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As Startups.com and Fundable founder Wil Schroter likes to says, “There’s not a lot of ‘fun’ in funding.”

Raising equity funding for your startup is a long, difficult, and often demoralizing process. However, if you’re successful, you walk away with money that will help your startup grow and become everything you hope it could become.

But despite these challenges, thousands of startups raise funding every year, implying that the potential rewards outweigh the guaranteed strife and risk. Here’s an outline of what a startup founder can expect at each startup funding stage.

Pre-Seed Funding

Pre-seed funding is the earliest startup funding stage, so early that many people don’t include it in the cycle of equity funding.

At this stage, founders...

When a startup is bootstrapping, every last penny counts. Those early days of no or minimal funding are fraught for founders watching the number in the bank account get smaller and smaller but, unfortunately, most things that startups need cost money.

But what if they didn’t? What if, instead, you were able to trade your services for the services you so desperately need to get your startup off the ground?

Bringing Bartering Into The 21st Century

That’s the idea behind Currency, a new site that takes a very old concept — bartering — and make it totally 21st century. The site lets companies trade their “currency,” which they can define themselves, for other things that they need. So, for example, maybe you have a company that does stationary...

It was recently reported that the co-Founder of WeWork Adam Neumann took over $700 million off the table from investors long before the company had gone public.

How do these Founders go about getting cash out of their startups long before the startups ever cash out themselves?

Why would investors let me take money off the table?

Investors will often dangle the option of providing some Founder liquidity only when the deal they are trying to get into feels incredibly competitive.

This happens only rarely, and only amongst investors who are open to providing some Founder liquidity (some are very against it!).

Generally speaking, it only helps the investor by allowing them to get into the deal but provides very little upside to the company a...

When it comes to financing a startup, government grants for small businesses aren’t the first thing most founders look toward. And they shouldn’t be. While it’s great to get “free money” if you can, federal grants are only available for specific fields and specific uses — and they’re not easy to get.

However, if your startup does qualify for a government grant for small business, then they’re potentially a great source of funding that you don’t have to pay back.

But unlike other industries, startups have another source of funding that we don’t have to pay back, at least immediately: Venture Capital.

Venture capital is also hard to acquire and certainly comes with stipulations — including giving up equity in your startup — but it’s usually ...

Continuing in Phase Three of a four-part Funding Series:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

• Part 1 - Anatomy of a Pitch

• Part 2 - Market Size

• Part 3 - Revenue Model

• Part 4 - Operating Model

• Part 5 - Customer Definition

• Part 6 - Customer Acquisition (←YOU ARE HERE 😀)

• Part 7 - Funding

• Part 8 - Key Pitch Assets

• Part 9 - Traction

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

Let’s dive in!

Our Customer Acquisition Slide in our pitch deck details our acquisition strategy for new customers. For many startups, defining a marketing growth strategy will be inherently linked to our customer acquisition cost for new customers and the key metrics in how we convert them.

What does a Customer Acquisition Strategy look like...

What are angel investors?

Angel investors are wealthy individuals who invest in startups, usually at the early stages. Sometimes angel investors pool their money with other angel investors, forming an investor pool.

The typical angel investor is someone whose net worth is likely in excess of $1 million or who earns over $200,000 per year. Incidentally, those look a lot like the credentials of an accredited investor.

Realize, though, that the angel investor is playing with their own money — not invested capital — so even though they may be a high net worth individual, they are still looking at money coming out of their personal bank account.

Federal angel investment tax credits

When you’re talking about federal angel investment tax credits,...

Are you in the startup or growth and establishment phase of your business? Odds are you’re already thinking about the importance of location.

Where you’re located might not be a huge concern when you’re the sole member of your “team”. However, once you grow the business past a critical point, you’ll need to attract additional talent and investment.

The temptation to set up shop in an inexpensive city is entirely understandable. On the face of it, it seems the most cost-effective option. After all, startup hubs such as New York, San Francisco, London, and Singapore regularly rank in the top 10 most expensive cities in the world, both for cost of living and cost of doing business. So why not go somewhere cheaper? Or even further afield: to a ...

Crowdfunding has become an increasingly popular way for individuals and businesses alike to raise much-needed capital. The relatively low cost of entry and accessibility of popular crowdfunding platforms have fueled this revolution in funding.

But while it might look easy — and seem like a no-brainer — to launch a crowdfunding campaign, there are strong pros and cons to consider.

Founders considering launching a crowdfunding campaign might wonder:

1. Is it worth it?
2. How hard will it really be?
3. What are the true pros and cons of crowdfunding?

To answer those questions (and a few more that people might not have even thought of), we reached out to our network of crowdfunding experts.

Our list includes founders of crowdfunding platforms, serial...

What is company culture?

Despite how obsessed the startup world is with company culture, there’s no singular definition we can all turn to. But there are really two parts to it: Philosophical and practical.

On a philosophical level, company culture is the intangible atmosphere of your company. Some people call it the “personality” or the “glue that holds everyone together” or even the “soul.” It’s as much a feeling — of belonging, of shared purpose, even of similar ways of dress — as it is an aspiration for the entire company to contribute to.

“The truth is that culture – on its own – is not the thing that will bring you success in whatever way you may define it for yourself and your team,” Adii Pienaar, founder of Conversio, says. “Buildin...

Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital through the collective effort of friends, family, customers, and individual investors.

This approach taps into the collective efforts of a large pool of individuals — primarily online via social media and crowdfunding platforms — and leverages their networks for greater reach and exposure.

Sounds great, right?

But because this method is relatively new, many people don’t understand exactly how crowdfunding works.

Simply stated, crowdfunding works by presenting your idea to people inside and outside of your network and allowing them to contribute toward your fundraising goals online.

Who is the "Crowd" Anyway?

The crowd is essentially your personal network, potential customers, and — in the case ...