Evaluating the Startup’s Metrics In reviewing a startup, ask the founder or CEO for the metrics they use to guide the business. Check for these points in their metrics: 1. Do they have a key set of metrics? Many startups aren’t tracking anything. 2. Is the metric appropriate for their…

Beyond the Growth Story In raising funding it’s important to demonstrate the growth story — sales, team, product, and fundraise are in motion. These are the core four things investors look for to judge the startup’s traction and momentum. Here are additional proof points to highlight to the investor: 1….

Competitive Advantages In the pitch, investors look for the startup’s competitive advantage. “Me too” companies are more difficult to fund because they have few if any competitive advantages. A true competitive advantage increases your revenue by 30% or reduces your cost by the same amount. Here’s a short list of…

Drawbacks to Convertible Notes Convertible notes are often used by startups in the early stages of fundraising as they are fairly simple to use and need little legal work compared to equity agreements. There are drawbacks one should know.  Here’s a short list to consider: Convertible notes are not equity…

Build Your Community In funding startups, it’s important to build out your startup ecosystem. A stronger startup scene will bring better funding opportunities. Here are some key points for building your startup ecosystem: – The startup world goes through cycles every 3-5 years with new technologies, companies, and programs, so…

Testing the Serial Entrepreneur Entrepreneurs who have failed are often strong leaders in their next venture. To know if a serial entrepreneur is on track to success after their first failure, check these points: – Character — if they don’t have character, then nothing else will matter. – Passion —…

Roadmap Investing In funding startups, it’s important to look at not just the current product, but the roadmap overall. Some technology markets have a long, rich future ahead while other markets do not. Look for the technologies that have a broad future with a clear trajectory. Startups propose products to…

Best Practices for Startups Raising Funding Raising funding is difficult. Here are some best practices for startups raising their next round: Investors are busy, so organize your fundraise around their schedule, not yours. Focus on investors who fund your stage and type of startup. Provide updates about your business and…

How to Become an Accredited Investor To invest in startups directly, one must be an accredited investor.  The Securities and Exchange Commission sets the criteria for who is accredited. Here’s a list of those who meet the criteria: Individuals who have a net worth exceeding $1M. Individuals who have earned…

How Investors Can Help Their Companies In funding startups, it’s important to choose companies you can help.  If you only write a check and nothing more, then the investing experience will be minimal. It’s only a return and nothing more.  It’s best to choose startups that you can help by…

After You Write the Check After you write the check, it’s important to remain engaged. Here are some key steps to follow: Stay in touch with the CEO and keep up-to-date on their status. Track the progress of the company to determine if it’s worth a follow-on investment. Review the…

Asset Allocation In angel investing, it’s important to set aside funds for startup investments. In most cases, investors dedicate 5%-15% of their discretionary funds to angel investing. There are several issues with asset allocation for angel investing compared to publicly-traded stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Startup investments are illiquid as…

State Tax Credits Many states offer tax credits for startup investments. Those states with a state income tax will reduce your capital gains tax burden. The typical requirements are as follows: 1. The business must be a C-Corp or an LLC entity. 2. The entity was organized no more than…

Stock Options Stock options are a key part of the compensation of employees. These are called Incentive Stock Options or ISOs. If you exercise and sell the shares immediately, the proceeds will be taxed at the ordinary tax rates for the difference between the exercise price and the fair market…

Gains and Losses There’s an old saying, it’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep that counts.  Tax management is an important topic for angel investors.  There are specific laws that give tax breaks to investors for startup investments. The first is called Section 1244 which gives…

When to Follow On In most startup funding, there will be a need for additional rounds of funding. Here are some questions to ask before making that follow-on investment: 1. Does the team demonstrate integrity? 2. Do they have traction in the market yet? 3. Do they hit milestones and…

Apply Your Investment Thesis to a Startup Before investing in a startup, apply your investment thesis to it to see if it makes sense. Write out the company’s strategy and how it fits into the overall market.   Review their position relative to the competition. For the target company, look for…

