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If you want to learn how to fundraise effectively, from the right people at the right time, this is the place for you. By entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs - this Masterclass is a comprehensive resource to guide you through the process from start to finish.
Meet your instructors
Pascal Koenig
Pascal is a serial entrepreneur who scaled his most recent venture - Ava Women - from inception to 8 digit USD revenue and over the course of his entrepreneurial career, he's raised several multi-million dollar rounds. Get to know pascal in Episode #221 of the Swisspreneur Show, or book him as a coach via the Swisspreneur Coaching Program.
Sophie Lamparter
As founder and partner at Dartlabs, Sophie is a Silicon Valley VC with Swiss roots. She and her team focus on finding the best European technology startups and turning them into global players. Get to know Sophie in Episode #231 of the Swisspreneur Show.
Start our free Startup Masterclass
Explore the phases and resources to help you run an effective fundraising process. And if you're looking for long list of Swiss startup investors, click here.
Make sure your company is in good shape before starting to fundraise. In this phase you will prepare for the things that investors care for most: Team, product, market and traction. Depending on where you stand, this phase can be skipped – or take several months.
Somewhat paradoxically you don’t start with the question: “How much money do I need over the coming 24 months?”, but rather “How much money does my current valuation allow me to raise?” We will support you to get this right. This process can be done within 1 week.
Once you know how much you want to raise, you need to work out a solid plan. You want to triple the valuation of your company over the coming 24 months. Setting up this plan takes 1-3 weeks.
Now is the time to present your plan to a few external investors and existing shareholders. You need radically open and direct feedback, and should iterate until you are confident that the financing round will close. This phase takes 2-4 weeks.
Interested investors will need various insights until they take a final decision. In this phase you elaborate everything needed to execute at speed when you go out. This phase takes 1-2 weeks.
Many founders are not able to close the round quickly because they don’t talk to enough investors. In this phase we will discuss fundraising psychology, and create a great long list. This will take 1 week.
In this phase you will schedule 50+ investor calls, and go into a due diligence process with 20+ of them. Your objective is to get to phase 8 asap. This typically takes 4-8 weeks.
The power balance shifts from investors over to you once you receive first signed term sheets. This is the best part: Create FOMO and choose the best investors. This phase takes 1-4 weeks.
This phase requires a solid data room, a good lawyer and some time-consuming negotiations. But thanks to high investor interest you are well positioned to have the money on your account within 4-6 weeks. Celebrate!
Most inexperienced founders make severe management mistakes after funding rounds. We will discuss these. And we will make sure that potentially needed further financing will be easy.
Crunchbase - This may be the most helpful database for finding startup investors. The free version enables you to search for relevant startups in your space and geography and check what investors they have.
TechCrunch - They provide an openly accessible long list of the most active VCs. It can be sorted by vertical, round type and location.
Pitchbook - This database contains more than 300,000 investors, from business angels to private equity firms. It is possible to do a free trial. Or get access via advisors or (existing) investors.
CB Insights - Another key provider of investor data. Check whether you can get access via a free trial, via advisors or via (existing) investors.
VC Guide - This website provides founder reviews of VCs. Good resource to prepare for a VC call and for investor due diligence.
US focused
NVCA - The National VC Association provides a free member list. Many of the most renowned US VCs are included.
ACA - This is the Angel Capital Association of the US. It provides a free directory of hundreds of US-based angel organizations.
UK focused
SeedLegals - This page provides a good overview of the most active investors in the UK.
Free Fundraising Templates for Startups
Investor long list (template) - This free downloadable spreadsheet can be used as a basis to build your own investor long list.
Term sheet (template) - This free downloadable file is a great basis to build your own term sheet and get commitments from investors.
Consult your lawyer before using these templates
NDA (template) - Here is a short non disclosure agreement that will be helpful for the due diligence process with investors.
Consult your lawyer before using these templates
Other Fundraising Resources
Phase 6 provides a hands-on guideline how to work out a great long list of potential investors for your startup.
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