Am I Ready To Raise Capital? - Intellix
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Am I Ready To Raise Capital?

Being Investor Ready means being fully prepared to seek out investment capital or attract a suitable buyer for their business.

 

Raising investment capital or selling a business is a high stakes game, and being unprepared will give a suboptimal result at best (and failure at worst).  Being successful in this endeavour requires both the business and the CEO to be Investor Ready.

So how do you know if you are Investor Ready?     You can have confidence that you are Investor Ready when you:

  • Understand all of the objectives and outcomes, and the key elements of a successful fund raising campaign
  • Are aware of the biggest mistakes made when attempting to raise investment capital, where the potential ‘failure points’ are during the process, and how to avoid the common traps
  • Have formally evaluated how ‘investable’ your business is and know the criteria
  • Have considered the objectives of the founders or existing shareholders, evaluated the alternative sources of funding and the impact and implications of each, and determined what form of funding is appropriate to your business.
  • Are familiar with all of the different types of investors, have a deep understanding of their characteristics, motivations, resources and requirements, and have carefully evaluated which type of investor would be suitable
  • Understand the fund raising process, and particularly understand the process from the investors point of view, and you understand the different process that apply to different types of investor, and understand the biggest challenges and what issues are likely to arise during the process
  • Know exactly what you and your business need to demonstrate to investors, and what you must steer away from in order to avoid being passed over
  • Can explain your business purpose your market, your unique position within it who your competitors are, your business model and revenue model (how you make money) in a manner suitable to an investor
  • Have a business plan prepared from an investors point of view
  • Have prepared a credible and supported financial model in an investor ready format
  • Have carefully considered how much to raise, what the funds will be spent on, and the implications of raising too much or too little funding
  • Have determined a pragmatic valuation
  • Have a suitable investment disclosure document (e.g. an IM) if needed
  • Have a suitable investor presentation deck prepared and validated, and you have distilled your case for investment into an executive summary/brief ‘teaser’ document
  • Are well versed and practiced with your investor pitch
  • Have a plan of how to identify, contact and get a meeting with suitable prospective investors
  • Are completely prepared to answer the questions that an investor will inevitably ask
  • Are conversant with the applicable corporate finance and legal vernacular
  • Know what a Term Sheet is and what you should be looking for in one, what legal documentation is required, and which terms are nonnegotiable and standard and which ones you can negotiate sensibly
  • Have a business that is ‘Investment Ready’ and is prepared for due diligence

 

Contact us if you are interested in getting Investor Ready and getting funded!