Download or read book Unicorn The Startup Founder s Guide to Raising Venture Capital written by Alexander Muse and published by . This book was released on 2023-09-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My name is Alexander Muse and over the past two decades, I have been building startups. My career resembles a roller coaster with unbelievable success combined with abject failures. This is the book I wish I had when I was in my twenties raising venture capital for my first startup. Take everything I share with a grain of salt and always get the advice of a great startup lawyer. When I started my first venture-backed startup I hired the world's most famous startup law firm - Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. The firm helped me get started, allowed me to bring my lawyer in-house, and even invested in our Series A. Eventually, I began working with a local startup law firm led by Kevin Vela, the managing partner of Vela Wood. I recommend Kevin without reservation. When I was launching my first startup I met with almost a hundred venture capitalists and eventually raised millions in venture capital from various investors including George Soros. The national data center company that I built is now part of Equinix EQIX (NASDAQ) and continues to thrive to this day. Since then I have started several other companies including Architel, Fancast, ShopSavvy, and ViewMarket. Along the way, I have mentored and advised scores of entrepreneurs and regularly write about my experiences in Forbes and on Substack. Throughout my career as an entrepreneur, I have made scores of mistakes, made and lost millions of dollars, and learned quite a lot about building high-growth startups. This book is primarily focused on providing first-time entrepreneurs with the tools they need to succeed. The parody art featured in this book is part of an NFT project I launched during the pandemic lockdowns. Each piece is available for sale as an NFT on OpenSea. The Bonus advice is from ChatGPT as Elon Musk. I simply asked OpenAI's artificial intelligence chatbot to provide similar advice as if it were Elon Musk and cut and pasted the advice at the end of each chapter.

Download or read book The Holloway Guide to Raising Venture Capital written by Andy Sparks and published by Holloway, Inc.. This book was released on 2023-08-29 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With input from over 60 entrepreneurs, investors, and legal experts, this in-depth resource is your companion as an entrepreneur. Filled with practical pitching advice, term sheet details, real-world scenarios, and pitfalls to avoid.

Download or read book Unicorn Tears written by Jamie Pride and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2018-01-17 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The real-world secrets to startup success Unicorn Tears is the smart entrepreneur’s guide to startups. A full 92% of startups fail in the first three years — but failure is not inevitable. Most of these companies self-sabotage, unconsciously eliminating any chance at success before they even get started. It’s not the economy, it’s not politics, it’s not external factors; failure comes from within. This book shows you how to be one of the unicorns — one of the 8% who make it. Be prepared to un-learn everything you thought you knew about startups, as author Jamie Pride busts the harmful myths that lead so many companies to failure. Drawing upon his history as a venture capitalist, he reveals what investors want to see and hear, and what final factor puts your venture firmly into the “yes” column. Pride understands what matters in startups, and what gets in the way; his Hollywood Method for start-up success gives you a proven formula based on the tried-and-true framework Hollywood uses to make movies that succeed around the globe. Case studies illustrate what success looks like on the ground, and brings a global perspective to successful entrepreneurship and the strategies that help your business grow. Learn the truth behind the eight myths of startups Adopt a proven formula for success based on Hollywood blockbusters Craft a winning pitch to bring investors — and capital — over to your side Gain real-world perspective on startups and future trends Everyone wants their business to succeed, but wanting means nothing without a solid plan and the means to implement it. Unicorn Tears helps you set yourself up for success, and gives you the tools to forge your path to the top.

Download or read book The Holloway Guide to Raising Venture Capital written by Andy Sparks and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Venture capital is a powerful tool for entrepreneurship--one that can help overcome some of the challenges of starting and scaling a new business. It's notoriously easy for founders to take wrong turns in their path to financing a company--but many mistakes are avoidable with the right knowledge. Author Andy Sparks is a three-time founder whose goal is helping entrepreneurs avoid pain, costly mistakes, and fruitless research. Topics covered include: assessing whether to raise; determining how much to raise and understanding how valuation and dilution are connected to how much you raise; choosing a financing structure; creating a target list of investors; designing and delivering your pitch and what to expect in investor meetings; everything a founder needs to know about term sheets (created with startup lawyers!), including sample term sheets.

