Anyone who has been in the mountains knows that sometimes you need to climb a peak to be able to see that there are even higher peaks further away. For a lot of startups, the first major challenge to their survival is finding investors. However, immediately after this, they face another challenge that is just as great: setting up the right investment contracts and maintaining an investment structure that keeps the company viable. Many startups don’t see this coming.
At Leapfunder, we know that clear contracts and a viable capital structure are vital, just as vital as finding investors willing to take the risk. That is why we offer an Investor Matching Program for just a nominal fee. The program lasts between 10-90 days depending on how fast the startups want to go. The goal is to train founders not just to find investor leads in our network and elsewhere, but also to provide them with the knowledge and skills that are going to enable them to manage their investment round into the future. We build on valuable insights from 150+ successful Leapfunder funding rounds and give you direct access to other entrepreneurs who can openly share their experiences. Even though we can’t guarantee a match with any investor, we can coach founders to find leads, help them set up their terms sheets and pitch decks, and get them in the best possible shape before doing a funding round.
After joining our Investor Matching Program, startups get showcased on our website and introduced to the largest angel investor network in Europe. They get to attend our signature Round Table Sessions regularly. Here startups and investors meet informally, in a constructive atmosphere. The startups also get to join our online workshops for founders: we offer the Investor Readiness Session where startups can learn how not to talk to investors, the Pitch Deck Clinic where they can learn how to build an effective 10- page ‘conclusion chain’ in a series of simple slides, and the Finance Academy, where they get all the financial knowledge that a startup needs. Every week at a regular time we have the Weekly Standup Call. Here all the startups who are prepping their funding round can join in and bounce ideas of the others.
All of this is just a service to get startups ready for a funding round. Whether you raise on Leapfunder is a later decision. When a startup raises funding via Leapfunder that means the only thing a CEO needs to do is convince angels to invest, while we take care of everything else. Most startups prefer to go this route, but we do not hinder a decision to set up a funding round in some other way.
The Investor Matching Program has three key milestone events:
1) The Orientation Call
During this call, we will plan your attendance at our online workshops for founders: Investor Readiness Session, Pitch Deck Clinic & Finance Academy as well as your attendance at the Round Table Sessions, where you’ll meet investors. We will add your startup to the Weekly Standup Wednesday Call. You’ll schedule a Rocket Chart Call with Leapfunder’s specialists and find out which data is needed before that call. This chart is often crucial for attracting angel investors. We’ll plan a Termsheet Call, in which we’ll guide you towards creating the first set of terms, and the rough outline of an Information Memorandum. We’ll do a quick check to see if there are any aspects of your company that might diminish your attractiveness to investors; the red flag scan. Lastly, we’ll ask you to start your investor interaction diary and inform you about different recruitment strategies that have worked for other startups.
2) The Mid-term Call
This call is about finalizing the terms in the term sheet and a check-up to see how your investor recruiting is going. At the latest during the mid-term call, we will showcase your round on the Leapfunder website so that all investors know that it is coming. We will run through the features of our transaction management software. Lastly, we will plan the process of completing the formal documents that are needed to complete the online dataroom. As soon as that dataroom is complete you will be ready to go live and receive funding online.
3) The Go/No Go Call
This is the last call before starting your round. During this call, we’ll check with you if the timing is optimal for starting the round. You get to decide whether you want to go ahead or not. By this time you may also have received alternative offers. Making use of Leapfunder will normally speed up your round, save you money, and prevent headaches. But a Leapfunder round can also be part of a broader investment strategy with different approaches running in parallel.
By signing up for the Investor Matching Program, you will get our undivided attention over 10-90 days to put your investor story together, and meet first investors through participating in our workshops and coaching sessions. At the end of this period, you should be visible as a ‘Coming Soon’ round on our website. You have built experience on how to onboard investors, and you are ready to get your funding sorted out professionally.
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