. What areas do you invest in and what is the typical range of investment?
  3. From what you are seeing – What impact is the challenging economy having on the Venture Capital industry and the investments you and they are making?
  4. Where do you find companies to invest in? Are they cold calls or referrals or some other route?
  5. What are you looking for?
  6. What is your selection criteria and how do you weight it?
  7. What process do you go through when deciding if you’ll invest?
  8. What tips the balance towards a “Yes!” investment
  9. What should you NOT do when looking for Venture Capital investment?
  10. Can a company approach you directly via your website? What is your website address?

And here are some sound bites and areas covered during today’s podcast:

“The Business Idea is low on the list – No.1 for me is the Team…”

“I get asked – ‘Do I need a Business Plan?’…I personally prefer a great presentation with rigorous spreadsheets beneath…”

“I like to invest alongside other partners in other firms who I’ve worked with before on boards…”

“Don’t name drop other venture capital firms – often I can pick up the phone and just ask them…”

“We look at making a series A investment in the $5 million dollar range…”

Again – I highly recommend you listen to this podcast – especially if you either are currently looking for funding from the Venture Capital community or even if you think you might do at some point in your career.

Please sign up to my mailing list and we’ll let you know when we have other interviews like this and more.

…and don’t keep us a secret, tell others and we would appreciate your comments to today’s podcast below.

Was this helpful? Post a comment and let me know…

Andrew D. Ive

http://www.TheFundingGuru.com

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 (Part 2)

 Eric_Hjerpe_Interview2

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  (Part 3)

TheFundingGuru_com_EJ Interview (Part 3)

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 (Part 4)

TheFundingGuru_com_EJ Interview (Part 4) 

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Raise Millions: First Stage of Captivation – The Hook

On , In Podcast, Raising Money, By Andrew

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What are you trying to achieve when you meet with VCs?

You may think it’s to close in on a, let’s say, a $3million dollar investment for example and you should always keep the goal in mind but there are stages when building the relationship. You need to recognized them and make sure you are delivering at each step of what I call “The Stages of Captivation”.

Why do I call it that? Because that is exactly what you are trying to do – you are trying to captivate a VC at each stage of your interaction – from the first communication all the way through to term sheets and a deal. Why?

Because you are trying to establish and build a relationship with a VC – you are trying to attract them and encourage them to want to build something great with you – it is not about the cash, it is not short term and is not a loan – it’s a relationship so you can create something worthy of both their and your efforts.

So what is the First Stage of Captivation – The Hook

Before you even get through the door…you need to hook them.

How do you do that?

By making yourself look attractive.

Most often that first touch with a VC will be from your initial introductory email or executive summary.

Now be careful – with these two tools you are NOT trying to get your entire life story into as small a space as possible – you are trying to do just what I said before “You want to Hook them”. In other words, you are trying to entice them – to wet their appetites just enough that they want to meet you.

So, focus on the business opportunity and in particular, the size of the opportunity i.e. the upside if you manage to create a company which delivers on your expectations but a note of caution – try not to use to much hyperbole – keep the fact that you are about to change the world to yourself for the moment, instead cover the industry you are focused on, the business you want to build, why you are the right team to build it – If you cover those elements I would consider stopping there – with one added element –

If you are reaching out to a few VCs (and you should) – you should consider mentioning this point within your initial pitch – Why?

Because it’s human nature –

If you are attractive and popular with others then you’ll be more attractive and popular with these VCs.

And aside from the psychology of it – VCs want to find out about attractive opportunities before their VC competition – so consider briefly mentioning “We are meeting with a select group of VCs in Sand Hill Road” for example, suggests there may be interest from other VCs too – You have begun to create an ‘Impetus for Investment Action’.

…and because of it they will be more compelled to consider your opportunity and act themselves.

So – and let me make this point very clearly – one element of the hook is to suggest interest from their competition – Why? So you can create momentum.

What do I mean?

You want them to want you. And what will create that impulse?

A great initial hook, competition and a closing window of opportunity.

Throughout the process – at the start and all the way through – subtly mention that others are also interested in your opportunity. Capitalize on human nature – being confident and showing a certain demand is critical. A note of caution – there are not many bullets in this gun – do not try to suggest competition over and over again – use those few bullets selectively and wisely.

So – that covers the First Stage of Captivation – The Hook.

I’ll cover the second stage on the next podcast.

Until then – remember establishing a relationship with a VC is a two way relationship – Always keep in the back of your mind “what can they bring to the party aside from cash? Do you like these guys? Do you trust these Guys?”

So – Thank you for listening.

Please go along to AndrewIve.com to sign up for my mailing list and get update when other Podcasts and postings are available.

Was this helpful? Post a comment and let me know…

Andrew

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