Download or read book The Fundraising Strategy Playbook written by Arooj Sheikh and published by Arooj Sheikh. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do you raise startup capital to bring your vision to life? The Fundraising Strategy Playbook teaches you how to deliver a compelling pitch, generate investor demand, negotiate your terms, and determine your founder/funder fit. You’ll learn how to build your funding stack and get creative with how you source capital to achieve different milestones in your company’s journey. Written by a founder for founders, this book empowers entrepreneurs to know their options and take charge of their company’s financial future whether it’s by supercharging early revenue generation, sourcing non-dilutive financing (equity free money!), or raising venture capital. Packed with insights from entrepreneurs with $600M+ exits, legendary VCs (Kleiner Perkins, Accel, Techstars, 500 Startups, and more), and innovation enthusiasts like Jason Feifer (Entrepreneur Magazine), this book is filled with answers to the questions you wish you could ask the most accomplished entrepreneurial minds. This is the smart entrepreneur’s playbook on how to intelligently raise capital for the long haul success of a startup. The contents of this book include: • Part 1) Fundraising Fundamentals (sources of capital, venture capital fundraising process, and more) • Part 2) Elements + Design Principles of a Pitch Deck • Part 3) The Art of Persuasive Pitching • Part 4) Fundraising Strategy (how to plan a raise, types of investments, designing your funding stack, evaluating founder/funder fit, and more) • Part 5) Fundraising Strategy for Female Founders • Part 6) Fundraising Strategy for International Companies

Download or read book Why Startups Fail written by Tom Eisenmann and published by Currency. This book was released on 2021-03-30 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

Download or read book Super Founders written by Ali Tamaseb and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2021-05-18 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Super Founders uses a data-driven approach to understand what really differentiates billion-dollar startups from the rest—revealing that nearly everything we thought was true about them is false! Ali Tamaseb has spent thousands of hours manually amassing what may be the largest dataset ever collected on startups, comparing billion-dollar startups with those that failed to become one—30,000 data points on nearly every factor: number of competitors, market size, the founder’s age, his or her university’s ranking, quality of investors, fundraising time, and many, many more. And what he found looked far different than expected. Just to mention a few: Most unicorn founders had no industry experience; There's no disadvantage to being a solo founder or to being a non-technical CEO; Less than 15% went through any kind of accelerator program; Over half had strong competitors when starting--being first to market with an idea does not actually matter. You will also hear the stories of the early days of billion-dollar startups first-hand. The book includes exclusive interviews with the founders/investors of Zoom, Instacart, PayPal, Nest, Github, Flatiron Health, Kite Pharma, Facebook, Stripe, Airbnb, YouTube, LinkedIn, Lyft, DoorDash, Coinbase, and Square, venture capital investors like Elad Gil, Peter Thiel, Alfred Lin from Sequoia Capital and Keith Rabois of Founders Fund, as well as previously untold stories about the early days of ByteDance (TikTok), WhatsApp, Dropbox, Discord, DiDi, Flipkart, Instagram, Careem, Peloton, and SpaceX. Packed with counterintuitive insights and inside stories from people who have built massively successful companies, Super Founders is a paradigm-shifting and actionable guide for entrepreneurs, investors, and anyone interested in what makes a startup successful.

Download or read book Raise Early Stage Venture Capital written by Hayley Leibson and published by . This book was released on 2023-12-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "When we launched our first fundraise I had zero experience in the art of raising capital. Looking back after reading this book-it answers all the questions I wish I had had answers to. Raising money is an art form and experience that like any athlete requires training and refining."-Alex Pall, Founder of The Chainsmokers & Mantis Venture Capital Raise Early Stage Venture Capital is a quick, tactical guide to startup fundraising that will save you time, money, and heartbreak. Fundraising is one of Silicon Valley's best kept secrets-kept by a boy's club of mostly privileged heterosexual white men. Raising venture capital is famously difficult, and even more challenging if you are a woman or minority founder. Industry data shows that women-founded companies receive roughly 2%, and Black founders receive approximately 1% of total venture capital dollars. Helping more women and minority founders get access to capital is critically important to building a more equitable society and thriving economy. From the globally-renowned technology entrepreneur and angel investor Hayley Leibson, debuts the world's first guide to startup fundraising for women and minority founders. In this actionable playbook, Raise Early Stage Venture Capital demystifies and democratizes the world of startup fundraising and offers step-by-step guidance to help more women and minority founders successfully raise venture capital for their businesses. Hayley came to Silicon Valley as a complete outsider-no flashy Stanford or Harvard degrees, no prior work history at Apple or Google, and didn't come from a well-connected family. Through grit and perseverance, Hayley became an Andreessen Horowitz and Lightspeed-backed founder and her companies have raised over $30 million and are valued at over $125 million. She's a Y Combinator alumni, Forbes 30 Under 30 for Consumer Technology, and her work has appeared in ABC, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Business Insider, Harper's Bazaar, TechCrunch, and many more media outlets.

