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Being a founder is difficult. Managing the day-to-day as a founder while trying to secure capital for your business can almost feel impossible. Thankfully, there are different tools and techniques that founders can use to systemize their fundraise to focus on what truly matters, building their business. One of those tools is a startup funding proposal. In this guide, we’ll break down what a startup funding proposal is and how you can leverage it to build momentum in your fundraise. What Is a Startup Funding Proposal? A startup funding proposal is a document that helps startup founders share an overview of their business and make the case for why they should receive funding. A startup funding proposal can be boiled down to help founders layout 3 things: What — what does your startup do How — how does your startup or product help customers accomplish what they are seeking Why — why does your startup need funding and why should an investor fund your business Related Resource: How to Write a Business Plan For Your Startup Types of Startup Funding Proposals Like any business document, there are many ways to approach a startup funding proposal. Ultimately it will come down to pulling the pieces and tactics that work best for your business. Investors are seeing hundreds, if not thousands, of deals a month so it is important to have your assets buttoned up to move quickly and build conviction during a raise. Check out a couple of popular types of funding proposals below: Traditional Startup Funding Proposal The most traditional or “standard” standard funding proposal is generally a written and visual document that is created using word processing software and/or design tools. A traditional proposal is great because it allows you to share context with every aspect of your business. For example, if you include a chart of growth you’ll be able to explicitly write out why that was and what your plan is for future growth. This document is generally designed to fit your brand and will hit on the key components of your business is structured and predictable way. We hit on what to include in your proposal below. Startup Funding Proposal Pitch or Presentation The most common approach we see to a fundraise or proposal is the pitch deck. Pitch decks take the same components as any proposal and fit them into a visual pitch deck that can be easily navigated and understood by a potential investor. Pitch decks are not required by investors by are generally expected and are a great tool that can help you efficiently close your round. To learn more about building your pitch deck, check out a few of our key resources below: Tips for Creating an Investor Pitch Deck 18 Pitch Deck Examples for Any Startup Our Teaser Pitch Deck Template 1-on-1 Proposals (Elevator Pitch) A 1 on 1 proposal or an elevator pitch is the quickest version of any proposal. Every founder should have an elevator pitch in their back pocket and is a complementary tool to any of the other funding proposals mentioned here. As the team at VestBee puts it, “Elevator pitch” or “elevator speech” is a laconic but compelling introduction that can be communicated in the amount of time it takes someone to ride an elevator, usually around 30 seconds. It can serve you for fundraising purposes, personal introduction, or landing a prospective client.” Email Proposal Another common way to share a startup funding proposal via email. While the content might be similar to what is seen in a “traditional” funding proposal this allows you to hit investors where they spend their time – their inbox. The format will follow a traditional proposal with less emphasis on visual aspects and more emphasis on the written content. Check out an example from our Update Template Library below: Related Resource: How to Write the Perfect Investment Memo Investor Relationship Hub Lastly, there is an investor relationship hub or data room that can be used to share your proposal with potential investors. A hub is a great place to curate multiple documents or assets that will be needed during your fundraise. For example, you could share your funding proposal and your financials if they are requested by a potential investor. Related Resource: What Should be in an Investor Data Room? What to Include in Your Startup Funding Proposal How you share your funding proposal might differ but ultimately the components are generally closely related from one proposal to the next. However, be sure that you are building this for your business. There is no prescriptive template that will work for every business. Project Summary First things first, you’ll want to start with a summary of your project or your business. This can be a high-level overview of what your proposal encompasses and will give an investor the context they need for the rest of the proposal. A couple of ideas that are worth hitting on: What your company does and how it’s different from existing solutions to pressing problems. Existing market gaps and how your product covers them. The importance of your product in your industry and how it improves the industry. Existing resources and manpower, investment requirements, and potential limitations. Current Performance and Financial Report Of course, investors want to see how your business has been performing. The data and metrics around your business are generally how an investor builds conviction and further interest in your business. We suggest using your best judgment when it comes to the level of metrics or financials that you’d like to share. A couple examples of what you might share: Current assets and liabilities MVP presentation for companies still in the ideation stage Appendix with financial reports Related Resource: ​​Building A Startup Financial Model That Works Existing Investors and Partners Inevitably investors will want to know who else you have raised capital from and partnered with in the past. Include a brief description of the different investors you have on your cap table and be ready to field additional questions if they have any. Pro tip: The first place an investor will go to when performing due diligence is your current investors. Make sure you have a strong relationship and good communication with your current investors. Market Study and Sales Goals Investors will also care about your customer acquisition efforts and want to make sure you can repeatably find and close new customers. A couple of things that might be important to include in this section: Product pricing and information Revenue targets and goals Customer acquisition model and efforts Sales and marketing related KPIs Stories or testimonials from happy customers Current Valuation, Investment Requirements, and Expected Returns This is an opportunity to lay out your cap table and explain your current valuation, investment requirements, and what future valuations could look like. As always, we suggest using your best judgment when it comes to what level of detail you’d like to share about your cap table. Potential Pitfalls and Solutions There is an inherent risk when investing in any startup. It is important to make sure potential investors are aware of this. Layout the common pitfalls your startup might face and stop you from achieving your goals. Next, lay out the solutions to these problems and how you plan to tackle them if/when they arise. 8 Startup Funding Proposal Samples and Templates Below are 8 proposal templates to help you kick off your next fundraise. Note that some of these are technically investor updates and not designed for first-time fundraising. Keep in mind that a startup funding proposal could also be utilized for additional funding after the first round of funding. 1. An Investment Summary Template by Underscore VC Underscore VC is a seed-stage venture fund based out of Boston. As the team at Underscore writes: “As part of this, we strongly recommend you write out a pitch narrative before you start to build a pitch deck. “Writing the prose forces you to fill in the gaps that can remain if you just put bullets on a slide,” says Lily Lyman, Underscore VC Partner. “It becomes less about how you present, and more about what you present.” This exercise can help you synthesize your thoughts, smooth transitions, and craft a logical, compelling story. It also helps you include all necessary information and think through your answers to tough questions. Check out the template here. 2. The Visible “Standard” Investor Update Template Our Standard investor update template is great for communicating with existing investors. If you are regularly sending Updates to their investors they should know when you are beginning to raise capital again and can almost be treated as an investment proposal. Check out the template for our standard investor update template here. 3. Sharing a Fundraising Pitch via Video Videos are a great way to give the right context to the right investors in a concise and quick way. Video is a great supporting tool for any other information or documents you might be sending over. For example, you can include a few charts or metrics and some company information and use the video to further explain the data and growth plans. Check out the template here. 4. Financial Funding Proposal The team at Revv put together a plug-and-play financial funding proposal. As they wrote, “A funding proposal must provide details of your company’s financials to obtain the right amount of funding. Check out our funding proposal template personalized for your business.” Check out the template here. 5. Investor Proposal Template for SaaS Companies The team at Revv put together a template to help founders grab the attention of investors. As they wrote, “With so many Investing Agencies, this Investor proposal will surely leave an impact on your company in the long run.” Check out the template here. 6. Startup Funding Proposal Sample Template.net has created a downloadable funding proposal template that can be edited using any tool. As they wrote, “Get your business idea off the ground by winning investors for your business through this Startup Investment Proposal. Fascinate investors with how you are going to get your business into the spotlight and explain in vivid detail your goals or target for the business.” Check out the template here. 7. Simple Proposal Template Best Templates has created a generic proposal template that can be molded to fit most use cases. As they wrote, “Use this Simple Proposal Template for any of your proposal needs. This 14-page proposal template is easily editable and fully customizable using any chosen application or program that supports MS Word or Pages file formats.” Check out the template here. 8. Sample Investment Proposal for Morgan Stanley Another example is from the team at Morgan Stanley. The template is commonly used by their team and can be applied to most proposal use cases. Check out the template here. Connect With More Investors and Tell Your Story With Visible Being able to tie everything together and build a strategy for your fundraise will be an integral part of your fundraising success. Check out how Visible can help you every step of the way below: Visible Connect — Finding the right investors for your business can be tricky. Using Visible Connect, filter investors by different categories (like stage, check size, geography, focus, and more) to find the right investors for your business. Give it a try here. Pitch Deck Sharing — Once you’ve built out your target list of investors, you can start sharing your pitch deck with them directly from Visible. You can customize your sharing settings (like email gated, password gated, etc.) and even add your own domain. Give it a try here. Fundraising CRM — Our Fundraising CRM brings all of your data together. Set up tailored stages, custom fields, take notes, and track activity for different investors to help you build momentum in your raise. We’ll show how each individual investor is engaging with your Updates, Decks, and Dashboards. Give it a try here.

Braughm Ricke is the Founder and CEO of Aduro Advisors — a premier fund administrator, selected by Fund Managers for its purpose-built software platform, FundPanel.io, and highly-trained service team led by industry veterans. Braughm joined Visible.vc on May 10, 2022 to discuss best practices for engaging with and reporting to limited partners. A summary of the insights from the webinar is captured in a report co-created by Visible and Aduro. The topics covered in the report include: The importance of the LP Reporting LP Reporting Best Practices Updates as a Fundraising Strategy LP Reporting Content Breakdown [Template] Quarterly LP Reporting Update Visible for Investors is a founders-first portfolio monitoring and reporting platform. Schedule time with our team to learn more.

