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We perform due diligence like any investor does,
but we do it with you, instead of against you.
Our process will help you create a defensible valuation. We also analyze and help design your financials and study comparable funding events.
Here's how it works in 5 steps.
1.
Investment Thesis and Value Drivers
Save time in fundraising and find better-fit investors by 1) being straight with investors about what you have accomplished, and what you will accomplish, 2) articulating your raise as a way to add specific value to your company, 3) understanding and articulating how an investor will make his or her money back from investing in you
1.
DEFINITION OF SUCCESS
We help you design what successful growth looks like for you, and define what outcomes you want to cause. This is critical to ensure that you're leveraging capital the right way, and avoiding relationships and deal structures that go against your ideal future.
DEFINE VALUE DRIVERS
Define the characteristics of your company that drive enterprise value from investors' perspectives. We help you translate your value drivers into investor language and ensure that they show up in every aspect of your due diligence package (data room).
BUILD INVESTMENT THESIS
This is the hard work your investors will have to do to make their investment decision, so we do it for them - let's make their experience clean and easy. In simple terms, think of your Investment Thesis as a formula where X capital applied to Y activity/milestones creates Z value (dollars must directly relate to enterprise value creation).
FINALIZE INVESTMENT THESIS
X capital applied to Y activity/milestones unlocks Z value (dollars must directly relate to enterprise value creation); Updated based on your risks and how resources/capital needs to be allocated; as we identify risks, we'll integrate them into the investment thesis
Financial and Valuation Analysis
Successful fundraises require a believable financial model. Start by identifying the metrics that matter most for your company to generate revenue and profit. Turn your key metrics into model drivers, or a set of assumptions that are clearly documented and that you can easily change as you progress to make your financial projections increasingly based on real data.
2.
MODEL DRIVERS
Add risks and value drivers into "Model Drivers", add ways to fund and round over round into model drivers, add best practices as benchmarks into financial analysis and model drivers
FINANCIAL ANALYSIS
The financial analysis we perform is dependent on your stage, and is meant to align your value drivers and investment thesis with the story you're telling in your financials, making the economic logic of your business and the investment opportunity absolutely clear. If you don't have a financial model that is ready for investors, we can help you create one that shows investors exactly how you think about your business, and what the investment opportunity is.
VALUATION ANALYSIS
If you have a financial model, we help you analyze it from an investor's perspective. Then we search for and analyze comparable companies, their growth histories and investment details, and to generate evidence-based benchmarks that justify your valuation. We also use these benchmarks to clarify your round-over-round Capital Strategy, including what comparable exits have happened in your industry.
2.
3.
Risk Assessment and Mitigation
Articulate a clear Definition of Success (what you are creating). Articulate your assumptions about what will prevent you from reaching your Definition of Success. Group-source feedback about your assumptions and take note of which assumptions cause the most risk. Aggregate feedback, and prioritize the highest-risk assumptions. Design experiments to use your resources (time, money, and people) to make as much progress as you can on your biggest risks.
3.
RISK ASSESSMENT
We engage our team, your team, and select advisers in a structured process to surface risks that could prevent you from reaching your Definition of Success and what risks exist that could prevent your ideal investor(s) from making an investment in you, as well as uncover what premiums and discounts investors might assign to your company and how they might affect your valuation.
RISK PRIORITIZATION AND MITIGATION
We help you force rank the top risks, creating mitigation strategies and identifying resources to mitigate them so that you can remove them from investment consideration or impacting your valuation. We teach you how to enroll your network and we enroll our network in order to get people in the room who could support your to solve/address your biggest and most pressing risks.
4.
MOKR and Project Review
Holding Project Reviews has the same benefits as holding board meetings: you can step back from the day to day and reflect, as well as seek perspective from unbiased outsiders; it teaches you to engage and manage company advisers and potential investors; and it helps you get more value from people who are advising and investing in you.
4.
ALIGNING YOUR CAPITAL STRATEGY AND GROWTH STRATEGY
We train you on management best practices so that you can get the most out of your resources. Companies like Intel and Google use this to communicate internally and externally while driving alignment. We start with a 3 month actionable roadmap and build up to a 12 month plan for raising and growing.
PROJECT REVIEW
A Project Review is like a board meeting-lite with potential investors, investors, potential advisors, advisors and the Investable team where you can present and hone your message and Capital & Growth Strategies. This ties together all of the deliverables of the engagement to ensure that we have been successful together, and to enroll valuable and targeted resources in the next steps of your growth.
5.
Ways to Fund and Funder Matching
Most founders are only aware of several funding types, and many only focus on equity. While equity fundraising from angels/VC/et cetera is important, the best companies use a tailored combination of funding sources and strategies - they build a funding model unique to their business. Choosing the optimal funding sources means you'll save time, have a lower cost of capital and leverage a round over round strategy that supports your overall Definition of Success.
5.
INITIAL WAYS TO FUND ANALYSIS
With insights from our work to this point, we use your Investment Thesis to analyze over 50 Ways to Fund to make decisions about sources of capital, timing, and amounts that drive your Definition of Success.
BEGIN FUNDER MATCHING
Based on the Ways to Fund that match your Definition of Success, we begin mapping your team's networks, your "friendlies" networks, our network, and the new strategic network to identify Funder Matches, analyzing where trust exists, and where investor preferences match your Investment Thesis. We continue making Funder Matches and refining your ideal funder/investor syndicate throughout the engagement as we identify those interested in funding you, and those that are the best fit for you.
Outcomes from the process of becoming Investable
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You know how to fundraise, and have a system you can use again and again to fundraise, or bring other valuable resources into your venture
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You have a trusted team of Capital Strategists you can use when you want support
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You have new and valuable capital strategies and a fundraising roadmap to grow
Outcomes
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