Download or read book From Startup to Unicorn written by Anil Sethi and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Startup VC Guide written by Jason Thiel and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2021-05-21 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you are an inventor or an entrepreneur with your eyes set on development or starting a business, then funding is a prime concern of yours. All the ideas in the world will not bring a pay check to your bank if you do not have the capital to evolve those ideas into a solid, workable business. The phrase, "You have to spend money to make money" is incredibly true, at least when it comes to start ups and creating the business of your dreams. Luckily, the funding you need is available through venture capital. You may have heard of it, but you may not know exactly what it is, or if such a thing can help you. This guide explores almost every avenue of venture capital investing; what it is, who are venture capitalists, how to qualify for it, how to interest a venture capital firm and much, much more. The capital you need is out there, IF you know how to get it, and this book can help you do that. It truly is everything the Entrepreneur needs to know about Venture Capital and Start-up Fundraising.

Download or read book Founder s Pocket Guide Raising Angel Capital written by Stephen R. Poland and published by 1x1 Media. This book was released on 2017-01-27 with total page 83 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Talk Confidently with Angel Investors.Created to save you dozens of hours of research and help you avoid common pitfalls, this guide helps you build your angel investing process knowledge base, sort out key terminology, and understand the moving parts of equity fundraising. Review the Complete Process.This concise guide gives entrepreneurs a complete overview of the angel funding process, answering the most frequent questions entrepreneurs face as they build new companies. Save Time and Avoid Pitfalls.If you are new to the startup funding process and need to raise angel capital, start with this book. It strips away non essentials and provides you with fundamental, easy-to-reference information so you can move on to building your venture. Concise explanations help you understand angel investor expectations and go into investment discussions prepared and knowledgeable. Questions answered in this Founder’s Pocket Guideinclude: · Is my startup really “investor ready”? · How much can my startup legally raise? · How much equity should I give up to investors? · How much money is realistic to raise from angels? · What is a pre-money valuation and how can I determine the right amount? · What do terms such as dilution, convertible debt, and cap table mean? · What is a term sheet, and how does it affect an investment deal? · What is the difference between preferred shares and common shares? · What stage does my startup need to be at to be interesting to angel investors?

Download or read book Surviving a Startup written by Steven S. Hoffman and published by HarperCollins Leadership. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Steve Hoffman, CEO of Founders Space, prepares entrepreneurs to avoid mistakes, overcome obstacles, and master the skills necessary to make the right choices along their path to success. The fact is, over 90 percent of all new startups fail. Every entrepreneur must face this harsh reality and learn to master it if they hope to survive and wind up on top. In Surviving a Startup, Hoffman brings readers on a wild ride, sharing with them the tumultuous journey of launching a venture-funded startup and revealing what it takes to make it. In this one-of-a-kind guide, you will learn: A deep analysis and insights into the major challenges every entrepreneur faces when launching a business. How to make the best possible decisions and deal with crisis situations. Strategies for raising capital and growing a business, even when it seems impossible. Secrets on how to manage difficult employees, demonstrate leadership, and overcome disasters. Essential traits that enable startup founders to survive and succeed. The best way to develop innovative products, conduct guerilla marketing campaigns, obtain PR, and outmaneuver competitors. How to recruit the best talent, manage highly efficient teams, and motivate employees, even with little to no money. The steps necessary to transform an idea into a robust, rapidly growing business. As the captain of one of the world's leading startup incubators and accelerators, Steve knows what it's like to be on the front lines, how tough it can get when the battle turns against the entrepreneur, and what it takes to taste victory and overcome seemingly impossible odds. Surviving a Startup is a must read for entrepreneurs considering taking the best first steps for a new venture.

Download or read book VC written by Tom Nicholas and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-03 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From nineteenth-century whaling to a multitude of firms pursuing entrepreneurial finance today, venture finance reflects a deep-seated tradition in the deployment of risk capital in the United States. Tom Nicholas’s history of the venture capital industry offers a roller coaster ride through America’s ongoing pursuit of financial gain.