Building Your Investment Thesis — View of the Future For investing in a startup, consider the future and what will be needed then. Don’t just look at the world as it is today.   It takes several years to build a business and what you see now will inevitably change. Map…

Invest Early-Stage or Late-Stage – What’s the Challenge? Venture capital has two choices in funding startups.  They can go for early-stage companies or late-stage companies. So, which stage to focus on? The risks are higher for early-stage companies, but the valuations are lower. Any meaningful acquisition typically leads to a…

Diligencing the Exit In diligencing the startup’s exit strategy, check the following: – Do they have a list of potential buyers? – What companies are on the list? – What milestones must be met to qualify for a buyout? – What price is the going rate for buyouts in this…

Diligencing the Use of Funds In diligencing the startup’s use of funds, check the following points: – How much is spent on compensation? – Is it appropriate for an early-stage company? – How much is spent on sales, and does it align with the company’s sales strategies? – How much…

Diligencing the Terms  In diligencing the startup’s term sheet, check the following points: Is the valuation or cap rate appropriate for the stage of the company?  If it’s out of line, then other terms such as liquidation preferences may be needed. What dilution will the investors go through, such as…

Diligencing the Legal Issues In diligencing the startup’s legal documents, ask the following questions: For the intellectual property, ask what was filed and when? Did they file a provisional patent or a utility patent? It takes three years from the date of filing for the patent to be approved, so…

Diligencing the Team for Skills In diligencing the team, here are some key areas to check: Sales skills — the CEO and others must be able to sell their product or service.   In the early stages of a startup, there won’t be a dedicated sales force, and everyone on the…

Diligencing the Financials In diligencing the startup’s financials, ask the following questions: What is the key assumption behind the financials? Does it assume a product will reach the market at a specific time? Does it assume we’ll have hired new team members by a certain date? What funding does the…

Diligencing the Customers in the Market In diligencing the customers in the market, check for the following: 1. Who is the target customer?   2. What is the ideal customer profile? 3. What is the customer acquisition strategy and cost? 4. Do they have a standard process for acquiring customers? 5….

Diligencing the Competition In diligencing the competition, check to see how well the startup knows its competitors.   Do they know what the competitors offer, how they price it, and what their advantage is over that competitor? Even if the startup tells you there’s no competition, rest assured there is. Sometimes…

Diligencing the Demand In diligencing the demand for a startup’s product, here are some key points to check: Is the product a nice to have or a must-have? For customers buying the product, assess their budgets. Do they have deep pockets, or do they have average pockets? Assess their place…

Diligencing the Technology In diligencing the technology in a startup, here are some key questions to ask: How many of the tech modules have been completed and how many more must be completed before going to market? Does the technology provide a substantial advantage over the competition? One way to…

Diligencing the Team In diligencing a startup for investment, the team is one of the most critical factors and the one that is most often overlooked by investors. I see investors focus on the product, the market, and the competition and ignore the team assuming every skill is at the…

Sizing the Market In diligencing the market, look for a market that is large and has strong growth potential. If a new technology has spurred the growth of the market, then this may be a good time to invest. Markets that are behind on the latest technology are ripe for…

The A Team With the B Plan In funding startups, look for the A team working on the B plan. In this situation, the team can clearly accomplish the task at hand because they’ve done it before and the task is not that hard. The opposite of this is the…

Financial Analysis In diligencing a startup, analyze the financial statements to understand the business better. Here are key items to check: – Where does the revenue come from? – What could stop or halt the revenue? – How far is the company from profitability? – How much cash is on…

Business Model Analysis The business model shows where the company incurs costs in order to generate revenue.  In diligencing a startup, spend some time analyzing the business model to determine how robust and profitable it is. Check the revenue to see how much is recurring, repeating, or one-off. The more…