“The future of work” is a broad and evolving topic, for this article we will cover it in the context of how founders are creating and solving for our rapidly changing working world as well as where and how VCs are investing in it. At its core, the future of work revolves around how technological advancements, socio-economic shifts, cultural changes, and evolving business models are transforming the nature, location, and experience of work. For founders, this signifies a wide array of potential opportunities to innovate within, and for VCs, there lies huge investment opportunities. Predictions for the Future of Work: Where VCs see the biggest opportunities The “Future of Work” is expected to be more flexible, decentralized, sustainable, and human-centric, all underpinned by advanced technology. For founders, aligning with these predicted trends could prove beneficial in securing VC interest and investment. AI and automation will transform many jobs. AI is already widely being used to automate tasks and will grow as new use cases and technology evolve, this could lead to some job displacement. However, AI is also creating new jobs, such as AI developers and engineers. VCs are investing in companies that are developing AI-powered tools to automate tasks, improve productivity, and make work more efficient. Expert Opinion: McKinsey & Company, among others, has highlighted the accelerating adoption of automation and AI across industries, from manufacturing to services. Opportunities: Startups developing intuitive AI interfaces, low-code/no-code automation platforms, and solutions for job displacement caused by automation (like re-skilling platforms). Democratization of Entrepreneurship. This refers to the leveling of the playing field, enabling more people from diverse backgrounds to start and scale businesses thanks to recent developments in technology, such as AI. The “Future of Work” isn’t just about how we work, but also about how we create, innovate, and bring ideas to market. What once required a substantial capital investment or technical expertise is now accessible to anyone with an idea and internet access. No longer do entrepreneurs need to understand coding to build a digital presence. Expert Opinion: Lower barriers to entry in business, thanks to digital tools, will lead to a rise in micro-entrepreneurs and niche businesses. This viewpoint is supported by platforms like Shopify and their growth trajectory. VC Opportunity: Tools supporting small-scale e-commerce, localized marketing platforms, and solutions catering to niche digital businesses. Skills development and education will be essential for success. As the world of work changes rapidly, it is increasingly important for people to have the skills they need to succeed. VCs are investing in companies that provide skills development and education programs to help people learn new skills and stay ahead of the curve. Expert Opinion: With the pace of technological advancement, lifelong learning is becoming essential. Leaders like Thomas Friedman have emphasized the importance of adaptable and continuous learning. Opportunities: Micro-credentialing platforms, industry-specific upskilling courses, and experiential learning tools leveraging AR and VR. The gig economy will continue to grow. The gig economy is growing rapidly, and VCs are investing in companies that are making it easier for people to find and book freelance work. This includes companies that provide freelance marketplaces, job boards, and payment platforms. Expert Opinion: The gig economy is expected to grow but evolve to offer more security and benefits to freelancers. Experts like Diane Mulcahy have discussed the shift from the traditional 9-to-5 to more flexible work structures. Opportunities: Platforms providing benefits and insurance for freelancers, gig work management tools, and specialized marketplaces for niche skills. Investment Landscape: Capital Flowing into the Future of Work As of Q3 2023, the future of work 100 has collectively raised $30 billion in capital from VCs, with a total valuation of over $211 billion, according to Future of Work 100 Report. Top Investors Y Combinator Index Ventures General Catalyst Kleiner Perkins Accel Top Categories (starting with the largest) Recruiting HR Learning Collaboration Wellness Notable Deals Rippling $500 million Series E in Q1 2023 Total Funding Amount: $1.2 Billion Rippling is a human resource management company that offers an overall platform to help manage HR and IT operations. Guild Education $264.7 million Series G Q2 2022 Total Funding Amount: $643.2 Million Guild is a learning platform that offers classes, programs, and degrees for working adults. These fundraises suggest that VCs are still very bullish on the future of work sector, even in the face of a challenging economic environment. Future of Work Categories The “future of work” is dynamic, and the areas of focus will evolve as new technologies emerge and societal needs change. VC investments will continuously shift to adapt to these changes, seeking out innovative solutions that address the most pressing challenges and opportunities in the world of work. As of now, these are the categories we found to be of most interest to VCs and Founders alike, as they solve for and support the way we work today and in the future. Remote and Distributed Work With the proliferation of digital tools and the effects of the pandemic, remote and hybrid work models have become more prevalent. Virtual collaboration tools (e.g., video conferencing, project management software). Virtual office environments and platforms. Remote team-building and culture-enhancing solutions. Digital security tools tailored for remote work setups. Human Resources and Talent Management AI-driven recruitment platforms that ensure a better fit between candidates and companies. Employee engagement and performance tracking tools. Solutions for remote onboarding, training, and continuous learning. Automation and AI The rise of automation and AI has the potential to transform many job roles and industries. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for automating repetitive tasks. AI-driven solutions for data analysis, customer service, and other business functions. Job re-skilling and up-skilling platforms, recognizing the need for workers to adapt. Gig Economy and Flexible Employment As more people pursue freelance, contract, and part-time work, there’s a growing demand for platforms that facilitate this kind of employment. This includes: Freelancer marketplaces. Tools for gig workers, such as invoicing, insurance, and benefits platforms. Platforms for micro-tasks or crowd-sourced work. Employee Well-being and Productivity The emphasis on work-life balance and employee well-being is growing. Mental health and well-being platforms tailored for professionals. Productivity-enhancing tools, including time management and focus-enhancing software. Physical wellness platforms, including virtual fitness and ergonomics solutions. Lifelong Learning and Continuous Education The rapid pace of change means workers need to continually update their skills. Online learning platforms, both general and industry-specific. Corporate training and development tools. Credentialing and certification platforms. Decentralized Work Platforms With the rise of blockchain and decentralized technologies, there are new models for work and value creation, such as: Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) where members collaborate without a traditional hierarchical structure. Platforms that allow for tokenized incentives or compensation. Diverse and Inclusive Work Environments Recognizing the value of diverse workforces, there’s a push for tools and platforms that promote diversity and inclusion, such as: Recruitment software that mitigates biases. Platforms that connect businesses with diverse talent pools. Tools that foster inclusive communication and understanding within teams. Culture and Engagement in Distributed Teams Platforms for virtual team-building activities. Tools that help maintain and communicate company culture in a remote setting. VCs Investing in the Future of Work Khosla Ventures Location: Menlo Park, California, United States About: At KV, we fundamentally like large problems that are amenable to technology solutions. We seek out unfair advantages: proprietary and protected technological advances, business model innovations, unique approaches to markets, different partnerships, and teams who are passionate about a vision. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A Recent Investments: Volta Labs WorkWhile Emi To learn more about Khosla Ventures, check out their Visible Connect Profile. Menlo Ventures Location: Menlo Park, California, United States About: We are investors and company builders—we know what it takes to turn a budding idea into a scalable business. We work with early-stage founders to find product-market fit, develop go-to-market strategies, scale their organizations, and support them as they grow. Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: TruEra OpenSpace Siteline To learn more about Menlo Ventures, check out their Visible Connect Profile. Social Capital Location: Palo Alto, California, United States About: Social Capital’s mission is to build the future. We do this by identifying emerging technology trends, partnering with entrepreneurs that are trying to solve some of the world’s hardest problems and help them build substantial commercial and economic outcomes. Our returns have placed us among the top technology investors in the world and act as a signal that we have generally been on the right track. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: Palmetto WorkStep Asaak To learn more about Social Capital, check out their Visible Connect Profile. Hexa Location: Paris, France About: Hexa is home to startup studios eFounders (SaaS), Logic Founders (fintech) and 3founders (web3). It all started in 2011 with startup studio eFounders, which pioneered a new way of entrepreneurship, became a reference in the B2B SaaS world, and launched over 30 companies including 3 unicorns (Front, Aircall, Spendesk). Now, eFounders is part of Hexa, alongside its sister startup studios Logic Founders (fintech) and 3founders (web3). Investment Stages: Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C Recent Investments: Kairn Crew Collective To learn more about Hexa, check out their Visible Connect Profile. s28 Capital Location: San Francisco, California, United States About: S28 Capital is an early-stage venture fund with $170M under management. We’re a team of founders and early startup employees. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A Recent Investments: OpsLevel Rudderstack CaptivateIQ To learn more about s28 Capital, check out their Visible Connect Profile. WorkLife Location: San Francisco, United States About: The first fund designed for builders, creators & individual contributors We’re operators with a deep network of creators, developer evangelists, product designers and engineers. We’re backed by the founders of Cameo, Spotify, Twitch, Zoom and platforms built for builders, creators, and individual contributors. Our advisors include Arianna Huffington, Michael Ovitz, Sophia Amoruso, Eric Yuan and other disruptors across all industries. Investment Stages: Pre-seed, Seed, Growth Recent Investments: Accord Tandem ChartHop To learn more about WorkLife, check out their Visible Connect Profile. Bonfire Ventures Location: Los Angeles, California, United States About: We bring experience and empathy to our founder’s journeys. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B Recent Investments: SKAEL Spekit Atrium To learn more about Bonfire Ventures, check out their Visible Connect Profile. Related Resource: 10 Angel Investors to Know in Los Angeles iNovia Capital Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada About: Inovia Capital is a full-stack venture firm that invests in tech founders. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C, Growth Recent Investments: Talent.com Calico RouteThis To learn more about iNovia Capital, check out their Visible Connect Profile. Related Resource: 10 Venture Capital Firms in Canada Leading the Future of Innovation Bloomberg Beta Location: San Fransisco & New York City, California, United States About: Invests in powerful ideas that bring transparency to markets, achieve global scale, with strong, open cultures that embrace technology. Thesis: We believe work must be more productive, fulfilling, inclusive, and available to as many people as possible. Our waking hours must engage the best in us and provide for our needs and wants — and the world we live in too often fails to offer that. We believe technology startups play an essential role in delivering a better future. We can speed the arrival of that future by investing in the best startups that share these intentions. Investment Stages: Pre-seed, Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C Recent Investments: CloudApp StrongDM Tonic.ai To learn more about Bloomberg Beta, check out their Visible Connect Profile. SOSV Location: Princeton, New Jersey, United States About: SOSV is a venture capital firm providing multi-stage investment to develop and scale their founders’ big ideas for positive change. Investment Stages: Accelerator, Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, Series B Recent Investments: MarketForce Novoloop TabTrader To learn more about SOSV, check out their Visible Connect Profile. Lerer Hippeau Location: New York, New York, United States About: Lerer Hippeau is a seed and early-stage venture capital fund based in New York City. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Series C Recent Investments: Palmetto Sardine Blockdaemon To learn more about Lerer Hippeau, check out their Visible Connect Profile. White Star Capital Location: New York, New York, United States About: White Star Capital is an international venture and early growth-stage investment platform in technology. Investment Stages: Series A, Series B Recent Investments: Swing Wrk RareCircles To learn more about White Star Capital, check out their Visible Connect Profile. General Catalyst Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States About: General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that makes early-stage and growth equity investments. Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B, Growth Recent Investments: Ponto Socotra Homeward To learn more about General Catalyst, check out their Visible Connect Profile. Tuesday Capital Location: Burlingame, California, United States About: Tuesday Capital (formerly known as CrunchFund) is a seed stage focused venture firm Investment Stages: Seed, Series A, Growth Recent Investments: Kueski NeuraLight Crabi To learn more about Tuesday Capital, check out their Visible Connect Profile. Forum Ventures Location: New York City, San Francisco, and Toronto, United States Thesis: B2B SaaS; Future of Work, E-commerce enablement, Supply Chain & Logistics, Marketplace, Fintech, Healthcare Investment Stages: Pre-Seed, Seed Recent Investments: Sandbox Banking Tusk Logistics Vergo Check out Forum Ventures profile on our Connect Investor Database Start Your Next Round with Visible We believe great outcomes happen when founders forge relationships with investors and potential investors. We created our Connect Investor Database to help you in the first step of this journey. Instead of wasting time trying to figure out investor fit and profile for their given stage and industry, we created filters allowing you to find VC’s and accelerators who are looking to invest in companies like you. Check out all our investors here. After learning more about them with the profile information and resources given you can reach out to them with a tailored email. To help craft that first email check out 5 Strategies for Cold Emailing Potential Investors. After finding the right Investor you can create a personalized investor database with Visible. Combine qualified investors from Visible Connect with your own investor lists to share targeted Updates, decks, and dashboards. Start your free trial here.

