By Clay…? (raised ~1.6M, then ~1.2M) and Richard Giles (raised 250K).
Talking about angel funding and venture capital for web projects and about Silicon Valley.
What level of equity do you have to give away? It depends largely on who’s with the company? Good, well-known staff will let you keep more, but most people typically give 25-30%.
Needing lots of money, is it better to do it in rounds? Or go for the whole lot? Case by case. Clay, etc. got all 100K from directors on the basis of a small document, the business. Then developed for a while, then went looking for funding from well-off people on the basis of a 60min powerpoint talk. 20 meetings. Had a track record.
Richard Giles: Need a good business plan.
- Market research, other players, what they sold for, etc.
- Cashflow projections, valuation, etc. from an accountant
- Information memorandum that you can shoot off
- Sitting down with potential investors…
Clay: Hesitate including too much in the way of projections (otherwise they’ll be coming back wanting to know where the growth/profits/etc. is).
There was an awesome point about the US being about “How do we get bought by Google?” and the Australia about “How do we make money as a standalone company?”. Also, someone mentioned that UK funding is for “sensible” projects, and US funding for “exciting” ones.