Fundraising Fieldguide
A fieldguide for Founders looking to raise funds
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Fundraising Field Guide - Field guide for early stage high-growth companies

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Maker
Just to provide a little bit of context, I wrote the book because of the stories that I witnessed as part of working with early-stage founders, and thought that by sharing them, it would help others avoid some of the challenges. Additionally, I wanted to find a way of supporting founders from across different ecosystems. I also wanted to highlight non-tech-startup social entrepreneurship, so that's why I chose the donate-if-you-like-the-book model. By choosing Tearfund, HopeHIV, and Spear, each which support key areas of education, communal micro-loans, and mentoring, the hope is the book can indirectly help these causes as well as all donated funds go directly to them.
Fantastic resource, released with an admirable model. What's not to love. :)
Maker
Thank you Dan!
Well done, - read the book, love your down to earth and simple style and practical tips. More importantly, have recommended this to two founders in early seed raising conundrums just today. And this is just day 1, you'll be saving many a gray hair and sleepless nights for young founders in weeks and years to come.
Maker
Thank you so much for the words of encouragement Sten!
I downloaded this last night and started to read it. Looks like some pretty useful information on raising money.
Maker
Thank you for your support and the charities appreciate it too! Please feel free to leave feedback on Amazon (or wherever you downloaded it from)!
As a proofreader for the Fundraising Field Guide, I've been able to read the book a couple of times, and as a startup founder who's just been through the experience of raising a first seed round, I can definitely vouch for the book. It's simple, clear, with clever analogies that make the process seem less daunting, and easier to understand. Definitely a must-read for first-time founders or for anyone looking to raise a seed round!
Maker
Thanks Ricardo!
One of the most important questions founders should ask is, "Should I raise venture money for my startup?" I spent months thinking about this and evaluating what to do with Product Hunt, the side project. How do you answer that question, ?
Maker
Great question Ryan. VC money isn't for every company. In some cases founders can bootstrap straight to cash-flow break even, and then use other instruments for growth, such as debt on receivables. For example, in cases where cash comes in quickly as part of transactions, this might be possible. Here is a good book on the subject -
Halfway through the book and proving to be a must-read for anyone interested in raising money in the early stages!
Maker
Thank you Anthony!
Thanks for the book Carlos. I'm sure it will be super helpful for us down the road. So how international do you think the advice is -- is it relevant people in the valley and places like Belin / London?
Maker
The book covers the mindset of fundraising which is quite similar globally... the process of preparing for the fundraise and how to think about the process. What you present and what you can raise might vary from geography to geography, and as such, I've outlined where that might be the case throughout the book. I have however, introduced some topics and structures that are beneficial to non-US based founders which US readers might not need.
great. Thanks
Looking forward to reading, it looks awesome! Would you care to elaborate on why you decided to give the book away for free in exchange for donations to charities?
Maker
Thanks for the question! I wanted to accomplish a few things. 1) I wanted to make sure the cost of the resource was not an issue for founders seeking to raise capital 2) I wanted people to voluntary choose to help contribute to charities that support social entrepreneurship causes, which include Resurgo’s Spear initiative, WeSeeHope, and Tearfund. 3) By having donations go straight to the charity via the book’s donate page (), donators can contribute as much as they want and the charities can claim back GiftAid.
So what way of buying the book gets the most money to charity?
Hi Carlos thanks for joining! What would you say is the most common challenge early-stage founders have, and what is your solution to it?
Maker
there are many challenges, so I don't want to presume which wins, but there are a few that regularly stand out, one of them is how to approach the fundraising process (hence the book), but others include how to find a co-founder or additional founder or employee (HR in general), getting the first customers (particularly in enterprise businesses), and doing all of this on a strict budget.
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