Raise capital, update investors and engage your team from a single platform. Try Visible free for 14 days. The way startups build and innovate changes every year. If you look back at just 20 years, 10 years, or 5 even years ago – the way startups work and innovate has dramatically changed. As the way startups innovate changes so do the tools and resources available to startups. Over the last 2 or 3 decades, SaaS (software as a service) products have continued to grow and take over the technology landscape. Related Resource: The SaaS Business Model: How and Why it Works Learn more about SaaS products and how they can build your business below: What are SaaS products? SaaS is short for software as a service. Salesforce, oftentimes considered one of the original SaaS companies, explains it as, “Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management. SaaS applications are sometimes called Web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software. Whatever the name, SaaS applications run on a SaaS provider’s servers. The provider manages access to the application, including security, availability, and performance.” Before SaaS products, it required companies to buy expensive hardware and have a physical location for employees to access their software. With SaaS products, any employee with internet can access their software from anywhere in the world. Related Resource: 20 Best SaaS Tools for Startups Learn more about the benefits and types of SaaS products below: Why should startups use SaaS products? At this point, it is assumed that most, if not all, startups are leveraging SaaS products to build their company. SaaS products enable employees to access their software and tools from anywhere across the globe. Because of this it enables remote work and allows startups to hire the best talent anywhere on the planet. Additionally, SaaS products are robust and can be tailored to just about any business. This allows teams to build, communicate, and automate quicker than ever before. It also allows for teams to get set up and use a new tool quickly — in the past, this would be a long process that could take months but now can be solved in a quick onboarding or upload. Learn more about the specific benefits of leveraging SaaS products for your business below: Benefits of SaaS products We’ve alluded to the benefits of SaaS products throughout this post but there are a few key benefits that are especially worth mentioning: Save time with automation One of the biggest benefits of SaaS products is pure time save. Software products can take manual tasks and turn them into an automated process that can save countless hours. Cost efficiency Another major benefit of SaaS products is cost efficiency. Most SaaS products offer tiered pricing and annual discounts that can lead to huge cost savings for startups. As more startups implement SaaS tools the pricing and plans have evolved to help scale with companies as they grow. Easy integration Another benefit of the explosion in SaaS products is the integrations and the ease to set them up. Most companies will have a somewhat similar tech stack so there are natural integrations that have evolved that will help startups connect existing tools and automate even more processes. You can also check out tools like Zapier that help connect SaaS products. Remote work SaaS products only require access to the internet. Because of this, employees can work from anywhere. This might help enable a remote or hybrid work environment and allow employees to work from home or on the fly. Top SaaS Products for Startups As we’ve continued to mention, SaaS products and companies have exploded over the last few decades. Because of this, there are thousands of SaaS solutions to help common business problems. Learn more about some of the top and most popular SaaS products below: Team collaboration As more tools move to the internet, being able to collaborate with colleagues is a must. Team members need a place where they can comment, plan, and collaborate on ongoing projects. Team collaboration tools can be fully dedicated or built into existing tools (e.g. leaving comments on a Google Doc). Learn more about some of the popular team collaboration tools and resources below: Google Drive Notion Slack Project Management Going hand in hand with team collaboration tools are project management tools. Project management tools stay on top of any ongoing projects within your team. These tools are incredibly valuable in every aspect of the business building but especially when it comes to marketing and product teams. Marketing teams can use project management tools to stay on top of their marketing campaigns and efforts — for example, tracking everything from initial copy and inspiration to performance and tweaks. For product teams, project management is extremely important because it keeps the team on the same page throughout the development process. Learn more about some of the most popular project management tools below: Basecamp Notion Asana Marketing and social media A marketing and social media tool is table stakes for most startups. Email marketing, blogs, videos, social media, etc. make up most modern-day marketing tools. Having a place to manage and publish your different marketing efforts is a must. There are some tools that cover every aspect of marketing. On the other hand, there are dedicated tools that will help in specific areas of marketing (e.g. Buffer for social media posting). Learn more about popular marketing and social media tools below: HubSpot Sprout Social Buffer Hoot Suite Accounting Accounting and bookkeeping is another area that has been improved by software products. Accounting tools allow individuals that might not be an expert in accounting to get a good understanding of their financials. On the other hand, accounting tools can also be built out and robust enough for finance professionals. Learn more about popular accounting software below: Xero Quickbooks Online FreshBooks Customer Service As your company grows staying on top of your customer service is a must. Luckily there are hundreds of software tools dedicated to helping with customer service. Like marketing tools, there are some that will cover every aspect of customer service. There are also dedicated tools that will help with different aspects of your customer success efforts — e.g. knowledge base, email support, etc. Learn more about popular customer service tools below: Intercom HubSpot Front Customer relationship management Customer relationship management (or CRM) has turned into a must for most startups. CRMs are the hubs for managing communication and progress with current and potential investors. Customer relationship management tools generally offer add-ons and additional features that will help with other areas of your business. This can be helpful when it comes to cutting costs and finding a simple solution for your employees. Related Resource: 7 Essential Business Startup Resources Learn more about popular CRMs below: Salesforce HubSpot Pipedrive Content management system As software and tools have moved to the internet so have most businesses in general. Even if a business does not sell to customers directly via the internet, chances are they have a website. Having a place to manage your website and the content you are producing is a must. Content management systems (CMS) have become table stakes for any business that has a website and produces any level of content. Learn more about popular content management systems below: WordPress Webflow Contentful Human resources management As a startup founder, it is vital to stay on top of your employees and team members. Startups are in constant competition for both capital and talent. It is crucial to have a human resources management system in place to keep employees happy and supportive. Learn more about popular HR resources below: Gusto Zenefits Lattice Payroll and benefits As we mentioned above, startups need a system to engage with their employees. One of the aspects of successful employee onboarding is having tools in place to help with payroll and managing benefits. As SaaS payroll and benefits tools have become increasingly common, the options are countless. Learn more about popular payroll and benefits tools below: Gusto Zenefits Onpay Investor relationship management Startups are in constant competition for 2 resources — capital and talent. Having a game plan in place to attract both is vital. If you’re a startup that has taken on outside funding it is important to have a game plan in place to report and communicate with your investors. This will not only improve your odds of raising follow-on funding but will allow you to lean on investors for help with hiring, strategy, and more. Investor relationships and communication are our bread and butter at Visible. Related Resources: The Understandable Guide to Startup Funding Stages Valuing Startups: 10 Popular Methods 23 Top VC Investors Actively Funding SaaS Startups Boost your startup’s investor relations with Visible Adopting SaaS tools for your startup is a surefire way to build efficiency around every aspect of your business. In order to best tap into your investors, you need a tool in place to communicate and report to your investors. Give Visible a try to up your investor relations. Raise capital, update investors and engage your team from a single platform. Try Visible free for 14 days.

About Trey Trey Closson is the CEO and Founder of Amplio — a platform for proactively identifying the risks of tomorrow’s supply chain. Prior to starting Amplio, Trey spent time at Flexport and Georgia Pacific. Trey joins us to break down his first year as a founder and what he has learned from transitioning from operator to founder. Episode Takeaways A couple of key topics we hit on: The current state of the global supply chain issues How Amplio found their first customers How Amplio is using pilot programs to scale their customer base The importance of relentless focus Why founders should invest in community Why building a startup is a marathon, not a sprint Watch the Episode Give episode 6 a listen below (or give it a listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you normally consume podcasts)

One thing that is important, as a startup founder, is to track your financial metrics each month to measure the health of your business. At Visible, we help you curate and send investor updates. We recommend you send these monthly. With our mission being to improve a founder’s chance of success, monthly updates are a huge part of staying on that path to success. Monthly investor updates help you keep your investors in the loop. They help to keep investors engaged and provide you a time to reflect on what work was done over the course of the month. Monthly updates are a great tool for accountability and gaining perspective on whether your startup is growing or not We strongly recommend you send monthly updates. Especially once you have raised venture capital Part of these updates should be an inclusion of charts/metrics that help you measure the health of your business. Your investors will enjoy getting updates and seeing your core metrics grow over time. You should also allow metrics to help you to understand what to prioritize within your startup. Your investors will care about seeing these because it shows how fast you are spending their money, but will also give you insights into a few different things. It will give you insight as to when you might need to raise money again. It will give you insight as to how much time you have to run the business while keeping your current expenses constant. It might signal you to hire more to get over key humps in the business, like developing your product or spending more resources on sales. It might show you need to be more efficient when allocating your marketing dollars. It might be the case that you should ignore these metrics altogether and just focus on what’s in front of you each day. Every startup is unique and we understand it’s not a one size fits all approach. Related Resource: What Should be in an Investor Data Room? The financial metrics we recommend tracking are: Cash on hand Burn Rate Run rate Revenue Revenue Growth Engagement metrics (churn, user growth, retention, this one varies) Cash on Hand Cash on hand is the amount of cash you had at the end of the month last month. This can be found on your Balance Sheet. How to track in Visible: Connect accounting integration (Quickbooks, Xero, etc.) Create chart with Total Bank Accounts as Metric Chart Period → Custom period: Custom period: Last 6 months & Previous Period Monthly Cash Burn Monthly burn rate is defined as the cash on hand at the end of this month minus the cash on hand at the end of the previous month. This will give you the difference of cash between the two amounts. Allowing you to know how much cash exited your account! How to track in Visible: Add an insight to chart Previous period change Chart on Separate Y-Axis Months of Runway Run Rate is a bit more complicated. Run rate calculates the amount of months you have left to run the company given your current cash on hand and monthly burn. This number depends on your burn rate staying constant. More than likely your burn rate will not remain constant (it will increase. Run rate is calculated by taking Cash on hand/(Monthly Burn Rate). This will yield you the number of months you have left to operate your business with expenses staying constant. How to track in Visible: Export Monthly Balance Sheets from accounting software into google sheets Manually calculate Monthly Burn (ex. Feb Cash – Jan Cash) Calculate Months of Runway Cash on hand/ Monthly Burn Rate Integrate sheet into Visible Add Months of runway to Total Bank Accounts Chart Save Chart Related resource: Strategic Pivots in Startups: Deciding When, Understanding Why, and Executing How Revenue Revenue is the amount of cash that you received in payments from your customers (over the course of the past month). How to track in Visible: Pull Revenue from your accounting integration Revenue is the top line of your income statement Create a chart Measure previous 6 months Related Resource: EBITDA vs Revenue: Understanding the Difference Revenue Growth Revenue growth is a true barometer for success for your startup. It shows how much your revenue has increased over the prior period. If you have revenue growth, it should signal to you that you are on the right track and continue to execute at a high level. How to track in Visible: Add an insight to chart Previous period change % Chart on Separate Y-Axis Engagement Metrics An engagement metric is something that is unique to your individual business. The manner of it would relate to the type of business your run (marketplace app, Saas product, or physical product). It should directly relate to your revenue growth. Things like churn/retention could be your engagement metric. For Airbnb, it could be the number of nights booked. For Uber, it could be # of rides completed per week. Having healthy engagement metrics should drive your revenue and allow you to feel good that you are building something people love. Tracking is Visible will vary based on your metric. Early on, just track it manually! Cash on hand, burn rate, and runway are very much metrics for your own sanity. These relate to the lifeblood of the business and how long you can be certain your company will be in existence. We recommend maintaining a conservative level of spend for the first few months after raising a seed round. It is much easier to increase spend than it is to decrease. By starting conservatively, you will have good context as to how much you can increase your burn rate to find the sweet spot for growth and trimming your runway. Revenue, revenue growth, and engagement metrics are really ways for you to measure how well you have done in the latest period. It is really important to decide as a team what your North star metric is and work towards that goal together. These sort of standard metrics will help align your team and work to accomplish your goals together. The goal with Visible as a product is to help you as a founder measure these metrics and update your investors. That way you can measure these core financial metrics (Cash on hand, Burn Rate, Runway) right off the bat when starting your trial with Visible. Setting you up for success after raising a Seed round. you will be set up for success to measure the proper metrics and keep your investors filled in. This way you can spend the majority of your time building a great product that people love. Related Resource: A Guide to Building Successful OKRs for Startups In conclusion, measuring the core financials of your startup (or business) is really good practice. It will help you maintain accountability and measure growth. We recommend you track the core 6 metrics each month of Cash on hand, Burn Rate, Run rate, Revenue, Revenue Growth, and market-specific Engagement metrics. These will help you to get the most out of your fundraising dollars and to maximize growth!

