We get you into investor meetings
Founders face many challenges when scaling their startups. Fundraising is one of the main critical problems that needs to be solved. We get you into investor meetings. Being a first-time fundraiser and having to approach investors raises some questions:
- Which financing options do I have?
- How long does it take to raise funds from investors?
- Which potential investors shall I address?
- How to prepare well before getting in contact with investors?
- What is the valuation range for my startup?
- How do I get into contact with potential investors?
We are here to help you professionalize your funding process. Attract suitable investors with high-quality and well thought-through documentation – with key2investors.
Funding options and the problem with timing when raising capital from investors
Nowadays it is difficult for founders to get a loan from a commercial bank to fund your startup. Which other options do you have and have you looked into your alternatives before deciding on your funding path TheEuropean Startup Monitor (2015) gives you a good overview of funding sources for startups in Europe. Which ones are used The biggest source of financing for a start-up are the savings of founders, but since this source hardly ever covers all necessary funds, entrepreneurs must look elsewhere. Crowdfunding, seemingly omnipresent, are used by only 4% as a funding source, governmental subsidies are especially important in Austria.
One big source of financing are investments from venture capitalists and business angels. However, raising capital from investors takes on average six to nine months. This is a long period of time and we know that money needs to come in faster. This is why we created key2investors.
Understanding the investor landscape to know which investors to address
As an entrepreneur, you want to close the round of funding not only successfully but also rapidly. VCs and business angels however receive a ton of pitches and simply cannot invest in every startup whose business idea appears to be promising. Money is scarce. Therefore, it?s crucial for entrepreneurs to identify a list of investors who could potentially be interested in their company rather than addressing a broad range of investors without accurate profiling beforehand. However, the investor landscape is far from transparent. You need to track down your relevant investors according to regional focus, industry focus, ticket size, startup phase, just to name a few criteria. As a consequence, the process of filtering suitable investors can not only be time-consuming, but also nerve-racking, especially for first-time entrepreneurs.
The good news is, that the online platform key2investors provides you with resources helping you through this crucial process. key2investors was created to make the search for investors easier. It is focusing on investor-profiling, offering information on more than 1,000 investors which are tagged and can be filtered according to your criteria.
How to prepare well before investor meetings and what is my startup valuation?
Even before you get into contact the first time with a potential investor or group of investors, you need to prepare well. 80% of pitches are disregarded by the investors because of different reasons, one of them is that the documentation is not easy to understand, not well thought through. It is mandatory for startups to explain their product, market, USP, competition, track record, product roadmap, KPIs, financials and go-to-market strategy to the point and fast; right in the same way as they communicate excellently with their customers. Having a short teaser documentation ready that clearly communicates this like a management summary of your pitch, is one of the preparations that need to be done well.
When entering the process of negotiations with investors, one key information you want to know for yourself, which valuation range an investor would apply for your startup. There are several valuation methods that can be used to come up with a well-defendable and benchmarked valuation for your startup. It is the basis to be at a par with the investors during negotiations.
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How do I get into contact with potential investors?
Cold contacting is not the best track, although with a good teaser documentation we have experienced ourselves when supporting startups, that we can get into investor negotiations. However, getting an introduction to the potential investor via someone you know in common (warm contacting) is the best option together with getting in front of investors at events (e.g. pitching), having them reaching out to you because you got a perfect track record or having others recommend you to them.
We are working on helping you, once you are well prepared, to get in front of investors faster. Cooperations with, e.g. GIIVX for impact investing, startup wise guys for Eastern Europeans B2B investor connections, local investor communities, help us to support you in this.
How key2investors supports you
key2investors offers a solution to the non-transparent investor landscape by providing access to a database of almost 2,000 investors, which are filtered by regional focus, industry, technology, startup phase and more. This allows entrepreneurs to create a strategic list of 30 to 40 potential investors.
key2investors offers a solution to the always hot topic of time is money by supporting startups in the preparation of the financing process, imparting know-how on the investment process and the investors needs.
key2investors provides access to valuation data, benchmarks and best practices to help you get prepared and have the right arguments when entering into negotiations with investors. It also generates a professional teaser of all the entered data needed for contacting investors.
key2investors can connect you with networks of investors and cooperations such as GIIVX once you are well prepared.
The people behind key2investors and more support
Why we are doing this. With experience in the mergers & acquisitions area since 2002 and having the pleasure to guide several startups through their investors process with konsultori, Petra Wolkenstein is a long-term expert in the field and works with her team and cooperation partners on this topic. When we have helped startups in this process via startup consulting and workshops, however, I have seen that many things can be provided online for self-service. The knowledge transfer on the process, which investors are available, as well as benchmark-data on the startup valuation or templates for good teasers and examples, is what startups need when raising capital first-time. And this can be done on a platform. If you need challenge, discussion, feedback on your preparation or even help on accessing investors, just get in contact, anytime, we help also offline or via skype.
Our goal is to reduce the time of finding investors and for your startup to grow. Imagine cutting down on the tedious search for investors and having all the necessary know-how from the very start, being able of going into discussions with investors in parallel and financing your startup within fewer weeks. That is what we make happen and we know that this is possible, because we have done it before.
Let?s get you into investor meetings
Get access to the knowledge, the process, the templates, the benchmark data and investor profiles to get a head-start and start the process. Any questions, recommendations, things you need: Just get in contact with us?or simply get started now?with your free trial.
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