5 Tips on “How the hell can we raise money?”

Team, Big Market, Product, Business Model, Traction, Revenues, Unfair Competitive Advantage… What are investors really looking for? How much money are they willing to bet on your idea, product, company? At what valuation? What is the real “cost” of raising money? How can you maximize your chances of raising money?

Serial entrepreneur and angel investor, Tanguy Lesselin and guest speaker Leslie Loh of Red Dot Ventures tackled these questions on May 24th, in the talk co-organized by SGE “How the hell can we raise money” (view pictures). The talk, attended by more than 60 entrepreneurs, was followed by chillin’ with drinks with Leslie Loh.

For the ones interested with the slides:

Here are 5 key takeaways for entrepreneurs to note:

1. Raise enough money to get to the next round, i.e. have a runway >18 months (ideally 24) in order to cover both the achievements of major milestones plus the time required to raise another round
2. The best companies don’t bootstrap too long, otherwise they miss the big opportunity
3. Traction beats all other investment criteria when it comes to getting investors hooked
4. You need to implement Investor Relationship Management to expand and strengthen your investor network
5. Do your homework to avoid paying for the basic advice on investment terms
Besides, some useful tools are included for reference in the presentation:
• capitalization table (to simulate founder dilution over time)
• example of a milestone-based business plan (Excel spreadsheet) in order to remind you how important it is to link milestones to valuation,
• links to interesting presentations on the matter.

View the five tips on the first talk “How to fire up your dream team” and more PowerPoint from tlesselin.

Also check out a short video interview  with Leslie by SGE at JFDI.asia’s Demo Day and a study on the role of venture capital and angel investors in the tech startup scene in Singapore by Prof Wong Poh Kam.