Due Diligence Mistakes There are several mistakes one can make in the due diligence process. Here are a few points to check: Focusing on every potential risk in the deal and not the primary risks. In this case, diligence turns into a never-ending slog with no endpoint. Many CEOs are…

The Risks in the Deal In diligencing a startup, focus on the key risks. Here’s a short list to review: The team — do they have the skills and will they remain committed to the company? The market — will the market continue to grow? The competition — will there…

Risks and Assumptions In diligencing a startup, it’s important to articulate the risks and the assumptions you have about the startup. Start by identifying the risks in the deal. The team, product, market, technology, and competition are key sources of risk.  List out each one and what risks the company…

Key Factors in Diligence There are several factors to achieve success in running a due diligence process. First, dedicate at least 20 hours to due diligence.   Many investors dedicate less than 20 minutes. Share your diligence findings with other investor groups in return for their findings. Apply your skills and…

Form C Disclosures for Crowdfunding Equity crowdfunding is a regulated fundraise by FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. A company can raise up to $5M on equity crowdfunding. Anyone can invest. Those who are not accredited investors are limited to $2,200 per year per company. Those raising funding must file…

What Is Reg CF Crowdfunding? Reg CF refers to the SEC regulation for equity crowdfunding. This form of crowdfunding offers the investor an equity stake in the company. By contrast, rewards platforms provide the product to those who provide funding. In equity crowdfunding, the investor must hold the stock for…

How Equity Crowdfunding Is Different From Traditional Fundraises Equity crowdfunding is different from traditional fundraises. Here is a list of differences to consider: Traditional fundraises expose your company to accredited investors which is a much smaller group. Equity crowdfunding exposes your company to the general public which brings greater branding…

Legal Issues in Equity Crowdfunding There are specific legal issues regarding equity crowdfunding campaigns. Here’s a list to keep in mind: The regulations for fundraising are as follows: Reg CF — SEC designation for an equity crowdfunding raise that lets anyone invest in a startup for equity up to $5M….

How Long Does It Take to Run an Equity Crowdfunding Campaign? In running an equity crowdfunding campaign you’ll need to budget time to prepare for the campaign as well as run it. Preparations include applying to launch a fundraise campaign. This requires completing a Form C and setting up your…

Equity Crowdfunding Checklist There are several key elements to running a successful equity crowdfunding campaign. Here’s a checklist to consider: Create a campaign plan — list of what you will promote and when.  This includes updates, events, and other activities to promote your fundraise. Build the campaign documents — the…

How to Find More Investors for Crowdfunding Campaigns In running a crowdfunding campaign, you may need to find additional investor groups for your fundraise. These investors include those who are interested in your industry category, or have a passion for the cause, or share the same affinity for the product…

What to Do for a Successful Crowdfunding Launch Before launching your crowdfunding campaign, make sure you do the following: Create high-quality images and videos for the campaign page.  Poor visuals reflect poorly on the company. Create a well-organized and compelling story about your fundraise. Focusing solely on the product and…

Telling Your Story in a Crowdfunding Campaign  Storytelling is an effective tool in a fundraise. Here are some key points on how to tell your story in a crowdfunding campaign: Start with your overall cause, such as helping students graduate or improving people’s wellness. Call out your value proposition upfront…

Testing Your Deal for a Crowdfunding Raise Crowdfunding works well with certain types of products and businesses. Consider these points in determining if crowdfunding is a good fit for your campaign: 1. Is the value proposition immediately clear when someone sees it? 2. Does it solve a specific need rather…

How to Choose a Crowdfunding Platform There are many platforms available for crowdfunding. Consider these points in choosing one for your fundraise: Set your fundraising goals so you know how much money you need to raise. Do you want a general platform with broad coverage or a niche platform with…

More Mistakes in Crowdfunding Campaigns  Fundraising requires preparation and execution.  Avoid these additional mistakes in running your crowdfunding campaign: Not building your crowd before launching your campaign. It’s important to identify your crowd and raise awareness about your upcoming campaign. Not developing relationships with influencers and networkers who can extend…

