The venture capital world is often intimidating and hard to navigate, even for the most seasoned entrepreneurs. But it doesn’t have to be. Entrepreneurs who run effective fundraising processes don’t do it by accident. With this book, you’ll learn what it takes to successfully raise a round of funding for your company.
In the book, Funded: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Raising Your First Round, author Katherine Hague explains how the venture capital industry works, and walks you through each step necessary to plan, execute, and optimize your own fundraising round. Packed full of exercises, checklists, and templates, this book guides you through the process from start to finish. It’s ideal for entrepreneurs raising later rounds of capital, as well as those just starting out. It helps entrepreneurs to gain an understanding of core venture capital concepts and standards; how to learn to develop and hone an investor pitch; how to come away with a plan to hit the fundraising trail for your company; how to develop the confidence you need to negotiate key terms in a funding deal; and how to understand best practices in fundraising, and learn how to avoid the top 10 fundraising mistakes.
Author Quotes
You know you’re ready to raise -- ready to build a high growth business -- when you are willing to manage outside stakeholders, when you’ve carefully weighed all of your alternatives, and when your business is timed to be attractive to investors.
By the time you raise money, it should be more than just you working on the company full-time. You should have an initial product or prototype and concrete proof of customer demand for what you’re building. You should also have a plan for how to scale that demand to get to the company’s next major milestone.
About the Author
Katherine Hague is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and the founder of Female Funders, an online destination dedicated to inspiring and educating the next generation of female angel investors. She is the author of O’Reilly’s upcoming book, “Funded: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Raising Your First Round”. Prior to leading Female Funders, Katherine founded ShopLocket —acquired in 2014 by PCH — the company behind some of the top tech brands and accessories. Katherine was recently named one of the Women to Watch in Wearables and has been named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women. She has been quoted in the New York Times on fashion tech and recently interviewed for the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Why LoA loves it….
If there is one thing we hear most often from women entrepreneurs at our Lioness Lean In events each month, it’s how to get funding for women-owned businesses in Africa from the regional and global investor community. What we loved about Katherine Hague’s new book is that is practically provides insight and information on how women entrepreneurs need to prepare and pitch their businesses to the investor community for greater success. It’s a really interesting read for anyone currently wrestling with the challenge of funding and needing a practical guide to positioning their businesses and brands to potential investors. --- Melanie Hawken, founder and editor-in-chief of Lionesses of Africa