Whether you are an established or aspiring business person, you will often have to be able to raise a significant amount of money in order to either grow or launcher business. One way to achieve that is to look at a traditional line of credit such as a bank loan. However, far more capital exists in the venture capital market. This is something that Matias Campiani specializes in.
Matias Campiani on the Venture Capital Market
Regardless of whether you wish to raise $50 million or just $50, you have to start by having a very good business plan in place. You should write a plan that is between 25 and 50 pages long in which you include elements such as your mission statement, experience of the principles within the company, the skill sets and biography of the head of the company, balance sheets, income statements, and the expected expenses. Make sure that this totals up to the funding amount that you have asked for. A good business plan is an exact path to show you will achieve business success.
Next, you have to be ready to defend your business plan and funding request in person. It is highly likely that you will be invited to several meetings in which you will be asked to justify every element included in your business plan. Not just ask, private equity group and venture capitalist representatives will also ask a number of unexpected questions and throw you a curveball here and there. These people are specialists in numbers and money, they receive thousands of requests every year, so you better be ready to stand out.
At the same time, you simply shouldn’t accept no for an answer. If a venture capitalist does not want to provide you with the funding you asked for, then there are thousands of others that you can try. If you are turned down, see it as a learning curve and improve on the things that you did not do well on. Perhaps you need to rewrite your business plan, perhaps you need to do some more research to answer the questions, perhaps you need to improve your speaking skills, and so on. There are lessons to be learnt so that you can be successful later on.
Last but not least, it is vital that you follow up. Finding venture capitalist is easy enough, using the internet and various directories on which venture capitalists and private equity firms list they’re details. However, they literally do receive thousands of requests every year and look for those that stand out. A simple note that says thank you for them listening to you or reminder of the things that were discussed during a presentation or some of these simple things that will make you stand out from the crowd. Following up it’s also a mark of respect. It means that you were serious and that you understand what you are asking of those who basically have the money.
