What works in seed funding - Piotr Wilam

What works in seed funding & …Piotr Wilam

April 2015 - Wolves Summit

What does not work in seed funding and how to improve it fast.

VC PRIMER

Build $1B companyGrow your sales to $100m annually

wait, but why?

VCs to entrepreneurs

➡ find something scalable($100m revenue potential) with competitive advantage and grow sales faster than anybody else.

➡ you will get money to grow(Round A, B, ...), you will attract the best people, you will generate returns

From: @ VCs

To: @ Entrepreneurs

Alternative path is difficult

➡ limited potential to attract talent

➡ limited resources to scale sales

➡ limited success

My thesis is that both are necessary

Have traction and a scalable product

Have a view on the financing roadmap of your company

+

How to approach VCs

US EUROPE POLAND

S E E D F U N D I N G

3 stages

Pre-seed Money

Seed Money

Round A Money

prototype in search of scalable sales

growing sales

sometimes first sales

This lecture is about seed stage!

VA

LU

AT

IO

N

T I M E

* There is a boom market.

Changes in the US*

EUROPE POLANDUS

➡ YC gets bigger

➡ Accelerators are abundant

➡ AL expands

➡ Kickstarter expands

➡ VCs go down

➡ micro VCs flourish

➡ angels grow in numbers

➡ There are 100s of seed investors

Changes in Europe*

EUROPE POLANDUS

➡ hubs are growing

➡ there are at most 10s of active seed investors for a given hub

* There is a boom but the market is much smaller.

➡ pan-European investments grow as well

➡ there are 10s of active pan-European investors

Changes in Poland*

EUROPE POLANDUS

➡ a substantial US interest among entrepreneurs

➡ few value add early stage investors

* The market is getting more professional.

➡ interest from Europe

➡ public seed, pre-seed, KFK funding

ConclusionsThe number of financing options grow as you move

Investors from a local center

Investors from Europe

Investors in the US

*The European investment market is at its beginning.

Conclusions

Investors in a local center

Investors in Europe

Investors in the US

market hardly exists

market at the begining

ripe market with 100sof investment options

What to do?

PLAN YOUR GROWTH

Enter the path to build $1B companyand grow your sales to $100m annually

Prerequisite

Plan your financial roadmap

* There is a boom market.

You will need Round A

locally in Europe in the US

Plan your financial roadmapYou will need Round A

locally

in Europe in the US

Step 1➡ think about geography

➡ make a research of your future Round A investors.

➡ make a list of 10-20 investors.

➡ see who they invest in and what are the requirements

➡ make research of seed investors your round A investors like

➡ make a list of 20-40 seed investors.

➡ make an effort, meet a couple of them, listen to feedback and iterate.

Step 2

CONCLUSIONS

What does not work in seed funding? The seed investment market in Europe is at its beginning.

How to improve it fast?

Entrepreneurs and investors have to treat it as a market.

EntrepreneursDo not hunt in the dark

Have a financial roadmap and treat fundraising as entering an investment market.

Investors for you

★ Understand investors and their offer

★ Have a list of top 20-40 investors that fit to your startup

★ Package what you have as a product for investors

★ Iterate your product: meet, learn and improve

Product for investor

Interactions with investors

★ Increase number of interactions with investors

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