Unicorn ¿ The Startup Founder's Guide to Raising Venture Capital

Unicorn ¿ The Startup Founder's Guide to Raising Venture Capital PDF Author: Alexander Muse
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781088047491
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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

Unicorn ¿ The Startup Founder's Guide to Raising Venture Capital

Unicorn ¿ The Startup Founder's Guide to Raising Venture Capital PDF Author: Alexander Muse
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781088047491
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

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

Unicorn Tears

Unicorn Tears PDF Author: Jamie Pride
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0730348695
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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

The Holloway Guide to Raising Venture Capital: The Comprehensive Fundraising Handbook for Startup Founders

The Holloway Guide to Raising Venture Capital: The Comprehensive Fundraising Handbook for Startup Founders PDF Author: Andy Sparks
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781952120213
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
A current and comprehensive resource for entrepreneurs, with technical detail, practical knowledge, real-world scenarios, and pitfalls to avoid.

The Holloway Guide to Raising Venture Capital

The Holloway Guide to Raising Venture Capital PDF Author: Andy Sparks
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781952120091
Category : New business enterprises
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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

The Fundraising Strategy Playbook

The Fundraising Strategy Playbook PDF Author: Arooj Sheikh
Publisher: Arooj Sheikh
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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

Startup VC - Guide

Startup VC - Guide PDF Author: Jason Thiel
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3752697393
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description


Founder’s Pocket Guide: Startup Valuation

Founder’s Pocket Guide: Startup Valuation PDF Author: Stephen R. Poland
Publisher: 1x1 Media
ISBN: 1938162048
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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

The Art of Startup Fundraising

The Art of Startup Fundraising PDF Author: Alejandro Cremades
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119191831
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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

Founder’s Pocket Guide: Raising Angel Capital

Founder’s Pocket Guide: Raising Angel Capital PDF Author: Stephen R. Poland
Publisher: 1x1 Media
ISBN: 1938162102
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 122

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

Super Founders

Super Founders PDF Author: Ali Tamaseb
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541768418
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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