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Funding options for high-growth startups

If your idea is highly innovative and ambitious, it is likely that you will need some form of funding to build the product and test it in a market that has not seen anything like it before. There are various types of funding based on your business needs and each of them has its own benefits and downsides. We have curated a list to give you an insight into the different types of funding for startups and what you need to consider for each.

 

  1. Complete Guide to Government Funding For Startups

This guide looks at all the government funding options available for startups, from incorporation through to the later stages of growth.

 

  1. Bootstrapping vs. Venture Capital

When entrepreneurs are contemplating how to realize the dreams they have for their concept or product, they most often contemplate raising an angel or venture funding round to bring these ideas to light. On the other hand, there are also thousands of entrepreneurs who have used bootstrapping as a strategy for survival until they got to a sizeable revenue figure, and only then have sought funding. Not only could they easily convince the investors of their revenue and business model, as they had a strong record of trailing numbers, but they could also command a respectable premium for that proof.

This article discusses the many factors that are important in deciding whether fundraising or bootstrapping is the right choice for you.

 

  1. Fundraising advice to avoid

A thread of questionable fundraising advice you may want to think twice about before following.

 

  1. A guide to Seed fundraising

Startup companies need to purchase equipment, rent offices, and hire staff. More importantly, they need to grow. In almost every case they will require outside capital to do these things. The initial capital raised by a company is typically called “seed” capital. This brief guide is a summary of what startup founders need to know about raising the seed funds critical to getting their company off the ground.

 

  1. Selecting your investors

Fred Wilson has been a venture investor and director in Return Path since 2000, first with Flatiron Partners and then with Union Square Ventures. If you’re fortunate enough to have built a really strong early-stage company, you will find yourself in the position of being able to pick from a number of potential venture investors. The better your business and the more exciting the space you’re trying to tackle…the more investors you’ll find circling around you.  This blog by Fred provides a few tips for ending up with the best long-term partner as an investor.

 

  1. Best pitch decks in one place

Pitch decks used for fundraising by the most popular companies you might know about such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Uber, Airbnb etc.

 

  1. Understanding investment term sheet

Even with a very similar headline valuation, term sheets can in fact mean fundamentally different things for an early-stage business. This article runs through some of the main topics of term sheets, arranged as you might find them in a typical Series A funding. It focuses on the impact these terms might have on your business, and why it is important both to understand them, and compare them on a holistic basis…not just to focus on the headline number.

 

  1. Lessons learnt by a founder from first fundraise

Learning about others’ experiences increases the number of data points you have on what specifically worked (and what didn’t!), and you are able to develop a much deeper understanding of the fundraising process. This blog highlights the less obvious lessons learnt by a founder, that could be useful to you in your fundraising journey.

 

  1. Burn rate

A blog by renowned investor Fred Wilson to explain what burn rate is and why it matters for startups.

 

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