Download or read book Founder s Pocket Guide Startup Valuation written by Stephen R. Poland and published by 1x1 Media. This book was released on 2014-08-17 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This updated edition includes several new features, including: · The Startup Valuation Explorer · Expanded coverage of Valuation Methods · Responding to investor questions about your valuation · Understanding option pool impact on your valuation For many early-stage entrepreneurs assigning a pre-money valuation to your startup is one of the more daunting tasks encountered during the fundraising quest. This guide provides a quick reference to all of the key topics around early-stage startup valuation and provides step-by-step examples for several valuation methods. This Founder’s Pocket Guide helps startup founders learn: • What a startup valuation is and when you need to start worrying about it. • Key terms and definitions associated with valuation, such as pre-money, post-money, and dilution. • How investors view the valuation task, and what their expectations are for early-stage companies. • How the valuation fits with your target raise amount and resulting founder equity ownership. • How to do the simple math for calculating valuation percentages. • How to estimate your company valuation using several accepted methods. • What accounting valuation methods are and why they are not well suited for early-stage startups.

Download or read book The Art of Startup Fundraising written by Alejandro Cremades and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2016-04-11 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Startup money is moving online, and this guide shows you how it works. The Art of Startup Fundraising takes a fresh look at raising money for startups, with a focus on the changing face of startup finance. New regulations are making the old go-to advice less relevant, as startup money is increasingly moving online. These new waters are all but uncharted—and founders need an accessible guide. This book helps you navigate the online world of startup fundraising with easy-to-follow explanations and expert perspective on the new digital world of finance. You'll find tips and tricks on raising money and investing in startups from early stage to growth stage, and develop a clear strategy based on the new realities surrounding today's startup landscape. The finance world is in a massive state of flux. Changes are occurring at an increasing pace in all sectors, but few more intensely than the startup sphere. When the paradigm changes, your processes must change with it. This book shows you how startup funding works, with expert coaching toward the new rules on the field. Learn how the JOBS Act impacts the fundraising model Gain insight on startups from early stage to growth stage Find the money you need to get your venture going Craft your pitch and optimize the strategy Build momentum Identify the right investors Avoid the common mistakes Don't rely on the "how we did it" tales from superstar startups, as these stories are unique and applied to exceptional scenarios. The game has changed, and playing by the old rules only gets you left behind. Whether you're founding a startup or looking to invest, The Art of Startup Fundraising provides the up-to-the-minute guidance you need.

Download or read book How to GET YOUR STARTUP FUNDED in 6 months or less written by Johann Marx and published by Johann Marx. This book was released on 2020-03-10 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unveils the secrets of how to get your startup funded! It brings a fresh perspective that guides you to achieve the highest levels of startup and business success. GET YOUR STARTUP FUNDED in 6 months or less is a book that simplifies the methodologies and strategies of 'Unicorn Startups' that have grown from conceptual-stage to being valued at over USD1 Billion. The author illustrates the approach to investor pitching, aggressive fundraising, and more importantly provides formulas and tools that are considered industry best practice. The methodologies outlined in this book are used by entrepreneurs who successfully raise hundreds of millions of dollars in their journey to IPO their startup. The approach revealed assists startups in attracting the attention of investors and the market and to pitch to investors in a language that they understand. If you are a startup entrepreneur, you have most likely experienced past failures and losses. If you have been wondering what went wrong and how you can positively change your future, then look no further than this book. At its foundation is a spiritual message that serves to shift your perspective and open your mind to a world of new possibilities. You will find intertwined a closer look at the universal laws and how to apply them to create a business that is built on passion, purpose and clarity.

Download or read book Venture Capital written by Joel Cardis and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2001-10-01 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to attract the venture capital needed to grow any business Venture Capital teaches entrepreneurs and small business owners everything they need to know about finding the venture capital they need to grow their businesses. Based, in large part, upon in-depth interviews with major players in the venture capital arena--including money managers as well as entrepreneurs who have dealt with them successfully--it provides powerful pointers on how to make a business attractive to venture capitalists, how to protect yourself in negotiating an agreement, how to manage a relationship with venture capitalists once a deal is signed, and much more. Perhaps most importantly, the reader learns what makes venture capitalists tick and sees things through a venture capitalist's eyes. Joel Cardis, Esq. (Blue Bell, PA), consults both Fortune 500 companies and small businesses on an array of venture and start-up issues. Hildy Richelson, PhD (Scarsdale, NY), is President of the Scarsdale Investment Group, Ltd.