Funding the Early Stages

Are you ready to raise some funding for your startup venture?  Many actions and decisions made during the early stages of a startup’s venture are done using art as much as science, and that’s definitely the case with fundraising.  Startups raise money either because they want the funding to accomplish more faster or because they need the funding in order to keep pursuing their dream.  I wrote a bestselling book on early stage fundraising and this Founders Academy course includes all of the important concepts from the book.

Course Overview

This course follows a logical flow of topics to help plan and execute a successful fundraising campaign during the early stages, including pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds of funding.

All told, this compilation course is comprised of the following content:

• 18 articles to read
•   9 streaming videos to watch
•   3 optional assignments to complete

Each module involves a logically sequenced set of steps and associated content to consume.  And you can pursue the learning at your own pace.  Scroll down to the Course Content section to see the lesson modules and associated topics included with this course.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, you will understand the following (and more):

• Mastering the vocabulary of fundraising
• How to determine the right amount of funding to pursue
• How to test drive your fundraising terms before locking them in
• Avoiding the dreaded fundraising chasm
• Seed stage investment instruments and how they work
• Finding and pitching investors for maximum success
• How to shorten the total amount of time spent completing your fundraising campaign
• The most common fundraising issues and how to overcome them
• Negotiating a fair valuation with investors
• Crafting a killer elevator pitch
• Preparing for public pitching events
• Executing a successful Series A campaign