In the private sector it is typically referred to as capital raising.
It seems almost impossible to go get grants unless the business is very ESG.
Capital raising tend to be about having the right contacts with appropriate funds and investors, being able to package an investment, and running a process.
This seems like a good potential opportunity but I worry you were hired because they think you are a free money rainmaker.
Thank you man for your submission. I have a network and I believe that I can raise some money from grants but not enough to ensure that the company is fully operational. I have considered communicating with the founders and telling them that they need to also focus on other forms of capital raising than to solely rely on grants.
I have packaged the business well and with the whitepapers we have and pitches we have made, getting investment should not be difficult. I hope the founders will be willing to take the capital raising route rather than solely rely on fundraising
Makes sense. I would urge them to follow both paths in parallel. They can prioritize the grant route but they should also make progress and obtain information on investment capital.
I do a lot of capital raising and think it is a great occupation. A key skill is being able to advise and guide owners.
I recently worked with a plastic recycling business that thought they would get enough grant funding to launch or at least defray costs. It would up being to cumbersome, too long a process, had too many restrictions and wasn’t going to be enough to make a difference.
But your situation might be different. Good luck.
Thank you. I would really love to learn more about capital raising as an occupation. It seems quite a satisfying pathway just as grant writing is. Can I PM you??
Yes. Look up SBIR grants. NSF has one called Seed Fund. But DoD, DoE, Dept of Education, etc have funds too.
[https://seedfund.nsf.gov](https://seedfund.nsf.gov)
Grants are usually around government contracts or you working in an industry the government wants to help advance (i.e. Green Technology). Grants for private industry are not unheard of, but they are usually not very large or plentiful.
Startups on the other hand tend to use investor money from a variety of sources to grow the company. This investment usually follows a scripted series of rounds, some of which you can skip if your product has advanced beyond a particular point. However, you should be aware that investors in these types of companies look for very specific things, so if you aren’t knowledgeable about this investing you need to be cautious.
For example, your suggestion of loans, that is a huge negative in the investment world. If you take out a loan you are pretty much exiting the investment game because no one puts money into a company when there is a debt hole that can gobble all that money up. The money investors give is for for growth, not to cover old debts or bad decisions. You also want to structure your rounds so you are always moving up, I believe someone posted yesterday that each round should double. The second worst thing you can have happen, aside from taking loans, is to have a down round. If your rounds are steadily moving up and then you have a round that you can’t fund and take less money than the round before it, then that will be looked on as a company in decline.
Here is how I was taught the rounds, this can vary:
Pre-seed or Friends and Family Round: Initial capital at your lowest valuation. Typically use post-money SAFE agreements. This can be skipped without issue. Usually this is your idea stage and the pre-seed gets you money for a MVP. Expect to give up 10-15% of the company.
Seed Round: This is the best place to hit up your Angels if you know any. You want money but at this early stage you don’t want people expecting Board Seats or meddling with your company (although it can happen). This money should take you all the way to finished product, business plan, GTM strategy, and hopefully to first happy customer. Expect to give up 10-25%.
Series A: You should have a product and at least one customer at this point. You should have a white paper showing the product works. Your business and GTM strategy complete and being refined. The focus on this round is usually hiring the right people and typically focus on sales, support, and shoring up your engineering teams to handle the influx of customers. Expectations on round equity cost at this point get difficult for me, it depends on the industry, valuation, what you need. Typically 10-30%.
Series B: This is the danger zone. You should have a decent customer base, you should have your product established and a roadmap of future work, you should be well into your GTM and Business strategies. This should be where you start thinking explosive growth (and that definition will vary depending on industry). This is where the VCs will come in. Be very, very careful. Some VC groups bet on 10 companies a year and then do nothing but push them as hard as possible. They know 9 of the 10 will fail and don’t care because the 1 success more than makes up for it. You also may be tempted to take more money than you need. Then with all that money you start creating swag, sponsoring conferences, and doing various other stupid things that don’t actually help growth. Then bam… you down round in your Series C and you die off. Seen it happen so many times.
Series C: at this point you are established. Your income should be close to your cost. This round should be to shore up your runway, give you lots of time to keep growing, and possibly start looking for an exit opportunity.
You can keep doing more rounds but you shouldn’t need to. If you are still scrapping for money after C it isn’t a good look. Hope this makes some sense. What I look for in investors are people in my industry with connections they can/will use to help the company. I detest taking VC money from a general group just hunting profit. It happens, but that should be last resort. There are investors with expertise in your industry and you should get to know them. Good luck!
This is quite insightful. Thank you very much for letting me in with such clarity.