Many new ventures and new startups are formed by multiple individuals, collectively known as the founders. Sometimes long-time friends, sometimes former colleagues, other times like-minded individuals who came together specifically for the problem the startup solves. All of these different combinations of individuals, regardless of background, are startup founders and with that new title comes a new set of rules and responsibilities. New startup founders that are forming a business, often enter into a Founders Agreement. We’ve gone in-depth into the typical nature of a Founders Agreement, what it is, and what it can mean for your startup. Related resource: The Startup’s Guide to Investor Agreements: Building Blocks of VC Funding What is a Founders Agreement? A Founder’s Agreement is a contract. But not just any contract, a Founder’s Agreement is a specific contract that lays out the business relationships that the founders enter into and agree upon. The Founder’s Agreement contract specifically lays out the responsibilities, rights, obligations, and any liabilities of each founder. The Founder’s Agreement is in place to regulate matters that aren’t governed by any type of operating agreement or financial agreement with investors, but rather specifically ensures that each founder is clear on their specific role with and for the company. Related Resource: How To Find Private Investors For Startups What Are the Must-Have Items to Include in the Founders Agreement? Now that it’s been established that a founder’s agreement is essentially a contract dictating the founding team’s rights, responsibilities, and role within the company, let’s get a little bit more specific. Thinking through all the possible items that could be in your founder’s agreement, we recommend starting with at least the following 10 to ensure the key details of the business are specifically covered. Related resource: Investor Agreement Template for Startup Founders 1. Add Notable Names Including the Founders of the Company While it may seem straightforward, be as detailed as possible and list out every single founder of the company by name, title, and even a breakdown of ownership if applicable. Capture as much detail as possible about the founding team that the Founder’s Agreement pertains to. It is also helpful to outline any other notable names that are involved at the early formation of your company. For example, if you have any early friends and family investors, advisors in the space, founding customers, founding partners, or subject-matter experts involved in any type of POC or validation study, list them out by name and role associated with your company. If they have a financial stake, outline the percentage ownership stake they have in the business as well and note if they would technically be considered a founder under this agreement. 2. Document Your Business Structure Now that all key persons have been outlined by name and role, be sure to document the structure of your business. How your business is structured can affect the future of the company. Determine how your company will be structured – consider if it makes more sense for it to work as a partnership, LLC, C Corp, S Corp and consider all of the financial and structural implications that come with each option. Determining and documenting this from the beginning is key to building your business from a unified perspective and understanding. 3. Include a Broad Overview of Your Startup Outline the mission statement and an elevator pitch of your startup. A broad overview is helpful to ensure all founder decisions moving forward are aligned to the same vision and mission, with a clear direction of the goal your startup has to accomplish. As the company evolves and grows, pointing back to the agreed-upon overview in the founder’s agreement can help dictate that change and direction as well but will ensure decisions are made with the same foundation in mind. Related Resource: How to Write a Business Plan For Your Startup 4. Have an Expenses and Budget Report Having your finances in order is key to the success or failure of any business. In the Founder’s Agreement, outline where your finances stand. Outline in detail any funding your team has received as a seed investment. Next, outline your company’s operating expenses to ensure all output of money is explicitly documented at the founding of the company and all founders are hyper-aware of the existing spend and burn rate of the company. Finally, outline a foundational budget that each founder has explicit input into. This will ensure that no matter each founder’s unique role or responsibility, there is an agreed-upon budget, especially in relation to the expenses and burn rate of the organization. 5. Include a “Who is Responsible for What?” Section Depending on the makeup of your founding team, there may be a lot of different skill sets and ranges of expertise at the table. Having founders with many different backgrounds and skillsets can be a major advantage for your organization, however, with a versatile set of skills and a unified passion for the startup’s mission, it can be hard for founders to stick to the part of the business they own. Outlining a clear section that documents who is responsible for what in the Founder’s Agreement can ensure that every founder can contribute and master a key area of the business without trying to take on too much or double-dipping in another founder’s role or assigned lane. This will ensure the business scales effectively and every founder appropriately commits to what they will bring to the business. This section can also help define and structure the titles and growth path for each founder and the functional direction of the organization based on which roles are defined and taken on by the founding team first. 6. Management and Legal Decision-Making, Operating, and Approval Rights Piggybacking off of the responsibilities section of your founder agreement, be sure to outline the structure of management at your organization and the hierarchy of various decision-making. If you have a board or plan to have a board, make sure to outline their existing role within the organization. Having an agreed-upon set of rules determining the hierarchy of legal decisions, operation decisions, and final approval rights within the business is key as the company grows and may face big challenges ahead that require a clear, unified plan. 6. Add an Equity and Vesting Section In early startups, founders may not be taking much or any salary at all. This makes it critical to document and clarifies ownership of the business. The goal of every startup is certainly to grow a successful, thriving business. This could mean aspirations as big as an IPO or major acquisition. Establishing early on what percentage of the company each founder owns as well as the schedule that they will vest their shares, or receive full rights to the shares in the company. Having a unified equity agreement and vesting schedule baked into the Founder’s Agreement is key to outlining the years that each founder is needing to stay with the business to reach their full earning potential. This can help solidify the commitment of each founder to the business as well. Related Resource: Employee Stock Options Guide for Startups 7. Include a Salary Compensation Report Even if the salary of each founder is minimal or they forgo a salary as the business starts to save cash, It is helpful to outline a compensation report and even a compensation plan for the founders of the business. A compensation report can outline the initial compensation each founder takes. It can also outline the planned compensation increase for each founder as the profits of the business grow or more funding is granted to the business. Having agreed upon salary compensation documented at the foundation of the company can ensure all founders are aligned on what they are owed and what they are set to earn as the company scales. This will help with tracking financial growth and prevent any major mishaps or founder disagreements about salary and compensation. 8. Dissolution and Termination Clauses Even though most founders plan to stick with a company they found, that is not always the way things shake out long term. It’s important to think through and document what happens with each founder and their ownership and role with the copy under two unfortunate circumstances. Dissolution, or the dissolvement of effective closing down of the company, is something that many startups end up having to do if their company does not take off or has a positive growth trajectory. It’s critical to have documentation in the Founder’s Agreement that determines what will happen to any existing profit or patented ideas or technology in a case of dissolution so that all founders are aware and agreed upon that unfortunate outcome – this can save major legal disagreement down the line. Additionally, an agreed-upon termination clause is also a smart piece of information to include in a founder agreement. This can outline the scenarios of a possible founder exit and what will happen to their shares, intellectual intelligence, or technical knowledge in case of a voluntary or involuntary exit. While the reality for founders going into a new business may be with that company indefinitely, things do happen, and planning for possible dissolution and termination can save the team many headaches and heartache at the end of a business or time with a business. 9. Intellectual Property As part of the termination and dissolution clause, it’s a good idea to highlight all known and defined intellectual property and its ownership within the founder’s agreement. In a situation where a founder exits the business while it is still growing or at dissolution, it needs to be understood where the intellectual property, the ideas, and knowledge that is the foundation of the business, lies while the business is still operating and after. This can help prevent any founder from leaving to start a competitor while the business is operable and ensure that all ideas are documented to the correct owner in perpetuity. What is the Importance of a Founders Agreement? A Founders Agreement is extremely important for a number of reasons but foundationally, it provides a unified, agreed-upon set of rules and guidelines for the founding team to align on and build from. A few of the key reasons a Founder Agreement is so important are: Identifies each owner’s role – having clarity and unified direction on how each owner of the business (both founders and investors) will play a role in the evolution of the business from the very beginning is critical to the success of the business long term. A founders agreement makes ownership and ownership roles crystal clear. Provides structure for resolving issues among founders – Every founding team will have conflicts. Conflict is inevitable when building a business and making tough and risky decisions. Having a Founder Agreement can provide an easy rule book for conflict resolution and managing any issues within the founding team. Because every founder has agreed upon the Founder Agreement, it is a straightforward source of truth when inevitable conflict arises. Protects minority owners – Depending on the origins of the founding team and the company idea, ownership of the organization may not be completely even among founders. This makes the Founder Agreement extremely important to minority owners. It provides a clear outline of what they own, what they are entitled to, and the minimum and maximum responsibility they have to the business. This prevents majority owners from gaming the system by taking advantage of the minority owners’ agreed-upon contributions and responsibilities to the business. Signals to investors that you have a serious business – A Founder Agreement is a critical contract potential investors will look for when considering your business. Having taken the time to solidify the Founder Agreement is good luck for your business and founding team, showing you have a serious business and have thought through all possible points of conflict, future structure, and ownership balance across the founding team. This helps establish your business as a competent, and well-organized one for potential investors to consider. Related Resource: Valuing Startups: 10 Popular Methods How to Create a Founders Agreement Now that we’ve established the purpose for and critical elements of a Founder’s Agreement, let’s follow a simple process to create one. 1. Select a Template No need to start from scratch! Plenty of VCs, business schools, and other private companies provide templates for many different documents and contracts typically used when starting a business, including a Founder Agreement. Check out Visible’s template for this here. 2. Knock Out the Easy Sections First Start with the easy stuff. Your founding team should know your company’s purpose, mission, founder names, and roles and responsibilities. From there, work through the harder organizational and financial details. 3. Thoroughly Work Through the More Challenging Sections Don’t speed through the complicated aspects of the Founder Agreement. Take as much time as needed to work through financial, organizational, and termination details. Consult attorneys, fellow founders, existing investors, and industry peers as needed to ensure you are following the best possible practices and considering all the necessary elements to complete the more challenging, complex sections. You’ll be thankful you took the time to do these parts in a detailed manner when and if it is ever necessary to consult the founder agreement in a difficult scenario. 4. Consider Hiring a Lawyer if Necessary Legal battles are never fun. As mentioned above, while you’re taking your time and going over every detail of the complicated parts of the founder’s agreement, consider hiring a lawyer to consult on and help construct the elements with the most liabilities including salary and ownership pieces as well as termination clauses. Get as much legal advice as you might need, and unless you have in-house expertise on your founding team, a lawyer can be especially helpful in outlining the tax section (you certainly don’t want to mess that up at any stage of your business). 5. Seek a Second Opinion from Fellow Entrepreneurs Founder’s Agreements exist for a reason – they were born out of the mistakes and learnings of previous founders. Consult fellow entrepreneurs who have written and established founders’ agreements in the past. See what worked best for them or what they wish they had included in their founding agreements but did not. No need to reinvent the wheel here, learn from the best in your space. 6. Finalize by Signing Your Founders Agreement With a lawyer present if needed, set a specific date and time to finalize the signing of your FOunder’s Agreement with all founders present. Ensure all founders have enough time to read, review, and contribute to the said agreement so that on signing day you can celebrate finalizing this foundational piece of legal paperwork and the growth of your company. Learn More About Founders Agreements and Startup Funding If you’re looking for more information on Founders Agreements and Startup Funding, check out our other resources for founders on our blog and subscribe to our newsletter, the Visible Weekly. Related resource: The Startup's Handbook to SAFE: Simplifying Future Equity Agreements