Mistakes in Crowdfunding Campaigns  Fundraising requires preparation and execution.  Avoid these mistakes in running your crowdfunding campaign: Not understanding the rules and regulations around crowdfunding, including what you can and cannot do. Launching without market validation or product validation.   You must prove to the investor that customers will pay for…

Benefits of Crowdfunding Crowdfunding brings many benefits to the startup raising funding. Here are some key points to note: It gives the startup a whole new network of potential investors to pursue. Instead of raising only from accredited investors, crowdfunding raises from everyone. It gives the startup a way to…

Best Practices for Crowdfunding Campaigns In running an equity crowdfunding campaign, include these best practices: 1. Tell a story — show how you came up with the idea for the product and how customers and partners validate it. 2. Prepare your investor network — build a list of potential investors…

Key Components of a Crowdfunding Campaign There are several key components of a crowdfunding campaign. Consider how to include these in your fundraise: Goals — set goals for the campaign including mailers sent, investors contacted, and funds raised. Draw from the experience of other crowdfunders to set realistic goals. Platforms…

How to Set Your Crowdfunding Goal In setting your crowdfunding goal, create a list of needs for growing your business. From this list, create an overall fundraise goal.  Break the goal into three stages. Set the first stage relatively low, as the initial funding is the most difficult. Focus on…

Key Elements of a Crowdfunding Campaign Successful crowdfunding campaigns share several key elements. Here are some key points to include in your fundraise campaign: Clear value proposition — make clear what your product does and the value it brings. Story — tell what problem it solves and the background on…

What Is Crowdfunding? Crowdfunding refers to fundraising in which you can raise funding from anyone and not just accredited investors. Typically, these investors fund early-stage companies in various ways. Here’s a list of the different types of crowdfunding: 1. Equity-based crowdfunding — the investor receives an ownership stake in the…

Mistakes to Avoid in Financial Modeling Your financial model can be used not only for fundraising, but also for running your startup. Avoid these mistakes in setting up your financial model: Tying your revenue to a factor that doesn’t actually drive revenue. Figure out what actually drives sales and build…

Back of the Envelope Financial Model In setting up a fundraising plan at a high level, you set a revenue target five years out.  You then draw a line from today to that five-year mark.  Your fundraise and hiring plan will come from that. To calculate this quick and dirty…

How to Show Financials in a Pitch Deck The financial projection is a key element in the presentation to investors. Many founders cut and paste cells from the financial model spreadsheet into a slide. This renders the information unreadable as the spreadsheet doesn’t fit with the presentation format. To show…

Assumptions and Drivers in the Financial Model In building out your financial model, make explicit the assumptions you are using and identify the drivers in your business. Create a tab on the spreadsheet for assumptions and drivers for the investor to review. As you build out the revenue forecast, capture…

How Investors Use the Financial Model Investors use the financial model to understand not only the business, but also to learn about the founder and their skills.  Here are some key points investors look for: 1. Salaries — investors look to see how well the team is compensated and if…

Characteristics of a Good Financial Model The purpose of the financial model is not to predict the future with great accuracy but rather to understand the business and how it works. Here are some characteristics of a good financial model: The model shows what drives the business, such as leads…

Best Practices for Building a Financial Model Here are some best practices in building a financial model for your startup. Consider setting up the model to use for managing the business as well as the fundraise. Design the layout so you can test assumptions and scenarios. Capture your assumptions into…

Using Your Financial Model in a Pitch The financial model is a key component of your pitch. Use key financial numbers from the model to tell the story of how your business can scale up. Here are the steps: Start with your unit economics to show the business works. Show…

How to Use Your Financial Model After building your financial model, you can use it in several ways. Here is a list of use cases: Raising funding for the business by determining how much you need to raise and when. Generate financial forecasts and projections for managing the business. Project…