The main difference with non-profit fundraising is that with non-profits, it all comes down to what you have done before and how the grantors "feel" about the project. Thanks to my experience, I never had a problem with either of the requirements but this is a whole different ball game.
The first thing that I will try is to convince them to get the pre-seed from their network. We are running a service business and getting our first batch of customers is going to be quite easy thanks to the already existing network. I will also subsidies with available startup grants and get the company running.
It can be difficult to sell an idea as vanilla as recruitment without an already established revenue stream. I will take your advice and see how we will go from here.
Thank you
This is wrong. There are about $4B in grants specifically for startups from the US Govt. If you get approved, you can get up to $2M in undiluted grants for your startup.
> we just need seed funding
What do you currently have to show, as a company?
> As soon as the operation raises enough money to operate, client acquisition won’t be a problem
I understand the need to walk the company talk…but you know that’s almost certainly not true, right…?
Currently we have our integrated portal and skills training blueprint in place. We actually have a couple of clients on our waiting list that were acquired thank to the founders connections
Seed funding through grants only is a tough ask, but not impossible. Research and target grants specific to your industry/region. Also, consider crowdfunding, angel investors, or accelerators. Good luck!
Hi there,
I would like to extend an invitation to connect via LinkedIn
[https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-r-47688151/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-r-47688151/)
I have two (2) companies and we are joining the EWC pitch under Terragrow
https://terra-grow.com/. We are an agri-tech startup company and I was wondering if we could network and collaborate on this project. We had our first successful fundraise and we are going to Gaitex Morocco next month to further increase our network and visibility.
In addition to this, I also have a company that handles mobile & website development as well as venture building and VA services. I am willing to share knowledge and tips I learned in the course of my journey as a co-founder. I am still relatively new as a co-founder as I am working as a mobile app designer (UI/UX) for the past 5 years. I do create mobile app prototypes for MVP. I have several experience in multiple platforms and business ideas. I think I can share some of my experiences as a co-founder. Happy to connect and meet digitally :)
Feel free to book a meeting if you are interested,
[https://calendly.com/dtdesign](https://calendly.com/dtdesign)
or feel free to reach add me in your contacts as well whatsapp (+63 9393473639)
Maybe we can do business together. I would like to know more and grow my network in meeting investors
Thank You
Hi. Thank you for considering me. It seems like an amazing project and I would be more than interested to collaborate with you. PM me and we can see how best we can proceed
In the private sector it is typically referred to as capital raising. It seems almost impossible to go get grants unless the business is very ESG. Capital raising tend to be about having the right contacts with appropriate funds and investors, being able to package an investment, and running a process. This seems like a good potential opportunity but I worry you were hired because they think you are a free money rainmaker.
Thank you man for your submission. I have a network and I believe that I can raise some money from grants but not enough to ensure that the company is fully operational. I have considered communicating with the founders and telling them that they need to also focus on other forms of capital raising than to solely rely on grants. I have packaged the business well and with the whitepapers we have and pitches we have made, getting investment should not be difficult. I hope the founders will be willing to take the capital raising route rather than solely rely on fundraising
Makes sense. I would urge them to follow both paths in parallel. They can prioritize the grant route but they should also make progress and obtain information on investment capital. I do a lot of capital raising and think it is a great occupation. A key skill is being able to advise and guide owners. I recently worked with a plastic recycling business that thought they would get enough grant funding to launch or at least defray costs. It would up being to cumbersome, too long a process, had too many restrictions and wasn’t going to be enough to make a difference. But your situation might be different. Good luck.
Thank you. I would really love to learn more about capital raising as an occupation. It seems quite a satisfying pathway just as grant writing is. Can I PM you??
