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"HOW TO" GUIDES

Fund Raising Process (see slide presentation):

• Steps of Fund Raising Process for Your Venture

• Selecting Type of Finance and Banking Relationship (Debt versus Equity)

• Bootstrapping - the Most Common Source of Initial Equity for Entrepreneurial Firms

• Three Keys to Obtaining Venture Capital

• 8 Issues in 8 Minutes: How to Prepare and Effective Venture Fair Presentation

• How to Make an Effective Venture presentation

• Investment opportunity evaluation by venture capitalists

• The 4-1/2 Marketing Issues that Entrepreneurs Absolutely Must Get Right

Selecting & Valuating Investment Opportunity (see slide presentation)

• Investigating Management Team and Related Due Diligence Items

• Due Diligence

• Valuation Of a Start-up Company

• Valuation Quantification Techniques

Structuring the Deal (see slide presentation)

• Ways of Realization of Financial Returns for Investors

• Structuring the Deal: The Key Terms for Most Seed Investments

• Typical Terms of Preferred Stock Issued to Venture Capitalists

• Sample Term Sheet for Private Placement of Convertible Preferred Stock

• Model private stock purchase agreement

Technology ventures demand an unbroken financing chain, from pre-seed capital to stock market. The financing chain is no stronger than its weakest link (see slide presentation).

High-tech start-ups go multiple funding rounds. Equity financing conventionally follows a trajectory from friends& family, business angels, through venture capital (VC), to an initial public offering.

Venture capital being a principal funding source, can  not finance innovation on its own. Too many VC funds remain unwilling to invest in high-tech start-ups (see slide presentation) in the early stage, often because they lack the investment appraisal capacity to act as the "first investor". To be fully effective, venture capital must form part of an unbroken investment chain, from seed capital to stock market.

Business Angels (see slide presentation) are a source of pre-revenue seed funding and management guidance for start-ups. Business angels are wealthy individual investors - usually, people who have made their own money as entrepreneurs. Better equipped and more flexible than banks and most capital funds to assess the potential of very young business, they contribute not only equity but also much needed business expertise, offering company hands-on support and advice. Angels bridge the gap between the personal savings of entrepreneurs and the 'early stage' or 'second round' financing which venture capitalists are able to offer.

To ensure seamless integration of financing through the life cycle of a company, good relations between business angels and VC communities are essential.

Stock markets for high growth companies also stimulate venture capital activity by offering an 'exit route' of flotation (see slide presentation). They offer a means for venture capital funds to realize a return on investment in new companies.