What to Include in Your Financial Model In building your financial model, make sure you include the following: 1. Revenue projections — your estimate of revenue from all sources. 2. Cost of Goods sold — your estimate of how much it will cost to build and deliver the product or…

How to Build a Bottoms-up Financial Model There are two approaches to building a financial model: top-down and bottoms-up. The bottoms-up approach uses specific data from your financials, such as historical revenue, specific expenses, working capital, etc. You apply assumptions to the historical numbers to build out the projections. To…

How to Build a Top-Down Financial Model There are two approaches to building a financial model: top-down and bottoms-up. In general, you should use a bottoms-up approach for preparing the financial projections, which will be more detailed. To build a top-down financial model, consider the following: Start with the size…

Benefits of a Financial Model Many startups build a financial model to show the investors and then leave it alone ’til it’s out of date and no longer useful. The benefit of an up-to-date financial model is that it can actually help you make management decisions. Here are several ways…

How to Build a Financial Model It’s best to build your own financial model so you understand it thoroughly. Here are the steps to build your financial model: Define the goal for the model.   Figure out how you will use it and what decisions you need to make. This will…

Why Build a Financial Model? In building a startup, the financial model is a key step in validating the viability of the business. Templates can educate on what to include and how to format, but it’s best to start from scratch. Every founder should build their own financial model at…

Founder Business Skills Required In starting a company, there are key skills required of the founder: Here is a list of basic skills: Team building — the founder must find a co-founder, build a board, and make the initial hires. Leadership — the founder must set the vision of the…

Metrics for B2B SaaS Here are the key metrics for B2B SaaS startups: Committed Annual Recurring Revenue (CARR) – this shows the overall health of the business as it includes new users as well as churn. To calculate, take the current ARR and add new bookings and upsells, and subtract…

Metrics Investors Use Investors also use metrics. Here’s a list of key metrics investors focus on: Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) Growth – the overall growth rate of the revenue is a key factor. Month-over-month growth demonstrates product-market fit. Magic number – shows how sales and marketing spend drives revenue. To…

Your Top 3 Metrics  There are many metrics you can use for your startup. Focus on these top three metrics for your startup at each stage: For pre-seed, focus on qualitative activities such as customer interviews and community development. Track the number of calls made, the number of interviews completed,…

Efficiency and Predictability Metrics In addition to growth, there is efficiency to measure. This is important to consider as you grow your business. Here are some key metrics to use: Magic number – shows how many revenue dollars your sales and marketing dollars generate. To calculate, take current quarter revenues…

Metrics for a Downturn Economy In a downturn economy, metrics can help you make decisions about your business. Here are some key metrics to consider: Net burn rate – measures the actual cash lost in a single month.  To calculate, subtract the total revenue from the total amount of money…

Segment Your Data In running metrics, it’s important to segment your data as you grow. Segmentation helps identify the factors driving growth. Here is a list of ways to segment your data: 1. Location – the geographic location of the customer such as city, state, region, or country. 2. Industry…

Meaningless Metrics   Some metrics are actually meaningless and tell you little about the business. Metrics should demonstrate customer interest and satisfaction through commitment of time or dollars. Here’s a list of metrics to avoid: Number of downloads – by itself, it doesn’t show the level of interest or progress. A…

Marketplace Metrics  Here are the key metrics for marketplace startups: Match rate – the rate at which buyers and sellers engage with each other. To calculate, take the number of transactions in which there is a successful match and divide by the total number of attempted transactions. Time to match…

Customer Traction Metrics In raising funding, customer traction is a key focus point. Here are the metrics for measuring your traction: Customer acquisition – this includes all sources of leads such as website, email, social media, and referrals, as well conversion of leads to customers. You can look at these…

Challenges With North Star Metrics The North Star Metric seeks to capture the essence of a business in just one metric. It makes decision-making easier. Anything that doesn’t foster that metric is deprioritized. It does change over time as the company’s priorities change especially with growth. It’s not always a…