In a startup, there are a million things going on at all times. The last thing on a founder’s mind is most likely not balancing the books and managing the daily ins and outs of company finance – other than ensuring there is a cash runway to work with. But as your business grows, it’s critical to have a grasp on all elements of your company’s books to ensure your company can grow and scale in an effective way and avoid costly financial errors down the line. Why Does Accounting Matter to Startups? In a startup, typically cash is always tight and you’re operating on a short runway. This makes accounting even more critical for your business. Measuring, processing, and communicating the source and destination of every dollar is crucial to ensure smart business decisions can be made. After your startup raises a round of funding and takes on outside investors, accurate accounting is, even more, a crucial element to have under control in your startup. With outside eyes monitoring every way, you’re spending their investment, ensuring you have a tight grip on and understanding of your company’s accounting will make or break your business. Related Resource: Building A Startup Financial Model That Works What is Your Business Structure? What is Your Business Structure? Depending on how your organization is formally classified, the accounting required will be slightly different. All formal, for-profit businesses are classified as 1 of 5 different business entity types. The 5 different business entities are: Business Entities Types Sole Proprietorship is an enterprise that is owned and run by a single person. Specifically, there is no legal distinction between the owner of the business and the business entity. A sole proprietorship does not always work alone as it is possible for the sole proprietorship to employ other people. Sole proprietorships are also known as sole tradership, individual entrepreneurship, or simply as a proprietorship. Partnership – When two or more individuals operate a business based on an oral or written agreement, that is legally considered a partnership. An agreement on the protocols and terms of the partnership is not required to consider a business entity to be considered a formal partnership, it’s best practice for one to be in place. Similar to a sole proprietorship, a partnership entity business has no legal distinction between the owners of said business. C Corporation – in the United States, under federal income tax law, a C Corporation is any business entity or enterprise corporation that is taxed separately from its owners. Unless the corporate elects otherwise, most for-profit corporate businesses in the United States are automatically considered a C Corporation. S Corporation – An S Corporation is a privately held company that makes the decision to be taxed under the Subchapter S of Chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code, or IRS, federal income tax law. By making a valid election, the S-corporation’s income and losses are divided among and passed through its shareholders. The individual shareholders must then report the income or loss on their own individual income tax returns. Limited Liability Company (LLC) – An LLC is a business that’s structure is allowed and dictated by individual state statutes. Each state can adjust and use different regulations to structure an LLC so it’s critical for business entities to check what different regulations are allowed for an LLC state to state. Owners of an LLC are referred to as members and typically, most states do not restrict ownership. So members could be individual owners, corporations, other LLCs, or in some cases even foreign entities. Most states also do not have a maximum number of members restriction in place on LLCs and most also permit “single-member” or sole owner LLCs. The main restriction on LLCs comes into play when considering the types of private businesses that do not qualify to be LLCs such as banks and insurance companies. Understanding the Two Methods of Accounting Now that the 5 primary business entities have been defined, the two methods of accounting need to be understood. Depending on the type of business entity, a different method may be used. Accrual Basis Accounting This specific accounting method allows a company to record its revenue before receiving the physical payment for the product or service that has been sold. Public companies are required to use accrual basis accounting. Most companies making above $5M a year in revenue use accrual basis accounting. This is typically the preferred method of accounting for private companies as it is generally more reflective of a company’s actual revenue. Cash Basis Accounting On the opposite end of the spectrum to accrual basis accounting, cash basis accounting only records the revenue in a company’s book of business when the cash transaction has physically occurred for the product or services sold. C Corporations and Partnerships are not allowed to use cash basis accounting unless they total under 5M a year in revenue for 3 tax years in a row. Related resource: What is a Schedule K-1: A Comprehensive Guide What Types of Financial Records Should Your Startup Keep? Once you’ve determined the type of accounting most appropriate for your startup, it’s critical to have a clear understanding of the broad types of financial materials you should be keeping track of and recording for said accounting practice. A good rule of thumb is to keep everything related to the financial arm of your business, and when possible, make multiple copies as backups for key financial items and hold onto these items for at least 3 to 7 years after their existing date. An overview of the items that your startup should be holding onto and keeping in their financial records includes: Receipts from business expenses Bank statements Bills Tax Forms for both your business and employees Contracts that outline the services or products you are selling Contracts with vendors you are purchasing services from Receipts from any tax-deductible donations or contributions made by your business entity Overall, it’s critical to establish a system early on for maintaining detailed records of every documented transaction or financial movement that occurs within or in relation to your business. Related Resource: How to Calculate Runway & Burn Rate The Relationship Between Recordkeeping and Accounting A big part of the practice of measuring, processing, and communicating about financial information, aka accounting, is the process of recordkeeping. Recordkeeping is the process of keeping track of the history of an organization’s activities, or in some cases a person’s activities, by creating and storing these as consistent formal records. What is Record-Keeping or Bookkeeping? Recordkeeping relates to accounting as a form of recordkeeping specifically for financial activities. A clear recordkeeping process is the backbone and foundation of a good accounting process. Without it, accurate processing and measurement simply cannot occur. Knowing recordkeeping, or bookkeeping as it’s sometimes known, is the backbone of the accounting process, it’s important to establish weekly and monthly recordkeeping tasks to ensure your process is rock solid from the early days of your business. We’ve got some recommendations to get you started. Recommended Weekly Recordkeeping Tasks 1. Record all transactions into your books Decide on a single source of truth to maintain ongoing documentation of your financial records. This single source of truth is often referred to as a “book”. We recommend a digital source of truth as well as a written source of truth or physical copies of each record as a backup barring any issue with the digital book. Set time for yourself every week at the same time to record all financial transactions from that week in your book and ensure the records are saved, backed up, and filed in an organized manner. Doing this on a weekly basis will prevent missed recordings of financial records as they get backed up week over week. 2. Segment Your Transactions In addition to recording each transaction in your books on a weekly basis, take it a step further and segment your transactions into categories. This will provide an additional layer of organization and allow for extra audit and thoroughness on how your finances are flowing into and out of your business. Segments could include items like revenue, bills paid, taxes, etc. 3. Digitize Your Receipts It can’t be emphasized enough – keep a digital record of your receipts. Just as we recommend keeping a physical copy of your books and digital transactions as backup, the same is true for physical receipts – digitize everything and make it a consistent practice to back up each digital record. The more risk you can mitigate in losing financial records, the more accurate your accounting will be in the long run. Recommended Monthly Recordkeeping Tasks 1. Consolidate your bank accounts On a monthly basis, you should be taking a deeper look at your financial records. A big task to accomplish on a monthly basis is consolidation. Take a look at all accounts open and related to your business entity and consolidate said accounts into as few accounts as possible. This will ensure that no accounts get forgotten over time leading to missed transactions or balances in the accounting records. A monthly practice of consolidation is a foundational recordkeeping habit for your business. 2. Pay your bills (on time) It’s a slippery slope when your business gets behind on its bills. Set monthly reminders for all recurring bills and pay them on time. It’s critical to keep an accurate record of all financial transactions and missed or late bills can throw off the overall financial accuracy of your accounting. Additionally, late bills often are additional fees, which for a startup strapped for cash, can be detrimental to your business. 3. Keep Good Records Be as picky as possible. On a monthly basis, go through your records and clean up any sloppy entries. Reevaluate your system often to make sure the information your tracking is as accurate and efficient as possible. Good records are the foundation of your accounting process and ultimately the financial accuracy of your business. Related Resource: 4 Types of Financial Statements Founders Need to Understand The Benefits of a Good Accounting System After you’ve established strong weekly, and monthly record-keeping tasks as the foundation of your accounting system, your measurement, and communication of the financial state of your business via accounting is underway. The benefits of a good accounting system have many ripple effects throughout your business. Smoother Management of the Business Most business decisions are made based on the financial state of the business. A good accounting system will ensure that the decisions being made are based on a clear and accurate process leading to an overall much smoother management of the business as a whole. Reduced Time and Costs of Audits Time is money in business and lost time going back through financial records that are not maintained correctly. Huge errors in your accounting system can even lead to fines from the IRS or expensive consultancy fees needed to bring in external auditors to fix said errors. Establishing a strong accounting system early in your business can prevent this. Your Investors will Thank You Investors are trusting you with their capital. If you have a smooth system in place to record, measure, and communicate all financial details aka an accounting system, you will always be prepared to answer and address all oversight and detailed questions from your investors. If they have a constant, clear picture of the status of their investment, they will be satisfied and can spend their time helping the business grow. Should You Do Accounting In-House or Outsource? Finally, you may be wondering if your accounting process should be something managed within your business or outsourced to a professional accounting firm. While your total revenue is under 100k, or even 500k, you can most likely manage that as a founder or with a singular financial hire in-house. As you start to climb in revenue and take on external investments, consider the cost of an in-house financial team; Under 5M dollars, it may make more sense to outsource to an accounting firm and spare the headcount. However, if you have any special tax circumstances, it may make sense to invest in an in-house team if the cost of external services billed hourly ends up being more than the cost of headcount in-house. In-house accounting can also be beneficial because it ensures you have dedicated staff only working on your books, as opposed to an outside source managing multiple clients. Related Resource: How to Choose the Right Law Firm for Your Startup Related Resource: 7 Essential Business Startup Resources Sign up For Visible Today - Your Startup Hub Accounting is a critical practice all startups should establish early on in their business. When measuring and reporting out metrics to your stakeholders, consider Visible as a central reporting point of your startup hub. Create an account and get started now.

