The Dragon Slayer - Slaying the Investor Dragons

Received some questions today from readers so thought I would answer them via a post – just in case other readers wondered the same thing.

What is the Funding Guru all about?
The Funding Guru is all about helping entrepreneurs and startups go through the process of fund raising through either angel or venture capital investors. We do that through writing posts on subjects that relate to the process of fund raising, on the dos and don’ts; the tools (such as executive summaries http://www.thefundingguru.com/how-do-i-write-an-executive-summary/ ); business plans; pitch presentations and covers more peripheral elements such as the psychology of the process – i.e. helping entrepreneurs to get into the motivations of the investors and we also include podcasts and videos with investors and other entrepreneurs.

Talking to a reader this morning – he mentioned at first glance the site could be about us at The Funding Guru making the investments ourselves – almost like a Dragon in the Dragons Den giving cash to startups after some analysis. That is not the case.  We invest our time (a much more precious resource than cash – wouldn’t you agree?) on helping entrepreneurs get ready to meet and go through the fund raising process and negotiate the deal with investors – so we don’t made investments ourselves – we’re more Dragon Slayers than then Dragons themselves. I would love to take credit for that line about us but cannot so full credit to Erik Luhrs (http://guruselling.com/blog/)

The funding guru is not about making financial investments in startups or young companies or even about hooking them up with investors – there are legal restrictions that would not allow us to broker deals between startups and investors. These dealer / broker relationships are closely monitored and regulated by the SEC – we do not do deals and we are not middlemen between two interested parties.

How can you help me find an Investor?
Now its true we have some great relationships with angels and the venture capital community and occasionally may introduce a particularly exciting startup to an angel or VC but never for financial or equity gain or because of any ‘deal’.  I do it when I am very excited by a company and see a fit between the different investors I know and I never ever gain from either the referral or the deal. Hope that clears that one up.

Here’s another way I’d like to help – if you are looking for an investor – consider reaching out to me via the contact page above and telling me about your business with a few well written paragraphs – if they are exciting, perhaps I’ll put them up on the blog and encourage interested people to reach out to you directly.

What’s it like being The Funding Guru?
Ah – a great question! A steady stream of fantastic entrepreneurs send me their executive summaries and their business plans pretty much every day. The opportunity to help entrepreneurs is a gift and I appreciate it. So – keep sending me your executive summaries and your business plans – I’ll gladly look through them and do my best to give you feedback on how they can be improved so you can increase your chances of getting angel or venture capital investors.  I was on a plane yesterday thinking about the various entrepreneurs who had reached out recently and thought it may be useful to them and the other readers if I took some elements of these plans and summaries, scrubbed them for data that would be propriety and leverage them to show what entrepreneurs are doing well and perhaps not so well. Real world case studies instead of the usual higher level stuff you usually get from blogs in this space. LET ME KNOW IF THAT WOULD BE HELPFUL!?!? and if you would like to even be one of the first Funding Guru lab rats.

Where are your ads?
Another great question. As you can see, there are no ads on this blog. Actually, that’s not entirely accurate, there are ads for a few free reports which I’m offering as ‘ethical bribes’ to encourage you to join my list. Why? Because I’d like to build a relationship with those people who like to read this blog and the best way to do that is to meet you all – face to face…obviously that’s not going to happen as much as I’d like so comments on the blogs and emails are a close second to actually meeting. So – no ads for other people’s stuff – just my own free stuff and this allows me to focus on creating value and helping you and other entrepreneurs who come to the site – maybe at some point I’ll put an ad or two. We’ll see. One idea I’m mulling over is if there is the opportunity to help early stage companies more systematically and directly – i.e. rather than writing a twenty minute blog – perhaps spend a two or three hours going through the executive summaries and business plans directly and unearthing the hidden veins of gold that run through them to improve the speed and likelihood of getting those coy and hard to get investors locked in.

Would this be a service anyone would need? Hum….

Do you have guest bloggers / writers?
Well I haven’t so far but would its actually a great idea providing the guests have some value to add to the readers. So – if you are an entrepreneur, an angel or a venture capitalist and would like to write a guest post – email me before writing anything and lets chat about what you’d like to contribute – no promises but if its good and if it will help entrepreneurs raise cash then I’m all for it.

Who is the Funding Guru again and what makes you think you can help?
I could spend the next 500 words trying to impress you but take a look around, watch this ( Who is the Funding Guru?) and if you still have questions – contact me through the ‘contact’ page above – I respond to all my emails and comments.

So – I’m not a broker or a dealer but I do often connect entrepreneurs with angels and venture capitalists if they are ready for those conversations. I am open to work directly with entrepreneurs to get them ready for that investor conversation. It would be great to get some high value add contributors to the site, we don’t advertise anyone else’s stuff and I truly appreciate all the emails I get and the ability to help exciting entrepreneurs start and grow great new businesses.

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…and if you want to get started raising money today…this will help save you months…(Supercharger)

Andrew

Related articles by Zemanta

• What stage should Startup proposal be, to post it to Grow VC? (growvc.com)
• How to Size Up a Negotiation (blogs.hbr.org)
• Beware the band of Angels (the-accelerator.blogspot.com)

Related posts:

1. Raising Funds? 80 Minutes To Get You Started…
2. Need funds for your startup?
3. Your Feedback: Fund Raising Survey

When its time for you to go out there and raise thousands or millions for your business – you’ll probably want to talk with VCs (or Venture Capitalists). If you’ve never done it before then it can be intimidating – even if you have the beginnings of the best business on the planet. 

To help you, I recorded a brief overview of what VCs are, some of their key motivations and some invaluable tips that could move you closer to raising millions for your business.

Take a listen and if you have any questions or would like me to go deeper into a particular element of this overview – post in my comments section and I’ll be happy to reply.

If you’d like more tips and thoughts that could help you and your business – consider joining my mailing list and get my free “Start-Ups Launch Blueprint” today.

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

Andrew

Related posts:

1. Raise Millions: First Stage of Captivation – The Hook
2. Podcast: Raising Millions – Interview with Andreas Stavropoulos, MD @ Draper Fisher Jurvetson
3. Podcast: Raising Millions – An Interview with Erik Benson, MD @ Voyager Capital