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8 Entrepreneur Mistakes That Turn Off Real Investors

Startup Professionals Musings

Getting investors to trust you with their money is always a challenge, and it’s even more difficult in the early stages, where you don’t have a significant revenue stream, a few customers, or maybe even a product yet. Here is my list of red flags that cause many investors to look elsewhere: No well-defined need or viable customer set.

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8 Parameters To Bracket New Venture Funding Requests

Startup Professionals Musings

Angel investors will perk up if you have a prototype or a few real customers, while venture capitalists will likely choose to wait until you have achieved several million in revenue or customer count. Most professional investors will expect preferred stock, a board seat, rights to later rounds and perhaps anti-dilution protection.

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These 8 Disciplines Define A Fundable Entrepreneur

Startup Professionals Musings

A C-corporation is more complex and expensive, and is recommended only if you expect to pitch to professional investors who demand preferred stock, or to more than 100 potential shareholders. Demonstrate a concentrated focus on customers early on. Accumulate customer advocates, testimonials and “letters of intent.”

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8 Funding Proposal Red Flags Every Startup Can Avoid

Startup Professionals Musings

Getting investors to trust you with their money is always a challenge, and it’s even more difficult in the early stages, where you don’t have a significant revenue stream, a few customers, or maybe even a product yet. Here is my list of red flags that cause many investors to look elsewhere: No well-defined need or viable customer set.

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8 Key Business Elements Set Startup Investor Interest

Startup Professionals Musings

Angel investors will perk up if you have a prototype or a few real customers, while venture capitalists will likely choose to wait until you have achieved several million in revenue or customer count. Most professional investors will expect preferred stock, a board seat, rights to later rounds and perhaps anti-dilution protection.

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Cram Down – A Test of Character for VCs and Founders

Steve Blank

Some even insisted that all prior preferred stock had to be converted to common stock. While a few cram downs have been turned around, (though I can’t think of any) given you haven’t found enough customers by now, the odds are you’re never going to be a successful enterprise.

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Startup Funding – A Comprehensive Guide for Entrepreneurs

ReadWriteStart

The primary source of your funds should be your paying customers, i.e., your business should generate enough revenues and profits to fund the growth and expansion. Any custom manufactured IoT device would require software development as well as hardware customization. Both of which are expensive and time-consuming.