As companies scale and grow, they may take on different commitments, challenges, and goals and explore a variety of different paths when it comes to the financial decisions made for growth at the company. There are a number of different ways a company can be set up, a variety of ways it can get off the ground with finances, and many different possible outcomes for a company’s future. How you choose to finance your company, especially early on, can determine a lot about the course your company will take. One option to explore early in a startup’s journey, primarily pre-Series A fundraising round, is convertible debt. Here at Visible, we’ve put together a user-friendly guide on Convertible Debt. What is Convertible Debt? So, what exactly is Convertible Debt? Simply put, Convertible Debt is a loan or a debt option from an investor that is paid with equity or stock in a company. The big difference between a convertible debt investment and a traditional investment is that a traditional investment is typically for an exchange of equity or stock immediately at a known valuation. A Convertible Debt is a loan or debt option that is paid with equity or stock in a company at a future date. This future date maybe when a firmer valuation is determined by the raise of a larger round or big growth in revenue. Typically convertible debts are paid with converted equity in a year or two max. Related Resource: What Are Convertible Notes and Why Are They Used? Convertible Debt vs. Convertible Bond Similar to convertible debt, a convertible bond is a fixed-income loan or debt option that can be converted into a predetermined amount of common stock or equity. There are two main differences between convertible debt and a convertible bond. First, a convertible bond’s conversion timeline is usually at the discretion of the bondholder, while convertible debt’s timeline to conversion is typically monitored and determined by the lender. Next, a convertible bond yields interest payments that can also be converted into equity or stock as well. Convertible debt is pure capital and does not have interest payments associated with it. How Does Convertible Debt Work? Many startups are not able to pull the detailed financial information a big creditor, bank, or lender would typically want to see to offer money to a business. Convertible debts are a great option for startups due to this reason. Convertible debt allows businesses to get the early capital needed based on the future success of the company. Investors who agree to convertible debt agreements want their investments to make money, so they’re more likely to do what it takes to help the company succeed. Because the more a company succeeds, the more money those investors will make. Like any traditional investment, convertible debt happens in rounds or cycles of money being loaned or cashed out and returning in the form of equity or cashing in. At the start of a round, the terms of the convertible debt are set. For example, sometimes a warrant or discount are terms of a convertible loan, or sometimes there’s a limit on the value of the debt when it is converted. In some cases, convertible debt can be structured with discount terms, typically no more than 25%. This means that when the loan ends at the end of the round the investor can purchase stock at an agreed-upon discount. Benefits of Convertible Debt There are a number of different benefits of choosing to take on convertible debt in your startup. Convertible Debt can be a powerful funding mechanism. Here are the top benefits to consider with convertible debt: 1. Convertible Debt is a Simple Financing Option With the terms set in place as part of the convertible debt agreement, it’s a very straight-forward option. X investor loans Y company $100,000 in exchange for $200,000 worth of shares within two years. The founder or startup team, they have 100k in the bank and the support of a connected investor with a vested stake to ensure that 100k converts to the best possible valuation for their future shares as possible. It’s a pretty straightforward transaction, and even if there is a discount or rate increase baked into the debt, it’s set ahead of time and there are no changes over the life of that debt. Related Resource: 409a Valuation: Everything a Founder Needs to Know 2. Convertible Debt is a Low Risk and Efficient Method Convertible Debt is low risk and there is no interest associated with said debt. It also does not require traditional background elements like credit history or existing money in the bank to work. Therefore it also won’t affect any existing credentials like credit score if the debt investment doesn’t quite pan out. By taking on convertible debt upfront, startups can save existing capital and build out a longer runway for themselves making the method of taking on outside investment via convertible debt extremely efficient. 3. Investors with Convertible Recieve Voting Power Typically, investors taking the route of putting up money in a convertible debt deal receive voting power. This is because they can set the equity amount they want and since convertible debt is more common for new, pre-Series A companies, these investors choosing to invest this way can invest an amount that will get them a large enough return percentage for a board seat. This is something that is harder to do at later funding rounds when it’s traditional capital for equity exchange. Investors see the opportunity to get voting power and influence a company as a great benefit to their investment as they can have a bigger say in where their investment goes. This can also be helpful to a founder raising capital – with the incentive of early voting power on the board up for grabs, larger seed rounds may be able to be raised on convertible debt. Related Resource: How to Write a Business Plan For Your Startup 4. Convertible Debt Provides Fixed Income for Noteholders For Noteholders, Convertible Debt is a great option because it provides direct, fixed income over a shorter amount of time for said investment – the guarantee that the investment will convert to equity within a period of time is more predictable and that equity will then grow once it converts and the company continues to grow. Drawbacks of Convertible Debt While Convertible Debt has many benefits, it does come with some drawbacks as well. Be sure to consider all the drawbacks of convertible debt such as: 1. Failure of Repayment If for some reason the convertible debt can’t be repaid with the equity or stock promised, often the lender has the right to demand repayment via other means which could lead to the loss of other items or controls in the business, causing a business to even liquidate its assets for repayment in some cases. 2. The Risk of Bankruptcy Plain and simple, failure of repayment can lead to the liquidation of a company’s assets which can lead to bankruptcy. This is a major risk if convertible debt goes wrong. 3. Stringent Indenture Provisions A strict set of rules, agreements, and details – or stringent indenture provisions – are to be expected when taking on convertible debt. This can be a major drawback depending on how long-term said provisions are. Depending on the growth of your company you may be bound to your lender in a way that has negative consequences for the founder/owners or the business as a whole but has great benefit to the investor. Consider all provisions and contingencies and review them thoroughly when taking on convertible debt. 4. Losing Control in the Company While a benefit of a lender with convertible debt is a voting board seat or voting power within the organization for certain decisions, this can lead to a major risk for the company. If the controlling stake is removed from the founders, or the vested interests of the voting members changed, the original founding team may no longer have a say in their company and the vision and early mission may evolve without their knowledge. In some cases, this could also lead to the removal of original leadership from the company that raised the convertible debt round in the first place. Why do Startups use Convertible Debt? At the end of the day, despite the drawbacks, the pros of quick, efficient, and straightforward financing in the form of convertible debt are why startups choose to use it. Any opportunity to secure large investments quickly without a detailed credit history and the benefits of bringing on seasoned investors to help a business at its earliest stages are great bets to take into the risk and reward consideration, with the reward justifying the risks of taking on this debt. Related Resource: Valuing Startups: 10 Popular Methods Convertible Debt Example One great real-life example of a company using Convertible Debt is Ledgy. The equity management software company from Zurich talks through their own company’s experience of using convertible debt to grow their business. Read more about it here. Looking for More Information on Startup Funding? Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest startup funding processes, tips, tricks, and updates. Sign up here. Related Resource: How To Find Private Investors For Startups

Overview Fundraising is difficult. Founders are responsible for hiring, building, and fundraising all at the same time. There are very few people that truly know what it takes to build a company or raise capital while being a strong leader. The best way to learn is from someone who has been there before. Being a founder can oftentimes be an “asymmetric experience.” As Seth Godin, the business author puts it: “In these asymmetric situations, it’s unlikely that you’re going to outsmart the experienced folks who have seen it all before. It’s unlikely that you’ll outlast them either. When you have to walk into one of these events, it pays to hire a local guide. Someone who knows as much as the other folks do, but who works for you instead.” In order to help you find your “local guide,” we went along for a fundraising ride with a founder in our community. Jonathan Gandolf is the CEO and Founder of The Juice, The Juice collects and consolidates resources from across the internet onto a single platform where you can save, share, and enjoy content on demand. Be sure to check out The Juice and sign up to discover the best sales and marketing content for you. Spoiler: The Juice Achieves Major Milestones in Revenue and User Growth Over the course of ~4 months, we sat down with Jonathan on a regular basis and picked his brain on the state of his fundraise and what he was learning along the way. We cover everything from his first meetings to due diligence. For founders who are gearing up for a pre-seed or seed round and are feeling lost, Jonathan offers great insight as he shares his fundraising journey from day 1. Give it a listen below: Week 1 — The Basics of the Round To kick things off we give more background about the Founders Forward Fundraising series and the goals behind it. We dig into the business behind The Juice and the fundamentals of their pre-seed funding round. Jonathan is ready to go with a list of 60 potential investors and a pitch deck in hand. Hop around and learn more about what we covered in week 1 below: The Juice business model How Jonathan is building his investor outreach list What Jonathan’s plans are for reaching out to investors The pitch deck feedback loop Where to listen: Spotify Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Where you generally listen to podcasts Related Resources: The Juice — the best sales & marketing content at your fingertips Visible Connect — our investor database The Fundraising Wisdom That Helped Our Founders Raise $18B in Follow-On Capital How Starting Line Helps Founders Address Their Mental Health with Ezra Galston Week 2 — Finding Investor Intros Jonathan joins us after his first few weeks of heads-down fundraising. We discuss how he is going about adjusting and tweaking his pitch deck as more feedback comes in and how he is leveraging his network (and customers) to find intros to potential investors. A few other key topics we hit on: Managing pitch deck recommendations and changes Designing a pitch deck with a small team Finding introductions to potential investors Leveraging customers for investor introductions Related Resources: Our Teaser Pitch Deck Template Creating Momentum in Your Fundraise with Brett Brohl Week 3 — Revenue vs. Product vs. Team In week 3 of Jonathan’s fundraise, we break down what investors are looking for at the pre-seed stage. As The Juice has a strong product, Jonathan has been featuring and demoing his product during pitches. We also dive into how The Juice ideal investor has transformed since they’ve started their raise and how they are adding new investors to the top of their fundraising funnel. A few other key topics we hit on: How to talk about revenue with investors How Jonathan leveraged their product while pitching Adding investors to the top of an investor funnel Identifying your ideal investor Related Resources: Building Your Ideal Investor Persona Week 4 — Finding a Lead Investor Jonathan has been busy with investor meetings and pitches since the last time we chatted. Jonathan breaks down the “VC speed dating” event he attended and updates on other investor conversations. Finally, we hit on financial projections at the pre-seed/seed stage and what investors are looking for in the early stages of financial projections. A few other key topics we hit on: VC speed dating Feedback on the size of round How to nurture potential investors Sharing financial projections Related Resources: How to Raise Your Series A with Michael Rangel of Novo How to Build an Investor List with Gale Wilkinson of Vitalize Week 5 — Pitching Investors We are back in the heart of The Juice fundraise. They are a few weeks in and starting to get to the middle of the “3 months of pitching.” We discuss how Jonathan is leveraging verbal commits to build urgency with new investors and discuss what is being shared in The Juice’s data room. A few other key topics we hit on: The timeline of fundraising Using verbal commits to create urgency What Jonathan is sharing in his data room Related Resources: Creating Momentum in Your Fundraise with Brett Brohl What Should be in an Investor Data Room? Week 6 — Launching on ProductHunt Coming off of their first ProductHunt launch, Jonathan joins us to share the current status of the round. We discuss what they’ve been focusing on internally as a business. Finally, we discuss the term sheets that are on their way. A few other key topics we hit on: Lessons from launching on ProductHunt How to build a campaign for ProductHunt Hunting for a lead investor Related Resources: The Juice’s ProductHunt Launch How We Topped Product Hunt (Overnight) Week 7 — The First Term Sheets The first term sheets are in hand and the end of the raise is in sight. Jonathan joins us to discuss the term sheets he has in hand and what due diligence has been like so far. Finally, we talk through what hiring plans and projections look like once the cash is in the bank. A few other key topics we hit on: Leveraging the first term sheets for urgency Modeling different fundraising outcomes Lessons from first rounds of due diligence Standing on the shoulders of giants Related Resources: 6 Components of a VC Startup Term Sheet (Template Included) Navigating SaaS Partnerships as a Startup Week 8 — Closing the Round They did it! Jonathan and the team have wrapped up their raise and they are in the process of finishing up the round. Jonathan shares what he has learned during the raise and what is next for The Juice. Related Resources: The Juice Achieves Major Milestones in Revenue and User Growth Learn more about The Juice The Juice collects and consolidates resources from across the internet onto a single platform where you can save, share, and enjoy content on demand. Join for free to explore the best sales and marketing content here.