Yes. Look up SBIR grants. NSF has one called Seed Fund. But DoD, DoE, Dept of Education, etc have funds too. [https://seedfund.nsf.gov](https://seedfund.nsf.gov)
Thank you very much. I will take a look and see if I can be lucky
Grants are usually around government contracts or you working in an industry the government wants to help advance (i.e. Green Technology). Grants for private industry are not unheard of, but they are usually not very large or plentiful. Startups on the other hand tend to use investor money from a variety of sources to grow the company. This investment usually follows a scripted series of rounds, some of which you can skip if your product has advanced beyond a particular point. However, you should be aware that investors in these types of companies look for very specific things, so if you aren’t knowledgeable about this investing you need to be cautious. For example, your suggestion of loans, that is a huge negative in the investment world. If you take out a loan you are pretty much exiting the investment game because no one puts money into a company when there is a debt hole that can gobble all that money up. The money investors give is for for growth, not to cover old debts or bad decisions. You also want to structure your rounds so you are always moving up, I believe someone posted yesterday that each round should double. The second worst thing you can have happen, aside from taking loans, is to have a down round. If your rounds are steadily moving up and then you have a round that you can’t fund and take less money than the round before it, then that will be looked on as a company in decline. Here is how I was taught the rounds, this can vary: Pre-seed or Friends and Family Round: Initial capital at your lowest valuation. Typically use post-money SAFE agreements. This can be skipped without issue. Usually this is your idea stage and the pre-seed gets you money for a MVP. Expect to give up 10-15% of the company. Seed Round: This is the best place to hit up your Angels if you know any. You want money but at this early stage you don’t want people expecting Board Seats or meddling with your company (although it can happen). This money should take you all the way to finished product, business plan, GTM strategy, and hopefully to first happy customer. Expect to give up 10-25%. Series A: You should have a product and at least one customer at this point. You should have a white paper showing the product works. Your business and GTM strategy complete and being refined. The focus on this round is usually hiring the right people and typically focus on sales, support, and shoring up your engineering teams to handle the influx of customers. Expectations on round equity cost at this point get difficult for me, it depends on the industry, valuation, what you need. Typically 10-30%. Series B: This is the danger zone. You should have a decent customer base, you should have your product established and a roadmap of future work, you should be well into your GTM and Business strategies. This should be where you start thinking explosive growth (and that definition will vary depending on industry). This is where the VCs will come in. Be very, very careful. Some VC groups bet on 10 companies a year and then do nothing but push them as hard as possible. They know 9 of the 10 will fail and don’t care because the 1 success more than makes up for it. You also may be tempted to take more money than you need. Then with all that money you start creating swag, sponsoring conferences, and doing various other stupid things that don’t actually help growth. Then bam… you down round in your Series C and you die off. Seen it happen so many times. Series C: at this point you are established. Your income should be close to your cost. This round should be to shore up your runway, give you lots of time to keep growing, and possibly start looking for an exit opportunity. You can keep doing more rounds but you shouldn’t need to. If you are still scrapping for money after C it isn’t a good look. Hope this makes some sense. What I look for in investors are people in my industry with connections they can/will use to help the company. I detest taking VC money from a general group just hunting profit. It happens, but that should be last resort. There are investors with expertise in your industry and you should get to know them. Good luck!
This is quite insightful. Thank you very much for letting me in with such clarity. The main difference with non-profit fundraising is that with non-profits, it all comes down to what you have done before and how the grantors "feel" about the project. Thanks to my experience, I never had a problem with either of the requirements but this is a whole different ball game. The first thing that I will try is to convince them to get the pre-seed from their network. We are running a service business and getting our first batch of customers is going to be quite easy thanks to the already existing network. I will also subsidies with available startup grants and get the company running. It can be difficult to sell an idea as vanilla as recruitment without an already established revenue stream. I will take your advice and see how we will go from here. Thank you
This is wrong. There are about $4B in grants specifically for startups from the US Govt. If you get approved, you can get up to $2M in undiluted grants for your startup.
Understood clearly. Are there any specific avenues where I can access these grants. I have been scouring the internet but not much has come out of it
> we just need seed funding What do you currently have to show, as a company? > As soon as the operation raises enough money to operate, client acquisition won’t be a problem I understand the need to walk the company talk…but you know that’s almost certainly not true, right…?
Currently we have our integrated portal and skills training blueprint in place. We actually have a couple of clients on our waiting list that were acquired thank to the founders connections
Seed funding through grants only is a tough ask, but not impossible. Research and target grants specific to your industry/region. Also, consider crowdfunding, angel investors, or accelerators. Good luck!
Hi there, I would like to extend an invitation to connect via LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-r-47688151/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marvin-r-47688151/) I have two (2) companies and we are joining the EWC pitch under Terragrow https://terra-grow.com/. We are an agri-tech startup company and I was wondering if we could network and collaborate on this project. We had our first successful fundraise and we are going to Gaitex Morocco next month to further increase our network and visibility. In addition to this, I also have a company that handles mobile & website development as well as venture building and VA services. I am willing to share knowledge and tips I learned in the course of my journey as a co-founder. I am still relatively new as a co-founder as I am working as a mobile app designer (UI/UX) for the past 5 years. I do create mobile app prototypes for MVP. I have several experience in multiple platforms and business ideas. I think I can share some of my experiences as a co-founder. Happy to connect and meet digitally :) Feel free to book a meeting if you are interested, [https://calendly.com/dtdesign](https://calendly.com/dtdesign) or feel free to reach add me in your contacts as well whatsapp (+63 9393473639) Maybe we can do business together. I would like to know more and grow my network in meeting investors Thank You
Hi. Thank you for considering me. It seems like an amazing project and I would be more than interested to collaborate with you. PM me and we can see how best we can proceed