Take-aways for Funding for Startups online seminar

 Yesterday I watched an online seminar on this subject - it's focus was doing this in Europe.

Here are my takeaways (with some names remove but - for co-founders - in our samepage site).

• Seedcamp - good way to progress your startup
• It is now easier to find funding in Europe
• Crowd funding here is alive and well - I've heard this elsewhere, it's difficult to do this in the US due to their overbearing regulations. It's also a great way to involve your customer. It is most definitely not Kickstarter which they called a demand generator. Notable platforms include Seders and Crowdcube.
• Angels - seed funding up to €1.5m. They may not, however, be so involved as before. Some names will be in our samepage version of this:
• Keep going to events to meet potential angels.
• Also, get to London and Berlin to get into the startup ecosystem there
• "Timing is important" in terms of product 
• Investors are now spoilt for choice
• Quality of founders has improved.
• Have a comprehensive team
• Make sure you can differentiate against similar ideas from competitors
• Be global - you can no longer build a one-country-only business and expect funding
• "Once Delaware can't go back" - meaning if you register there you are stuck
• UK registration is still recommended - despite all that Brexit nonsense - because of transparency and respect for the rule of law.
• There are several government grants (Honey 2020, Marco Polo 2, London Investment Fund, Enterprise Capital Fund, Angel Co fund) although they may be costly in terms of preparation of the materials (need lawyers etc.)
• "Capital in King" - approach funders before you need the funding
• Investors are looking for:
• Team
• Proper incorporation
• Thorough understanding of the business area you are in
• Traction
• Engagement - understand the value to, and use by, users
• The solution should be
• big
• needed
• and talk about it, get feedback

Take away from the PAN investment seminar

Another excellent seminar, the third and last in this series.

A pitch deck was given out but here are my additional take aways:

• This talk was focused on VCs and seemed to have a slight German edge
• Get financing for 15 to 18 months, not fewer 
• VC ownership can range from 20 to 30%
• The initial pitch deck should be no more than 20 to 30 slides
• It takes six to eight months to close
• You must have questions for the VC
• Lawyer up
• Angel investment ranges from very small to 10m(!)
• Next stage investors will ask them to compare your previous round's pitch deck with what you are now presenting
• So you should allow your seed round to have a decent amount of time to show achievements  and traction 
• Guaranteed catalog is hard to negotiate 
• By series A show there is at least a plan to eventually get a CFO

Third time lucky

Yesterday I went to a rather excellent 12min.me.

The investor I wanted to catch up had also put his name down and was there at the beginning.

We agreed to talk after the talks (which lasted 12 minutes).

There was, of course, a lot of networking going on afterwards but we managed to speak and for me to show him the app.

He gave good advice (go to Bay Startup who may forward your details to suitable angels). He also agreed to put me in contact with an angel investor who seems, to me, to be quite suitable.

Fighting

I went to the Tech Founder's meetup on Wednesday mainly because a possible investor was there.

He wasn't.

So, on Thursday morning I dropped him a message via LinkedIn. He said he was going to the Founder's Fight Club - which I hadn't heard of - that evening.

I put myself on the wait list and was soon accepted.

It was a very good evening. We were put in teams and as to propose a business solution to a stated problem.

Our team did well, we almost one but didn't, and got a special prize. I did my usual assertiveness thing to make sure that I was noticed by everyone, including the investor I wanted to talk with.

I will try to catch up with him when he's next in Munich but at least he is more aware of me now.

There were some take aways:

• Don't worry about exit
• Find an itch - so that it's something you really want to work at
• Read about Google Sprint which is an alternative to Lean Startup.

It was a very fun evening and I met some good people.

Super progress

On Monday I realised that when Apple, a few days before, had written that they looked forward to me re-submitting the app they mean they hadn't received the new version. Even though I had uploaded it to iTunes Connect.

I spent the morning carefully resubmitting it. This was quite an effort.

On Tuesday night, in bed, just before I switched my phone to "stop-pinging-me-everytime-I-get-an-email-or-other-notification" I received a ping. Apple had changed the status of the app from "In review" to "Ready for Sale".

But it is a free app.

I got up and checked the status on my iTunes portal and checked the online documentation which confirmed that "Ready for Sale" meant approved and released to the App Store.

But it could take 24 hours (and some forums had reported days) before it would be visible on the App Store.

Five hours later, in the morning, I woke up and checked the App Store. It was there!

Finally, after two months, the app is not only on the Google Play Store but also on the Apple App Store.

Yesterday evening I went to a Tech Founders pitch event. About 15 people in a line doing a one minute elevator pitch one after the other. A VC investment manager I hoped was there wasn't. Then there was food (of awesomeness) and beer. Then I left and met a friend nearby for cocktails.

This morning I used the opportunity of missing the investor to drop him a LinkedIn PM.