Raising venture capital for your startup is difficult. Raising venture capital for your startup with little to no revenue can feel impossible. However, venture capital funds have started to invest earlier and earlier into startups. The emergence of pre-seed rounds has led to more interest in pre-revenue startups. Related Resources: All Encompassing Startup Fundraising Guide & Seed Funding for Startups 101: A Complete Guide Luckily, there are countless startups that have done it before. In order to better help founders navigate a fundraise with little to no revenue, we break down lessons from startups and investors that have taken part in a pre-revenue funding round below: What is Pre-Revenue Funding? Pre-revenue funding is equity or debt financing for companies that have yet to generate revenue. Pre-revenue funding can apply to companies across different sectors, markets, verticals, etc. Startups might have a product or a product in development but have yet to take it to market. Pre-revenue funding generally helps a company at this stage build its product or put a go-to-market motion to practice. Related Resource: The Understandable Guide to Startup Funding Stages What Does It Mean To Be Pre-Revenue? Pre-revenue startups can be at varying stages in their startup lifecycle. For example, if a company is working on an incredibly large scale project revenue might come much later in its lifecycle. On the other hand, there might be companies that have developed a product and are ready to take it to market but need capital to hire talent and put their product and distribution to work. For the sake of this post, we will generally be speaking of companies Related resource: 8 Startup Valuation Techniques and Factors to ConsiderWhat Does the DCF Formula Tell You? How Do Startup Founders Get Pre-Revenue Funding? The most common form of funding to receive before revenue is venture capital. Startups and venture capital funds generally follow a power law curve. This means that investors need to find a few companies that can generate massive returns for their LPs. Because of this, they are willing to invest in more companies at early stages in return for a larger equity percentage with the hope that a few of the companies will pan out to generate huge returns. Related Resource: Understanding Power Law Curves to Better Your Chances of Raising Venture Capital In order to improve your odds of raising capital at the pre-revenue stage, you need to understand the VC thought process and demonstrate why you can grow into a company that will generate returns for its investors/LPs. How Investors Evaluate Pre-Revenue Startups Every startup investor will use a different method or style to evaluate potential investments, especially pre-revenue startups. Understanding how venture capitalists think about making investments will greatly increase your odds of raising a round. Check out a few of the common methods and valuation styles below: Related Resource: A Quick Overview on VC Fund Structure 1) The Berkus Method As we wrote in our post, Valuing Startups: 10 Popular Methods, “The Berkus Method is an attempted way to assess value without the traditional revenue metrics that many methods take into account for more mature organizations. The Berkus Method quantifies value by assessing qualitative qualities instead of quantitative ones. Value is assessed in the Berkus Method with five main elements. The elements considered within the Berkus Method include value business model (base value), available prototype to assess the technology risk and viability, founding team members and their abilities or industry knowledge, strategic relationships within the space or team, existing customers or first sales that prove viability. A quantitative value can be tied to each relevant quantitative factor with the Berkus Method.” 2) Risk Factor Summation Method As we wrote in our post, Valuing Startups: 10 Popular Methods, “The Risk Factor Summation Method is used with risk as the primary method for evaluation. This approach values a startup by taking into quantitative consideration all risks associated with the business that can affect the return on investment. An initial value is calculated (possibly even using one of the other methods discussed in this post) and then the risks are assessed, deducting or adding to the initial value calculation based on said risks to the return. Some of the different kinds of risks that are taken into account are managing risk, political risk, manufacturing risk, market competition risk, investment and capital accumulation risk, technological risk, and legal environment risk.” 3) Venture Capital Method As we wrote in our post, Valuing Startups: 10 Popular Methods, “This method is one of the most common, if not the most common method used for evaluating startups that are pre-cash flow and seeking VC investment. The VC Method looks at 6 steps to determine valuation: Estimate the Investment Needed Forecast Startup Financials Determine the Timing of Exit (IPO, M&A, etc.) Calculate Multiple at Exit (based on comps) Discount to PV at the Desired Rate of Return Determine Valuation and Desired Ownership Stake It’s ultimately a quick, rough estimate informed by as much information as is available based on the market, comps, any existing quantitative and qualitative info from the company at hand, and an assumed amount of risk from the VC Firm.” 5) Scorecard Method As we wrote in our post, Valuing Startups: 10 Popular Methods, “This valuation method looks at these similar companies and sees what types of valuation they received from other investors. From there, the median will be calculated from the value of all the similar companies’ valuations and this median will determine the average value of the target company. In addition to the median value placed on the competitive landscape, scorecards are looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the market as assessed by other investors and score their investment in question weighted with the following criteria compared to the other companies in the space: Board, entrepreneur, the management team – 25% Size of opportunity – 20% Technology/Product – 18% Marketing/Sales – 15% Need for additional financing – 10% Others – 10% A company may be valued higher than the median with the scorecard method if the size of opportunity or board/management team is exceptional quality or vice versa, may be docked if the tech is strong but the leadership is assessed as in-experienced.” Looking for Fundraising? Visible Can Help! Running a process to raise capital, especially before generating revenue, is a surefire way to improve your odds of success. Find ideal investors with Visible Connect, add them to your Fundraising Pipeline, and share your pitch deck all from Visible. Give Visible a free try for 14 days here.

About Josh & Elle Josh Abulafia & Elle Curran are the Co-founders of ChefPrep. ChefPrep is a marketplace for ready-made meals that are prepared by award-winning restaurants, delivered to your door. Josh and Elle join us to break down their journey as startup founders. Episode Takeaways A few key topics we hit on with Elle and Josh: How ChefPrep validated their core thesis Why ChefPrep decided to focus on the supply side Key marketplace metrics they track Building barriers to entry in marketplaces Why tracking the right data is vital to startup success Building their company operating system Watch the Episode Give episode 5 a listen below (or give it a listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you normally consume podcasts):

At Visible, we believe that a venture capital fundraise often mirrors a traditional B2B sales and marketing funnel. At the top of your funnel, you are adding new investors, nurturing them throughout the middle of the funnel with email and meetings, and hopefully cashing a check from them at the bottom of the funnel. Related Resource: All-Encompassing Startup Fundraising Guide Luckily, there are tips, resources, and tricks that will help you build momentum in your fundraising efforts so you can focus on building your business. Learn more about how you can create a fundraising strategy and build a more efficient fundraise with our guide below: Startup Fundraising: How It Works Just how a sales and marketing process might differ from business to business, so will a fundraising process. The ideas and systems behind the process might stay the same but there will be subtle changes when it comes to approach, communication, and more as a business grows. A couple of different stages that we will hit on in this post: Pre-seed Seed Series A, B, and C How should startup founders prepare for these funding rounds? Check out our breakdowns for each stage below: Pre-Seed Funding As we put in our post, The Understandable Guide to Startup Funding Stages, “A pre-seed round is a round of venture capital that is generally the first round of institutional capital that a startup raises. A pre-seed round generally allows a founding team to find product-market fit, hire early employees, and test go-to-market models.” Pre-seed funding rounds have become more common over the past few years and have turned into a powerful resource to help founders get their idea and business off the ground. The purpose is to give founders the capital they need to see their product through. Investors are largely betting on the team and idea as revenue is little to none. Pre-seed rounds greatly vary in size but generally fall in the $300K to $1M size. However, we’ve seen pre-seed rounds get close to $5M. Typically, valuations might be in the $2M to $5M range. Seed Funding As we wrote in our post, Seed Funding for Startups 101: A Complete Guide, “Seed funding is a startup’s earliest funding stage. Often, seed funding comes from angel investors, friends and family members, and the original company founders. An early-stage startup may also look for funding through bank loans, but angel investments are usually preferred. Seed funding is used to start the company itself, and consequently, it is a fairly high risk: the company has not yet proven itself within the market. There are many angel investors that specifically focus on seed funding opportunities because it allows them to purchase a part of the company’s equity when the company is at its lowest valuation.” At this point, a startup likely has some sign of product-market fit and is ready to scale its go-to-market efforts. At the seed stage, rounders are typically in the $2M to $5M range (but like pre-seed funding can often be much larger than this). Valuations typically sit around the $8M – $12M range. Series A, B, and C Funding Beyond a seed round comes Series A and beyond (Series B, C, D, etc.). At the point of a Series A round, a startup generally has demonstrated product-market fit, is making senior hires, has a strong product, and is executing new releases at a high level. Once you get beyond a Series A, the same ideas hold true but an investor is likely more focused on the numbers behind a business. They’ll want to make sure that the business can efficiently grow into a huge company. Typically a Series A round is anywhere between $5M and $20M. This is a large range but we still occasionally see companies raise much larger amounts. Revenue is like in the $1M to $5M range and all signs point to that number continuing to grow quickly. How to Create a Startup Fundraising Strategy As we said earlier in the post, approaching a fundraise with a strategy and system in place is a great way to build momentum in your fundraise. Founders are being pulled in a hundred different directions and a fundraise is a part of that. By having a system in place, you will be able to focus on the other aspects of your business. There is no right or wrong way to approach a fundraise but as long as you have a strong system and cadence in place you are already ahead of the curve. We recommend treating a strategy like a sales and marketing funnel. Find investors to fill the top of the funnel, both warm and cold “leads,” communicate and nurture them with email Updates throughout the middle of the funnel, and hopefully close them as a new investor at the bottom of the funnel. Check out a few tips to help you get started with your fundraising strategy and system below: Getting Started: Ask the Right Questions Outline some of the basic questions that a fundraising strategy should address. When getting started with your fundraising strategy it is important to understand why you’re raising, who are you raising from, and the financials of your round. Check out a few example questions below: Why is your startup raising capital? Who is your startup reaching out to for financing? How much capital will your startup raise – now and in the future? When is your startup raising capital? What is your startup’s process for raising capital? Before even building out the rest of your fundraising strategy you need to be able to properly answer the questions above. You may learn that venture capital is not the right financing option for your startup, which is totally fine! (Related Read: Checking Out Venture Capital Funding Alternatives) Related Reading: How to Write a Problem Statement [Startup Edition] Undergo a Valuation of Your Startup Of course, a major aspect of raising capital is the valuation of your company. Setting a valuation is generally a mix of art and science, especially at the early stages. As the team at Silicon Valley Bank puts it, “​​The most basic valuation method borrows from the playbook used by realtors, who assess the value of a home by looking at “comps,” or comparable homes. Mendelson recommends establishing a startup’s valuation that is “on scale” with those of other early-stage companies. The more similar the startup — be it its sector, location or potential market size — the better.” As your company grows and raises later-stage financing, setting a valuation will be based more on the data and metrics from the companies history. This is a great starting point and can be enhanced by adding in other factors like a founding team’s management experience, proven track record, market size, risk, etc. Related Resource: Valuing Startups: 10 Popular Methods Set Milestones Setting clear, specific, achievable, measurable, and time-bound goals is invaluable to creating an effective fundraising strategy. Naturally, investors are incentivized to hold off on investing as long as possible. Why? They want to collect as many data points as possible and see how activity looks with other investors. It is your job as a founder to build momentum and incentivize investors to move quickly. Having set milestones is a great way to wrap your head around a timeline and give you an idea of when you want investors to be moving along by. Brett Brohl of Bread & Butter Ventures estimates that most early-stage companies should estimate 5 months to complete a raise. He breaks it down using the 1-3-1 rule: 1 month — Preparation. Creating a deck, materials, and investor lists to kick off your raise. 3 months — Pitching. Actually out pitching and taking meetings with investors. 