Finding Your North Star Metric The North Star Metric is the one metric that drives the growth of the core business. Founders use it to focus the company around a common goal. Some startups focus on signups, others focus on retention, and still, others focus on engagement. If you don’t…

Operational Metrics An efficient operation is one key to a startup’s success. Here are operational metrics you can use to check your startup: Basic efficiency – measures the overall efficiency of the business.   To calculate, take operating expenses divided by the revenues.   The smaller the number, the more efficient the…

Product Metrics The product is the core focus of the early-stage company. Here are two key metrics for understanding the performance of your product: The Heart Metric measures the quality of the user experience with the product. Here are the components of it: 1. Happiness – measures user satisfaction and…

Scale-Stage Metrics After the growth phase comes the scale phase in which you ramp up the business. Here are the key metrics to consider at the scale stage: 1. Break-even per customer – this shows how many days until the new customer turns profitable. This is a key factor if…

Growth-Stage Metrics Once you have product-market fit and start seeing growth, consider these metrics for your business: 1. Activation rate – the percentage of users achieving some step in activating your product. This helps you determine where users are dropping off. 2. Active users – the total number of users…

Startup Customer Success Metrics Once you have customers, the next step is to measure their success with your product. Here are some key metrics to use: Net Promoter Score – also referred to as NPS, this metric measures how loyal the customers are to the company. The metric asks the…

Seed-Stage Metrics Seed-stage startups have a few users trying out a beta product. The startup is working on the go-to-market strategy and focusing on customer acquisition. Key metrics to use are monthly unique users, monthly new leads, customer acquisition rate, and churn rate. This measures basic customer acquisition. To measure…

Start With Your Key Metric There are many metrics you can use to guide your startup. In the growth stage, start with your key metric that captures what drives growth. You can either focus on the total number of users or look at the total number of actions the user…

Unit Economics In the early days of a startup, the revenue is small. Instead of focusing on the absolute size of the revenue, focus on the unit economics of the business. Unit economics shows your business model on a per-unit basis. Measure the cost of acquiring each customer and the…

Pre-seed Metrics At the pre-seed stage, startups should focus their attention on engagement and referrals. Track how many visitors you can draw to your website. See how many of those visitors sign up for a trial.   The conversion rate is more important than the absolute number. See how many referrals…

Metrics by Stage of Startup Startups move through stages from pre-seed to seed to growth to scale. The metrics you apply should adjust to the stage of the company. Here’s a list of metrics by stage: Pre-seed – when you have an idea, use qualitative metrics and focus on basic…

Metrics by Stage of Life Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso — your daily shot of startup funding and investing. Startups go through three stages of life: product, growth, and operations. In the first stage, the startup focuses on the product. The objective is to…

Metrics by Startup Objective A startup’s objective changes as it moves from early to later stages. Here’s a list of metrics by stage objective: In the earliest stages of the startup, look for conversions.   Basic validation is important to prove the market wants the product. This exercise will teach you…

3X in 3 Terms I analyzed the results of several angel networks and found that 65% of the investments after three years were still in business but were no longer on the venture track.  In most cases, they were growing businesses but were not going to be bought out for…

Startup Success Rates The early-stage failure rate of startups is quite high. Out of 100 startups, only 40% go to the next level at Series A. Only 22% of startups reach Series B. Only 15% of startups reach Series C. Only 8% of startups reach Series D. As for the…

Payback Plans Not every funded startup continues on the venture path to a high payoff from the sale of the business.  For those startups, investors using an early-exit term sheet can find a path out of the deal. There are several options for the startup to pay back the investors….

Redemption Strategies In an early-exit term sheet, the investors have the right to redeem their stake in the company before an acquisition. There are several redemption exercise strategies. The first strategy is to recover the principal investment.   This makes the investor whole and now lets them play with “house money”….