Fundraising 101 (Startup-Chile)

Aleksandr Dresen Kown - The Investor Platform

@alekskown

Fundraising 101

Who am I?

• Product, code, sell

• As entrepreneur: 2 exits, 2 +/- ok, 3 fails

• Seedcamp, 11, A-tier funds, >50 angels

• Invested in 19 co’s: 2 exits

• Fintech, Fashiontech, …

@alekskown [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

What can I do for you?

• Positioning your product

• Pitch-training

• Access to $ via KOWN



Before you start

• Check other people’s failures

• What is it that you want to do?

• Who can help you and how?

Investors care about great entrepreneurs &

disruptive scalable stuff

No one cares about mediocrity

How do you become a great entrepreneur?

Make mistakes.

Make BIG mistakes.

Max Levchin

You learn a lot more from failure than from success.

#1: (co-)Founders are KING

• Don’t be a solo player

• Don’t just get cofounders to have cofounders

• Be ready that your friends, colleagues, employees become enemies

#2: Building a startup = rough

• Unpredictable

• Murphy’s law

• People suck

• Investors suck

• 99% fail. Failure is part of life

Startup #Mafia

#3: Focus on what really is important

• What exact pain are you solving?

• Choose 1 specific pain and solve it the best way you can.

• Focus

#4: Build an MVP

#5: MSP = MVP + Sales

MSP = Minimal Sellable Product

#6: Use CL as test-market

LATAM Market is HUGE

#7: Only tell people who need to know, when they need to know

#8: Don’t waste time

Events Techcrunch Disrupt

Demodays Websummit

Rise Demo

…

Your time is your most valuable resource

Pains for startups in CL

Biggest pain for startups:

being underfunded

2nd biggest pain:

small-minded investors who crave control

3nd biggest pain:

Investors think that one can replace founders

Result: snails survival mode

What can you do?

• Be fast

• Be lean

• Be fanatically focused

So who can give you $?

The Players

• Huge difference between SV, LATAM & EU

• Angels

• Private Equity

• VC’s

• New Investors (non-tech)



Different players at different stages

• Vision + Team + MVP

• Product + Product Market fit + Some traction

• Revenue + LTV + CAC + clear growth strategy



Talk to the right investors at the right time



VC’s

Most VC’s are followers

• Most VC’s underperform and struggle to get access to hot startups.

• The leading 3% VC’s make 90% of all returns in startups.

• Analyst→Principal→Associate→Partner (decision)



How to connect to VC’s

• Be introduced by founders VC’s have backed previously

• Be introduced by someone they know and trust (angels, ban’s, accelerators …)

• Get noticed through TRACTION



Connect to founders, VC’s have backed previously.



Angels

• (ex)Entrepreneurs & top exec’s (senior)

• Invest from $20K to $100K

• Make 1 or 2 deals a year and take ages to decide

• Painful valuation & long negotiations

• Painful and long selection process

• Very (very) slow decisions

• Invest from $100K to millions $

Business Angel Clubs

36

Modern fundraising tools

Modern fundraising tools

Friends Family (Fools)

Investing is about trust



Build a relationship (first)

Find out everything you can about the investor

• Hobbies

• Previous investments

• Background

• Twitter, FB, Linkedin, …

Build trust through shared interests, views, …

The “Sales” Pitch

What is the most important?• The Pain

• Context

• Emotional connection

• Your Product

• Business Model

• Team

• Market size

• Competition

• Traction



What is the most important?• The Pain

• Context

•Emotional connection • Your Product

• Business Model

• Team

• Market size

• Competition

• Traction



The “customer” investor

The “parent” investor

Dreamers

The pitch is dead

Tell your story

• Forget the slides … when you talk to investors … tell your story, vision and plans



Make the investor LOVE what you do



Be ready for investors

• Prepare, prepare, prepare

• MSP - have a product

• Traction

• What’s next



Know your risks



Know your competitors



Projections?

• Assumptions are useless until you have sales and understand customer acquisition costs and lifetime value of a client



Investing is to fundraising what sex is to dating



Time = $



Valuations (don’t) matter

• Max. 10/15% per round

• Even the best projects don’t get follow-up funding if your cap table is fucked up

• Get enough runway per round



Investor English

• Contact me when X or Y happens =

• What is yr business model? =

• What is your exit strategy? =

• How did you calculate your valuation? =



Looking for TALENT

• Commercial/Leaders

• Devs (JS, iOS, Android)

• UX/Interface designers

-> [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]?subject=

Contacts

• [email protected]

• fb.com/dresenco

• slideshare.com/alekskown

• @alekskown (twitter)


http://fb.com/dresenco

http://slideshare.com/alekskown

Investor Relations

Fundraising 101 (Startup-Chile)