ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE!!

So rather than saying it again I will show you a great example.

We’ve finally decided on the format for our upcoming series of webinars. Remember these are an extension of our original start-up bootcamps. So you can expect the same type of content; real world info and examples of how to plan, structure, fund, manage and grow your business. No textbook, wooly theoretics but lessons learned in real life business environments shared by people who not only talk the talk but who have also walked the walk!

The webinars are free to participate but pre-registration is required. You can register online here.

Date and time is every Wednesday evening from 7 pm until 9pm starting Wednesday August 25th. We will intersperse the webinars with workshops and other similar event, news about these will follow shortly.

His recent blogpost deals with Terms Sheets & exit values. Both are inescapable facts for any start-up that trues to raise funding. The contents of Term Sheets as well as the concept of Exit Values can be sometime hard to grasp for fist time fundraisers (and even for those who have done it all before). However the point is to not become blinded by all sheer mass of details contained in a term sheet. Most of this is formality and you should really contract a qualified legal and/or financial professional to deal with those details. What should really concern you are only a few points:

• The amount you are raising
• The amount of equity you are offering in exchange
• Your dilution (i.e. how much of your company will you own after this round of funding)
• The types of shares you are offering (preferential, common etc)
• How all this fits in with your future funding needs
• The exit

The exit, or more exactly the exit value, is what ultimately will decide the amount of money that you will be able to raise. The maths can be very basic; if you’re raising 1 million for 25% equity and your investor expects a 10x return (most expect that or more) than that 25% has to be worth at least 10 million at the time of exit.  This has to be reflected clearly in your financial projections (and oh yeah forget about 3 year financials, 5 years make much more sense).

A lot of this is covered in mind-numbing detail during our bootcamps. But don’t let the mind-numbing put you off.

KNOWING THIS WILL SAVE YOU MONEY

Understanding a VC’s thinking will put you in a much stronger position when the time comes for you to sit across the table from them. It also stops you from looking like a fool…

This brings back something I already discussed in an early post: Does a start-up accelerator really need a physical presence?In the current times of excellent global communication systems I do not think this is neccesary. As the main benefits of an start-up accelerator (knowledge, experience, insight & network) are intangible it should be possible and acceptable to distribute these via data/voice/video communications. This is only a short step from the current sessions where we have the mentor participating video video link.

So we are now working on putting a facility in place whereby he bootcamps will be sent out as an interactive webinar. We will still have pitching days and a few hands on workshops but you will be able to participate in the bootcamp sessions from the comfort of your own desk.

Stay tuned for more!

Location: Office Ireland premsises, Castletroy, Limerick.

Topic: “Exits & Valuations”

Costs: NONE

Register here.

SPREAD THE WORD!

Last Wednesday saw the first of a series of 10 start-up bootcamps. We were lucky to have David Kirk “in-country” and able to present this event in person. The session took place in the excellent “Office Ireland” facilities in Castletroy Limerick.

The evenings event was crammed full of information as David squeezed in two topics: “The Business of Business” & “The Business of Investing”. While it was a lot of information to cram in one evening it was valuable as it addressed a lot of important issues that a lot of start-ups tend to forget as they get carried away in their enthousiasm to develop a product or service. Topics discussed were CAP tables, dilution, equity, shares issued, shares authorised, share options etc. David made clear how getting these things “right” at the beginning can avoid a lot of problems later down the line. If you get your CAP table wrong it can lead to an incorrect valuation later on or the founders equity share can get diluted to nothing when you go looking for outside funding.

Next was a revelealing insight into different types of funding (Friends & Family, Angels and Venture). It showed the differences between the different types, at what stage they are mostly applied and what he benefits and drawbacks of each type of funding are. The insight provided in how VC’s actually make their money and how that impacts on how and when they invest was particularly interesting. The fact that the number that you have put in the box for your year-5 revenue at the back of your financial projection included with your business-plan might have more influence on the VC’s decision to invest than *anything* else in your business-plan is a startling revelation to quite a lot of people.

Also worth considering when looking at the possibilities of securing VC funding is that out of 10 companies that a VC invest in they (on average) expect 3 to fail and another 3 to only return the investment (at best). That means that the remaining 4 companies need to generate a high enough return to pay the VC’s management fee, carried interest and still generate sufficient return for the VC’s Limited Partners. In simple terms that means that you will need to show an average of 10 – 15 times return for every euro that a VC invests in your company.  Food for thought……

The session will not be going for the feel good factor, they will throw you in the deep end and expect you to get involved. No boring monologues but frank open session providing you with knowledge gained from real life business environments instead of courses and books.

Will you be handed the “secret to your success” on a plate? NO! But we will give you the tools for your potential success and teach you how to use them. It is up to you to do the hard work and make your venture successful.

Read more here….