Taking on capital has a cost and an inherent risk. Specifically, when you take on capital, you’re giving up equity and entering into an agreement with your shareholders to ultimately work towards delivering value back to them. There are risks associated with raising more capital than you can return that could materially impact the health […]
We launched the first program in our 2016 Entrepreneurial Education Series, “When to Raise Venture Capital or Bootstrap,” on March 3rd with our partner 1871. The event brought together powerhouse entrepreneurs and investors Bill Pescatello (Partner, Lightbank), Pam Netzky (Co-Founder, SkinnyPop), Kristi Ross (Co-CEO & President, dough), Katlin Smith (Founder & CEO, Simple Mills), and […]
As the technology startup landscape has developed and transformed in the last two decades, so have the backers and investment vehicles behind it. From micro-VCs to equity crowdfunding, there are an abundance of funding options that either never existed before, or did in very different forms. Take venture debt. In the early 2000s, there were […]
As an entrepreneur seeking funding, you have a variety of term sheet options, including the safe (simple agreement for future equity). Originally created by Y Combinator as an alternative to convertible notes, the safe maintains the flexibility of a convertible note but addresses many of its problems. It does not collect interest or have a […]
Entrepreneurs need capital to support their businesses, but they often think venture capital is the only way despite a number of other options. One of those options is venture debt, which startups can qualify for once they’ve raised a venture capital round. We spoke with Bailey Moore, Vice President of Wintrust Ventures, about how venture […]
As an early-stage entrepreneur, your first instinct might be to go straight to angels or venture capital firms to help accelerate you from the idea or prototype stage to a successful launch. However, that can be a losing strategy with investors looking to see market traction of some kind and measure your product-market fit. At […]
Up until now, our ongoing term sheet series has focused on how to read an equity term sheet and a convertible debt term sheet. But before you learn to read term sheets, you need to know what your financing options are. Specially, as an entrepreneur, what kind of deal structure makes the most sense for your […]
Register for “How to Work with Your Advisors, Board Members, and Investors” on November 12 at 6:00 pm at 1871 to learn more about this and other topics on our blog. As an entrepreneur raising capital, you have many options on what type of round to pursue: equity, safe, or even convertible debt. Especially in […]
In the first post of our cap table series, we broke down a cap table into its most basic parts and defined each one. As a quick refresher, cap tables all of the shareholders in your business and lay out who owns what, how much each one owns, and what value is assigned to the […]
To really succeed at building relationships with angel groups and getting investments from them, you have to understand how they work. If you match an angel group’s investment criteria, the next step is to go through their process. But for a lot of entrepreneurs, that process is opaque. While some angel groups might provide you […]