1 month — Closing. Finishing up due diligence and legal work to close new investors. Research Your Investors Once a term sheet is signed there is no turning back. With the average founder + VC relationship being 8-10 years it is important to make sure founders are bringing on the right investors. There are different factors and things you should look for in a potential investor. As we put in our post, Building Your Ideal Investor Persona: Location – Where are you located? Do you need local investors? Or maybe you are looking for connections and networks in strategic geographies. Industry Focus – What type of company are you? Where should your future investors/partners be focused? e.g. If you’re a B2B SaaS company don’t waste your time with marketplace-focused investors. Mark Suster suggests that it is best to prioritize investors with companies in your space. Stage Focus – What size check/round are you raising? e.g. If you’re raising a $1M seed round avoid a firm with $2B AUM. If you’re raising a $30M round avoid a firm with $75M AUM. Current Portfolio – What type of companies should be a signal to you that they’re a good fit? Is there a high likelihood they’ve invested in one of your competitors? If so, best to avoid as they likely won’t double down their bet with a competitor to a portfolio co. Motivators – What do want to get out of your investors and what do they want to get out of you? Do they need to match your values and culture? Deal Velocity – Are you in need of capital as soon as possible? Or are you taking your time and looking for strategic investors? Varying investors have different philosophies for the velocity they’re making deals. Point Nine Capital and Kima ventures are both regarded as top firms in Europe. However, Point Nine makes ~10 investments a year whereas Kima makes 1-2 investments a week.” Finding the right investors for your business can be tricky. Using Visible Connect, filter investors by different categories (like stage, check size, geography, focus, and more) to find the right investors for your business. Give it a try here → Determine How Much Capital You Want to Raise Determining how much to raise can also be a daunting task. You need to base this on facts and realistic assumptions around your business. As a starting point, forecast where you’d like your business to be in 12-24 months. From here, you can backfill what resources and hires you’ll need to make to hit those goals. This can be a great starting point for determining how much to raise. From here you can tweak it with interest from investors, the current markets, and more. Related Resource: Building A Startup Financial Model That Works Build Out Your Fundraising Strategy Of course, you can take all of the individual aspects from above and still have a disjointed raise. You can tie them all together to create a fundraising strategy. The above points are a great starting point but need to make sure you have everything in place to reach out to investors. A couple of things to keep in mind: Where will you track your conversations with potential investors? Check out our Fundraising CRM to keep tabs on potential investors (Pro tip: You can add investors directly from Visible Connect, our investor database, to our Fundraising CRM). What data will you need? Do you have clean metrics and financials in place? Having a place to easily pull your key metrics and share them with potential investors will be a huge help. What assets do you need? Do you have a pitch deck ready to go and a plan to make tweaks if needed? Read more: Tips for Creating an Investor Pitch Deck How do you communicate with investors after a meeting? Nurturing potential investors with Visible Updates is a great way to keep them in the loop with the developments of your round. How do you share your pitch deck? Having a great way to share and understand how investors are engaging with your pitch deck and materials is important. Check out our pitch deck sharing tool to learn how it can help with your raise. Remember: Your Strategy Will Stay the Same, But Your Pitch Won’t The idea is that your strategy will stay the same throughout a round. The mechanics, financials, and pitch will vary but the strategy will stay the same. Being thoughtful with your strategy will pay dividends in the long run as your fundraise gets underway. Startup Fundraising Strategy Pitfalls Just like any strategy or process, there are pitfalls that can arise. Luckily, there are thousands of founders that have done it before so there are pitfalls and things you can look out for below: Not Understanding Your Fundraising Stage One of the more common (and avoidable) pitfalls of a fundraise are not being clear with your stage and aspirations. Pitching any investor that lands in your vision can be dangerous. You want to make sure that you are pitching investors that are the correct stage, not too early or late. Focusing Solely on Fundraising As we mentioned earlier, founders are being pulled in a hundred different directions. On top of hiring new employees, retaining current employees, building products, and communicating with stakeholders, founders are responsible for finding financing for the business. Being able to balance the day-to-day as a founder with the pressures of financing is a must. Related Reading: The 23 Best Books for Startup Founders at Any Stage Failing to Provide an Accurate Total Addressable Market (TAM) Analysis At the end of the day, investors want to invest in companies that can turn into massive companies. Modeling your total addressable market and demonstrating how you can turn into a large company is a great way to pique the interest of investors. Learn more to properly model your addressable market in our post, How to Model Total Addressable Market (Template Included). Related Resource: Down Round: Understanding Down Round Funding and How to Avoid It Related Resource: Navigating the Valley of Death: Essential Survival Strategies for Startups What Are Some Other Ways to Obtain Funding? After reading this post you may be thinking that venture capital is not the right financing option for your business. Over the past few years, there has been an explosion of alternative financing options. Check them out below: Related Resource: 6 Types of Investors Startup Founders Need to Know About Accelerators or Incubators Accelerators and incubators are a great way to get your business off the ground. If you find you are too early to raise a seed round, an accelerator or incubator are a great way to wrinkle out your business plan and hit the ground running to find customers and determine if VC is right for you in the future. Crowdfunding Crowdfunding has become increasingly popular as more options become available. The crowdfunding instruments have become easy to manage for founders and more widely accepted across the industry. Related Resources: How to Raise Crowdfunding with Cheryl Campos of Republic Understanding The 4 Types of Crowdfunding Loans As the team at U.S. Small Business Administration puts it, “If you want to retain complete control of your business, but don’t have enough funds to start, consider a small business loan. To increase your chances of securing a loan, you should have a business plan, expense sheet, and financial projections for the next five years. These tools will give you an idea of how much you’ll need to ask for, and will help the bank know they’re making a smart choice by giving you a loan.” Business Plan Competitions Business plan competitions are common at universities and for startups that have potentially not made any progress on developing a product or building a team. The competitions generally reward entrepreneurs with a small check or capital to get started and pursue their vision. Related Reading: How to Write a Business Plan For Your Startup Streamline Your Fundraise with Visible Being able to tie everything together and build a strategy for your fundraise will be an integral part of your fundraising success. Check out how Visible can help you every step of the way below: Visible Connect — Finding the right investors for your business can be tricky. Using Visible Connect, filter investors by different categories (like stage, check size, geography, focus, and more) to find the right investors for your business. Give it a try here. Pitch Deck Sharing — Once you’ve built out your target list of investors, you can start sharing your pitch deck with them directly from Visible. You can customize your sharing settings (like email gated, password gated, etc.) and even add your own domain. Give it a try here. Fundraising CRM — Our Fundraising CRM brings all of your data together. Set up tailored stages, custom fields, take notes, and track activity for different investors to help you build momentum in your raise. We’ll show how each individual investor is engaging with your Updates, Decks, and Dashboards. Give it a try here. Related resource: Top 18 Revolutionary EdTech Startups Redefining Education

Christoph Janz, a Managing Partner of Point Nine Capital, started his career in 1997 as an entrepreneur and has since invested in many SaaS businesses (like Zendesk, Algolia, Typeform, Contentful, and more). Christoph has made a name for himself by not only investing in top-notch SaaS companies but by being a guide when it comes to all things SaaS metrics, data, and benchmarking. Christoph joined us on March 22nd to discuss all things SaaS metrics and benchmarking. A few topics we discussed: The 5 ways to build $100M business What it takes to raise financing in SaaS How Christoph thinks about portfolio company benchmarking

Startups and founders are faced with countless challenges and decisions on a daily basis. Many might be small challenges that can be solved personally but there are always larger decisions and challenges looming that require the help of a lawyer or law firm. In order to better help you choose the right law firm for your startup, we put together some tips, advice, and a few actual firms dedicated to helping startups below. As always, we recommend speaking with your peers, mentors, board members, general counsel, and others when making the decision to bring on a contractor, partner, or law firm. Why It’s Important to Be Selective About Your Law Firm Unfortunately, there is more to building startups than building a product and taking it to market. Along the way, there are events, situations, and decisions filled with legalese that requires the help of a lawyer or law firm. While it might be tempting to get going with the first law firm you speak with, they ultimately will be a partner to your business and should require some selectivity. So what areas will you likely need a hand with from your future law firm? As always, we recommend speaking with your peers, mentors, board members, general counsel, and others when making the decision to bring on a contractor, partner, or law firm. 1. Incorporation Incorporating your startup is an early step in the startup journey. As put at the team at Startup Savant, “Incorporating your startup means establishing your business as a formal legal entity, separate from its founders or owners.” To help with this legal process, you’ll want to make sure you have legal representation to help throughout the process. As written by the team at Contracts Counsel, “A partnership agreement lawyer assists members of a partnership to decide on a business structure through drafting a legal document. Partnership agreement lawyers essentially help businesses craft partnership agreements that reflect the relationship.” 2. Partnership agreements Another early technicality of building a startup is the partnerships and agreements that come with it. 3. Employment Issues Inevitably throughout the life of building a business, employment issues will arise. In order to make sure everyone involved is covered it might make sense to bring in legal help. 4. Protecting your Idea Law firms are also a great way to protect any original ideas or products. This can include trademarks, patents, copyright protection, and more. 5. Protecting your Brand’s Identity Going hand in hand with protecting ideas is protecting your brand’s identity. As the team at HG.org puts it, “Another manner of protecting the ideas of the creator is through a trademark. These may be but are not required to be registered through the United States Patent and Trademark Office. There are benefits when this is completed, but the trademark itself protects the image or brand of a company or owner.” 6. Generating Website Documents and Dealing with Data Privacy Issues As internet regulation continues to change and mature so do the documents and data that deal with privacy issues. As companies have been impacted by GDPR, legal documentation and privacy issues are a standard. Lawyers are a great source to help here. 7. Issuing Stock to Co-Founders When working with cap tables and issuing stock and stock options to co-founders and employees, seeking a lawyer’s help is inevitable. Related Resource: Employee Stock Options Guide for Startups 8. Complying with SEC Regulations When working in the US, startups, and companies are subject to regulations from the SEC. Working with a law firm can be a great source to make sure you are compliant. Related Resource: 6 Components of a VC Startup Term Sheet (Template Included) 9. Financing your Business There is a growing interest amongst law firms to invest in their clients. This has the chance to help fuel growth for your business but can also change the relationship with your law firm. What to Look for In A Startup Law Firm When it comes down to looking for your specific law firm there are certainly questions and thoughts to keep in mind. Before even taking a meeting with a potential law firm, ask yourself the following questions. While you might not be able to answer them fully before speaking with them, you should have a strong understanding and can spend your time meeting with them to focus on the fine details. As always, we recommend speaking with your peers, mentors, board members, general counsel, and others when making the decision to bring on a contractor, partner, or law firm. Do they have startup experience? There are countless types of law firms that all specialize in different areas. Even within business, there are law firms that will hone in on different aspects. Make sure you are communicating and working with law firms that understand the mechanics of startups and have done it before. What does their scope of work look like? Working with a law firm is another relationship and partner for you and your business to take on. Be sure you understand how they communicate, their standards, and more before hiring a firm. Talking to current and past clients of theirs is a great way to verify their scope of work. Do they have valuable startup connections? If you are hiring a law firm that specializes in the startup world, chances are they have connections to other startups and partners in the space. Determine their willingness to make connections and consider if that is something you are looking for in a law firm. Is the cost in-line with your budget? Simply put, are they affordable? Law firms come in all shapes and sizes. It can be a considerable expense for your business so make sure they align with your budget and goals. Do you share similar values and/or culture? As we’ve alluded to previously, adding a law firm is adding a partner to your business. Making sure there is a chemistry and match in your values/culture is a great way to ensure a strong relationship. Related Resource: A User-Friendly Guide to Startup Accounting Great Startup Law Firms to Consider As always, we recommend speaking with your peers, mentors, board members, and others when making the decision to bring on a contractor, partner, or law firm. However, we have laid out a few law firms below that specialize in working with startups: Cooley Cooley is a startup-focused law firm based out of Palo Alto. As the team at Firsthand puts it, “The go-to firm for startups and early-stage companies, Cooley is ideal for those seeking cutting-edge work with innovative clients. The firm has a highly social culture that will no doubt appeal to affable personalities and boasts a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. With more than 1,200 lawyers practicing across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, Cooley is synonymous with tech and venture capital work. The firm is also well regarded for its cleantech, cyber/data/privacy, IP, M&A, private equity, and securities practices.” Learn more here. Related Resource: Private Equity vs Venture Capital: Critical Differences Fenwick Fenwick has offices across the United States and has built a name for itself by working with high-profile technology companies and startups. Fenwick features a startup resources section on their website and takes a founder’s first approach. Learn more here. Gunderson Dettmer As put by the team at NYC Founder Guide, “Six years in a row, Pitchbook has ranked this firm #1 for high-growth technology and life sciences companies and investors globally. With a singular focus on startups and emerging companies, they are recognized as one of the most active law firms in the VC market, and in 2019, they closed $18+ billion of venture capital private financings. Startups they’ve worked with include Harry’s, Vimeo, Skillshare, and Oscar.” Learn more here. Goodwin From their website, “We are a global law firm with a history of working on groundbreaking matters, and an increasingly focused approach to working with clients in the financial, private equity, real estate, technology and life sciences industries. Our more than 1,800 corporate and litigation lawyers leverage their specific experience and assemble full-service teams to advise clients in these and adjacent industries.” Learn more here. Keep Investors Up-To-Date with Visible Getting in the habit of sending monthly investor updates is a surefire way to help with fundraising, hiring, and growing. To get started, pick a template from our library and tailor it to your business. Just remember that at the end of the day, sending anything is better than sending nothing at all. Visible allows founders to update investors, track key metrics, and raise capital all from one platform. Try Visible for free to send your next investor update.