Fundraising Starter Pack

by Tim Deeson

Nov 13, 2024

Welcome to the IfWeRaise fundraising starter pack! Below are some articles, tools and resources to get you started on your fundraising journey.

General

Funding rounds: deciphering the documentation (Founder Catalyst article)

Bootstrapping

Laura Roeder is a British serial bootstrapped founder, she’s written lots of inspirational and practical articles on building SaaS businesses from zero.
Arvid Kahl, creator of the BootStrappedFounder.com - lots of practical tools, books and informative blog.
Sahil Lavingia, founder of GumRoad who took VC and managed to reverse course, go Indie and then raise from angels. An unusual route! His book The Minimalist Entrepreneur is full of practical tips on how to build a business using minimal capital and a strong customer focus.

Grants & impact focused

Considered Capital

Angel investment

Understanding how angel investors think (Founder Catalyst article)
Open Angel (free video course)
Raising from UK Angels (Jess Barlow)

Venture capital

Founders & Angels: How well do you understand the Venture Capital business model? (article by Tim Deeson)
Practical VC fundraising advice (Pitchdoctor)
Podcast episode with founder turned VC Zoe Peden unpacks how VCs think, and what more founders need to know before they try to raise (Hattie Willis, Not My First Guess)
Venture is not the only option (article by Ada Ventures)

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There's spinach in this webinar's tomato sauce

It appears that Andy Budd has been sneaky 👀 and hidden the spinach in the tomato sauce. The title of his new book is The Growth Equation - great, what every founder wants to know - how to achieve growth! But unlike the snake oil growth hackers out there, his book leads you step by step through how to first understand and validate what your customers really want. Once you've had your spinach, t...

Founders & Angels: How well do you understand the Venture Capital business model?

An overview of how venture capital works, where angel investors fit in and what some of the alternatives to traditional VC are Many founders feel that they are entirely dependent on raising Venture Capital (VC) in order to move their startup forward. My view is that it’s important to evaluate all fundraising routes for a business - for some startups VC is essential and for others...

I've got a startup idea, what next?

You’ve got the seed of a new idea and are excited to get started. Here are some practical tips on next steps to help you access support and maintain momentum. It often feels like there’s a thousand things competing for our attention and that it’s impossible to prioritise. Or that the next step feels too big to even attempt. To avoid this I think it’s helpful as an early stage founder to view t...