Want to get funding? To-Do list for successful fundraising (closed $1M for WeLoveNoCode in a month)
Nik Shevchenko
26 replies
Hello friends! πΈ Recently I summarised learnings on closing the $1M round for my startup. I thought it could be useful for other founders who are going into $500k - $1M fundraising.
If we haven't met before, I'm running WeLoveNoCode, a marketplace to hire no-code developers for building MVPs & validating hypotheses (https://www.welovenocode.com/). It would be awesome to share more of how we are building WeLoveNoCode with the community. So here are "to-do" items that I used (feel free to copy it into your Notion):
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Preparation & Planning
[ ] Get familiar with the fundraising process, spend some time reading.
[ ] Set up fundraising plan:
[ ] Wrire down a timeline to pitch investors & close round: starting date, ideal close date. 3 months for fundraising. (I closed in less than a month but 3 months is a more realistic timeline). Consider the time of the year: NY holidays and summer can be slower business seasons.
[ ] Define roles: who will help in fundraising.
[ ] Define round you need to close, valuation, how much equity are you open to giving on this round, SAFE/equity/loan.
[ ] Put all tasks below with responsible in the tasks management system.
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Make strong pitch deck + financial modeling
[ ] Make v1 of the pitch deck
[ ] Make 10-15 slides pitch deck. Figma templates for pitch decks: https://www.welovenocode.com/pitchdeck
Comment: I made more than 30 versions of the pitch deck before it was good.
[ ] Get the sweetest traction you can find. Run market research to show data behind your market potential.
[ ] Get designer and copywriter to clean up the deck.
[ ] Cover the WHY behind your startup. Treat your deck as a sales pitch: having a good story behind building your startup will make emotional connections.
[ ] Get feedback from founders who raised similar rounds ideally from investors you want to get in.
[ ] Make business model (BM) ready to be shown, cover:
[ ] Have unit economy
[ ] Cover MoM user and revenue growth
[ ] Cover User acquisition strategy and CAC in BM
[ ] Do not BS. Double-check numbers for accuracy.
[ ] Get feedback on BM from your mentors & adviser to be sure it's meeting investors' expectations. Angels, VCs have a typical set of expectations and you need to meet them in your presentation and your pitch deck.
[ ] Answers on typical questions which you got asked often
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Pitch investors
[ ] Create a list of investors you'd love to pitch
[ ] Set up a CRM system. Research relevant investors.
[ ] Asked for the intro, look for ways to get into the investors' radar via the network.
[ ] Make forwardable emails & intro requests. Get pCalendly link with timeslots.
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Close the deal!
[ ] Start having investors call, moving via your funnel.
[ ] Make constant follow-ups + investor updates. Get an assistant to help you update investors weekly.
[ ] Ask for introductions from everyone, even if you get rejection.
[ ] Create Momentum with growth numbers & traction, PR, PH launches.
[ ] CLOSE the first LOI.
[ ] Push other interested investors to join the round. Get LOI signed.
[ ] Go via Due & Diligence.
[ ] Have a lawyer to help you if needed.
[ ] Get docs signed. Push to get money on the bank account.
[ ] Plan PR of your round: https://www.welovenocode.com/free-pr-journalists-database
Replies
Alexander Diatlov@adiatlov
Ecoisme 2.0
Add to the list: fundraising is a full-time job, so you need to plan who will close your typical tass.
Share
Ecoisme 2.0
Also, the separate task is building relationships with investors even before fundraising.
Donβt Panic by Lemon.io
Also, we will launch someting very useful for fundraising today :)
@lisadziuba Nice!!!
Free investors database: https://www.producthunt.com/post...
AARP Money Mapβ’
Very detailed step by step guide, love it! Appreciate its being shared out to the community.
Open-source AI Necklace - Friend
@tasteofdalife Thanks for checking by π
Thank you!
Congrats! And thanks for sharing! Copy-pasted to my Notion π
Traitstack
Thank you this is super helpful!!!
Open-source AI Necklace - Friend
Good luck with fundraising! Feel free to ask questions and if you need help with building your MVP & supercharge your growth - https://www.welovenocode.com/ is happy to help π
@kodjima33 For you, one investor is as good as another, or did you clearly have in mind who to go to?
Because I have few investors in mind that I would like to receive funding from and I would not take it from anyone.
To-Do Items
[ ] work 24/7
[ ] drink βοΈ
[ ] close round
Donβt Panic by Lemon.io
@marina_shamova π ΠΏΡΡΡΡΡ ΡΡΡ ΡΡΠΎΡΠΈ
Open-source AI Necklace - Friend
@marina_shamova coffee = power
Open-source AI Necklace - Friend
@marina_shamova no "Work-Life balance" :)
Ecoisme 2.0
@marina_shamova @kodjima33 fundraising -> sleep balance
Fundraising is still far away for someone like me that's is still in the building phase.
But I had absolutely no clue about the entire process of Fundraising and this has been an awesome insight (A little scary too, considering there's so much to it)
Thank you fo this :)
Wowπ₯ ....aand my to do list consists of breakfast cooking items(
Open-source AI Necklace - Friend
@alisadvach Thanks!!!
Hi Nik! Thank you very much for all of this data, and congratulations on your achievements!
My team and I are very much surprised with you and WeLoveNoCode; and would love to have you in our new series of interviews to startup founders!
Deep Dive is an initiative that aims to show students, entrepreneurs, and other people interested in the startup world some great ideas and how they were put into practice by founders of all niches and places. The idea is to inspire and give some valuable insights on how it really is to be the founder of a business, while also taking advantage of the experience of the founder who is being interviewed.
Here's the link to the Linkedin post of the first interview we've made, I hope to hear from you soon :) https://www.linkedin.com/feed/up...
Congratulations on your impressive achievement!
Open-source AI Necklace - Friend
Hi Nik.
Thank you for sharing the details of your journey. Did you already have an MVP before going for round 2? We just released allgram (a secure communication and social media application hosted on the blockchain) on the PlayStore and in the works to releasing the iOS version in February. Im getting ready to prepare the next round pitch so thank you for sharing the points in your post.
Best of luck to you and your team.
Ali
Really great post.
If you recently got funding and want to give back to the community, you can rate your investor experience here
https://golaunchbase.com/
We are trying to democratize the VC experience and every honest review of an investor may help another startup!