John Biggs - Get Funded!

PRAISE FOR GET FUNDED!

Getting started is the hardest part for anyone looking to build a startup. This book is a how-to guide to navigate the journey from funding to sharing the company with the world. Anyone new to entrepreneurship should make sure to read Get Funded!

SLAVA RUBIN, Cofounder, Indiegogo

Eric is a master brand storyteller. If you are a startup looking to tell your story to investors, I highly recommend this book.

STEVEN YANG, Founder and CEO, Anker Innovations

Get Funded! is a no-nonsense approach to raising and building a business and is a must-read for any startup CEO.

YOBIE BENJAMIN, Partner, 4iNNO; Cofounder, Avegant; and World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer

Eric has a unique understanding of how to identify and communicate a brands core value proposition. If you are looking to speak to investors, the advice in this book is invaluable.

MICHAEL KEMPNER, Founder and CEO, MWWPR; Board of Trustees, American University; and Board Member, PR Council

The authors have seen it all, from pitches to raises to IPOs. They know all there is to know about getting funded. This book is required reading for anyone looking to start a company.

MATT BURNS, Senior Editor, TechCrunch

Copyright 2021 by John Biggs and Eric Villines. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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To all the dreamers, entrepreneurs, and founders, this book is for you.

To Robert Biggs, who dreamt of success and got it by building a beautiful and loving family.

JOHN BIGGS

To my mother, Peggy, who inspired my creative mind; my father, Gaylynn, who showed me the difference between being cynical and skeptical; and my wife, Constanze, and children, Galen, Cillian, and Sarine, who keep me focused on whats really important.

ERIC VILLINES

This book is about building businesses.

There are plenty of books about creating a lean startup and building the perfect product. But there are no books that will provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to choose the best funding strategy, pitch investors, and build the perfect deck, as well as tell you how to avoid the most common pitfalls that often kill new businesses.

At the outset, wed like to state the obvious. Creating a successful, cash-positive business requires a lot of work, a lot of luck, and a lot of passion. Yet, even if all the stars align, even if you have the greatest idea of all time, the chance of your business not getting funded (or even failing) is very high. We should know.

Between us, we have built 10 businesses and made or raised $30 million. I (John) have written about more than 8,000 small businesses for TechCrunch, many of which followed a traditional funding model and lived or died by their bank accounts. I (Eric) have spent more than 20 years working with entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 executives on go-to-market strategies, as well as preparing them for public speaking, media interviews, investor meetings, and more.

According to research firm Fundera, 20 percent of small businesses fail in the very first year. What is the number one reason these businesses fail? Almost half of all startups close up before they are ever able to find a viable market for their product or service. In the beginning, the primary source of most cash flow is going to be through funding. But if the business runs out of funding before it can begin making its own positive cash flow, then everything will stop.

This is why many people will tell you that starting a business is crazy. But if you are anything like us or the many entrepreneurs we know, then you probably have an idea that you are truly passionate about. You want to do something amazing, something useful, something that might just change the world (or perhaps a small corner of the world in which you live). And there is not a damn thing thats going to stop you. If this is how you feel, then please keep reading.

So, yes, starting a business takes heaps of work, a lot of luck, and passionbut it also takes funding.

When we say funding, we mean any money that keeps a business alive. This money can come in any of a bewildering variety of forms from myriad sources subject to a vast number of considerations. Theres debt, theres equity, there are angels and VCs and convertible notes. There are dilutions and valuations and crowdsourcing and initial cryptocoin offerings. There are rounds and raises, Series A, Series B, Series X-Y-Z, venture debt, and Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. Not to mention the perennial favorite friends and family cash. If you dont come to this process with a strong background in Startup Speak, it can seem overwhelming.