The presentation from a webinar our CEO, Abhishek Agarwal took, on pointers for Fundraising for Early Stage Startups. While this usually goes with a voiceover, the gist of the message is captured well on these slides, and could help you think through raising capital for your early stage company!

1. FUNDRAISING FOR
EARLY STAGE STARTUPS
Abhishek Agarwal
CEO, Bold Kiln
Partner, OperatorVC
April 2018 www.boldkiln.com

2. © Bold Kiln 2018
About Me
● Two years of active angel investing via OperatorVC (essentially an
angel fund)
○ 9-10 investments so far (few now raising subsequent rounds)
● Three years of bootstrapping Bold Kiln - One stop shop solution
provider for startups
○ Was (also) working on some products (ed-tech, SaaS) which we
ran for a while (but failed to grow per se)
● Five years of strategy consulting experience (The Monitor Group)
● IIT Delhi (‘08); IIM Ahmedabad (‘10); Army kid; (Half) marathoner

3. © Bold Kiln 2018
Also Me

4. © Bold Kiln 2018
● When should I raise money?
● Should I raise money? Why/Why not?
● Other sources of capital
● Platforms to leverage
● How much money should I raise?
● What is my startups valuation?
● How do I find the right investor - ($ + ♡ + ….)?
● Building a great pitch
● Common mistakes during fundraising
● Post fundraise - do’s / don’ts
We’re going to talk about...

5. © Bold Kiln 2018
● ‘Starting up’
● Bootstrapping strategies
● Raising >$1mn
● ICOs
We’re not going to talk about...

6. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Not pre-product / pre-revenue
● Can you delay it?
● When you absolutely need it; NOT just when it’s available
● When you need $ for a kink in the growth curve
When should I raise money?

7. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Why?
○ Constraints to growth
○ Crazy network effect business
○ Key experiments
● Why Not?
○ To make things easy
○ To have money to spend
○ FOMO / Peers
Should I raise money?

8. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Revenue
● Debt
● Grants - Govt.
● Grants - Corporate
● Crowdfunding
● Incubators / Accelerators
● Friends / Family (?)
Other sources of capital

9. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Raising
○ AngelList
○ LetsVenture
○ Tracxn
○ IAN / CAN / MAN / ...
● Learning
○ Paul Graham Articles, Zero to One, YC - Demo Day pitches,
blogs
○ Ask.
Platforms to leverage

10. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Plan for ~12-18 months
● Add 10-20% of a buffer
● Do NOT raise for <12 months
● Think through backwards
○ Key milestones to hit for the next round?
○ What you need to hit them?
○ Account for screw ups
PS. Good idea to speak to potential investors for your next round now;
get a sense of their thoughts / KPIs they’d like to see / ...
How much money should I raise?

11. © Bold Kiln 2018
What is my startups valuation?
● Forget DCFs / Excel models / …
● 10-20% dilution
● Broadly 2-15Cr (rough range)
● Supply - Demand
● Cap Table is everything.

12. © Bold Kiln 2018
Finding the right investor
● It’s a hard problem
● Money (+ money for subsequent rounds?)
● Strategic? (Access / Experience / …)
● Attitude / Niyat
● Previous investments
● Bigger problem: Wrong investors
○ ‘Lala’ investors
○ Doing it to be an ‘Angel Investor’
○ Overtly concerned with exit options

13. © Bold Kiln 2018
Building a great pitch (deck)
● Outcome based design
● How is the deck being consumed?
● (Likely) Email:
○ Concise
○ Self sufficient sans a voice over
● Be transparent
● Simple to understand
● Keep data on excel files; send those as well (or eventually)

14. © Bold Kiln 2018
Common mistakes during fundraising
● Business *will* suffer. It’s okay.
● NDAs
● Beating around the bush
● ESOP Pools (Option Shuffle)
● Investment Banks / Intermediaries
● Deal structuring

15. © Bold Kiln 2018
● Do:
○ Monthly email updates to all your investors
○ Clearly specify ‘Asks’ from your investors
● Don’t:
○ Miss the updates
○ Cover up / hide the bad or f*cked-up bits
○ Feel shy to reach out for help / advice / sounding board / …
Post Fundraise - Do’s & Don’ts

16. Questions?

17. Thank you!
abhishek@operatorvc.com / abhishek@boldkiln.com
+91 - 9769 00 3072