Let’s talk top startups of 2018. But first of all, did you know that entrepreneurs create more than six million new businesses in the United States every year? Sifting through those multitudes is impossible, even for startup junkies. And when you consider the high number of startup failures, the shifting sands of the startup landscape become even harder to track.
So how can you possibly know what’s good? How can you separate the wheat from the chaff? How can you ever know what the top startups are?
Well, one way is by relying on experts who interact with new companies every day. And it doesn’t get more expert than the team at Fundable, the largest business crowdfunding platform that’s exclusively about helping startups raise money. Fundabl...
Startup Accelerators are programs that invest a small amount of capital into early-stage companies while providing programming and mentorship over a period of 3-6 months.
While startup accelerators have become wildly popular among early-stage startups, the answer to "What is an accelerator?" has morphed quite a bit over time. We hear about startup accelerators providing seed capital, mentorship with the business model, and ultimately introductions to venture capital at a "demo day" but how much of that is truly valuable?
Let's dig into what accelerator programs actually do, who they help, what benefits they provide, and what are some of the cons to joining them - and some new alternatives to the traditional startup accelerators.
Before we spend a dime on building anything, we’re first going to learn how to assess the feasibility and viability of our startup idea to see whether we should forge ahead with confidence, pivot, or go back to the drawing board altogether.
This should always be the first step for every Founder who is considering pursuing a startup idea. Broadly, this process is called idea validation.
As a Founder, chances are you’ve experienced the “eureka” moment — that feeling of capturing lightning in a bottle when you suddenly strike upon an idea that has you running to tell your friends, family members, and baffled strangers you encounter on the street (but probably not your target audience).
Nine times out o...
Entrepreneurs know the truth of the saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” The right relationship can make the difference between a struggling startup and an overnight success.
But there are a lot of people in the world, and most of them don’t know who you are. You can’t sit back and wait for your audience to find you. To help your company succeed, you need to make the first move.
Savvy founders know that thought leadership is the first step to earning trust among a specific audience. And the trust you earn through a thought leadership strategy can help you build valuable partnerships, attract amazing talent, secure funding, earn press, increase sales, and more.
Grow Your Business Through Thought Leadership Content
Thought lea...
What happens to funded startups that can't raise any more funding?
We enter the funding "No Man's Land" where startups go to linger and eventually die a very long, unceremonious death. No one talks about it — certainly not the Founders who are left with the breathing corpse that was their once-hot startup. Certainly not the investors who have written off their investment long before anyone else.
Yet everyone knows we're digesting in the Sarlacc pit for a thousand years without any idea what to do about it.
Having been in this fiery wasteland more times than I care to admit, I learned that at some point Founders have pretty much three options to escape, and "we'll just hold out for funding" isn't one of them.
Let's start with per...
We all know what it means to give equity away. But what does it take to get it back?
There are a few different methods we can use to begin clawing back some of our hard-lost equity, but all of them require quite a bit of effort — and aren't nearly as easy as giving it away!
When we look at future funding rounds, if things are going well, we may be able to negotiate some additional stock awards based on the next financing.
This is only an option if the company is doing well and we can point to a significant track record that we've demonstrated to get it there. It doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen.
Oh, and if we don't negotiate hard for it, no one is ever going to suggest it for u...
A capitalization table or "cap table" is a record of the equity ownership and actual ownership percentage of each member of the company. Private companies typically develop a cap table when they are first formed to capture the stock ownership of the co-founders and then later begin recording stock ownership of employees, advisors, and investors.
The moment the number of shares in our startup expands to more than one owner, we typically create the company's cap table. This is just a ledger of where the company's ownership stands and can be captured in something as simple as a spreadsheet.
As our startup expands, cap table management becomes more complex, such as when we take on a funding round with a venture cap...
When it comes to small business loans, you have two options: private and government loans. While private lenders may be reluctant to take a risk on a new business or startup, government business loans were created specifically to boost small business in the United States.
As a result, you might find that it’s easier to secure a small business loan from the government than it is to secure one from a private lender.
Most government business loans are managed through the Small Business Association (SBA), which partners with lending institutions that actually distribute the money.
Because the loan is backed by the government — meaning if you default, the government pays of the balance — banks and credit unions are more likely to take a risk ...
When you’re looking for grants to start a business, you’re looking in an area that’s crowded with a lot of competition. But, if there’s one thing startup entrepreneurs are known for, it’s tenacity.
The reason there’s so much competition is, a) there are a limited number of grants and, b) grants — unlike other forms of funding — don’t have to be paid back. You also don’t have to give up any equity in your company in order to win one. Sounds appealing, doesn’t it?
So while we don’t always recommend grants as the first place startups go looking for funding, they’re absolutely a great option for a certain subset of companies. Here’s an overview of how to secure grants to start to business, as well as a few types of grants for starting a busines...
Planning to raise some capital for your startup? Well, before announcing your intentions to the world, take a step back and remember that investors are a notoriously skittish bunch. According to a Fundable study, venture capital and angel investors pour money into less than 1 percent of new enterprises, meaning it may be best to raise money away from the public eye.
A more low-key business fundraising approach isn’t as tough as it sounds, as most entrepreneurs unknowingly do it to some extent. If you’ve read about a startup that’s “killing” or “crushing” its fundraising goals, that’s usually a calculated effort to build the kind of buzz that entices on-the-fence investors to take the plunge before it’s too late.
To combat potential investo...