Emerture

Age and gender bias in investment decisions have been consistently hindering founders and limiting their ambitions. This continued bias resulting in lack of funding poses a big obstacle and threat to the prospective growth, expansion, and profitability of businesses led by diverse founders. These biases are not just frustrating and demotivating, but also ethically concerning and detrimental for investor portfolios. The gross neglect of vast groups of potential entrepreneurs based on age, gender, or race makes investors potentially miss out on groundbreaking ideas and innovations. The startup tech ecosystem should see more Founders who have a wealth of experience, have navigated turbulent economic scenarios and have a reasonably stable financial footing. Ultimately, knowledge and experience are the main predictors of work performance which has no colour and can only keep increasing with age. #startups #fundraising #genderbias

Most startups raising funds think they are investment ready and spend a lot of time and effort exploring different avenues and methods in presenting their investment opportunity. There are several versions of the perfect investor deck capturing the core essence of the investment opportunity. Founders put in a lot of time and effort to avoid any flaws or likely gaps/objections to be raised by prospective investors. However, more than often, businesses rush into fundraising without being fully prepared and therefore may struggle to convince investors of their potential. Gearing up to raise funds and choosing the right time ensures that they present a strong proposition to investors where they are able to demonstrate significant product development, market traction, and financial stability. Ultimately, investors want to see a reduced risk of failure with favourable macro-economic conditions, established problem-solution-fit. a compelling GTM strategy and the team’s authentic execution capabilities and resilience for solving it collectively together. #startups #investorpitch #fundraising #investordeck #emerture

It was a prerequisite in the yesteryears for VCs to have some track record of building a business or come from a pedigree of solid industry background. Today you may find many that lack the operational experience and do not bring the prior experience of having successfully built, run and exited businesses. The common VC pitch to entrepreneurs is that the firm brings much more than money to the table - offering experience, operational and industry expertise, a broad network of relevant contacts, a range of services for start-ups, and a strong track record of successful investing. VCs also tend to attract a homogenous genre of people which typically lead to bias in access, evaluation and decision-making of ventures. Many if not most of the time, founders have to fit the VCs’ cookie cutter approach, with never enough (vague generally) information to demonstrate what should meet their investment thesis to include Founder-fund-fit. We should hopefully be seeing many successful Founders move to the VC arena with an aim hopefully to shift the culture from secrecy and speculation to more transparency and collaboration on decision making. #startups #venturecapital #trackrecord #duediligence #emerture 

Startup businesses at early stages should be kept as lean as possible to avoid any unnecessary cash burn until they reach some degree of maturity in business evolution. Founding teams should optimise allocation of time across all business functions, not favouring the ones they are comfortable with. However, many businesses choose to onboard some must-have hires to bridge their so called skill set gaps. There is that great desire to surround yourself with very competent people who will collectively build a great product, sell it and make it a grand success. From the word go, Founders must spend majority of their time understanding customer pain points and subsequently, get involved in the sales process themselves. They need to build the knowledge, skills, abilities, confidence, and competencies of successful sales people without relying on 3rd parties or advisors/consultants. Hiring should only become an option when the sales process and enquiries become unmanageable. Ultimately, only you as a Founder can figure out what to build and how to sell it. #startups #earlystage #jobtitles #valuecreation #emerture

Most startups try to secure funding before reaching the PMF stage, and many choose to prove customer demand for their new business model without investing much. The best position to successfully close a round is when you have gathered sufficient proof points. Your ability to assemble a credible team together, closing letters of intent with marquee customers, and other milestones that can further prove your ability to execute and deliver. At later stages, proof points are all about metrics, i.e. traction, marketing ROI, unit economics, etc. These are critical parts of any fundraising process and are especially so when investors are more risk-averse. At early stages if a business cannot demonstrate or show growth or show that customers want their product or service, it is unlikely they are going to attract much interest from investors. Ultimately, your chances of securing funding is directly proportionate with the amount of evidence you can demonstrate on traction gained. #startups #fundraising #investability #stageofevolution #emerture

Startups come into being to fundamentally address a unmet market need and to establish customers have a problem to be solved or a pain point to be addressed, and more importantly are willing to pay for the company’s solution. The business also requires a large number of customers who have similar needs and will pay for a product that meets them - based on the assumption that the market is big enough to support scale. Establishing the product's ability to satisfy a significant need in the market beyond a few customers and driving increasing adoption should be paramount to get to the PMF stage. Ultimately, most early stage businesses are constantly in the pursuit of experimenting and iterating on defining their target customer and a workable business model which is a critical part of the product-market fit journey. #startups #earlystage #valuecreation #organicgrowth #emerture

Arriving at a valuation for fledgling businesses is often a difficult task particularly when they have no revenues along with the absence of any operating history. Further, most do not make it through these early stages to success and therefore, arriving at an estimated value of the business is made on intuitions and biases. The absence of historical data makes it difficult to assess how well the projected revenues will hold up if macro economic conditions become less favorable. Valuing a business at very early stages is generally done on the basis of estimating its future income, potential for growth and profitability besides other factors like problem-solution fit, market conditions and size, execution capabilities of the team and other similar businesses who have secured funding. Ultimately, there is no denying the fact that early stage businesses pose the most difficult estimation challenges in valuation which generally end up speculating on a combination of forward multiples and high discount rates. #startups #earlystage #prerevenue #valuation #emerture

Founders put in a lot of time, effort and resource in their relentless attempts to raise funding. Following a considerable effort in putting together their IMs etc, they begin to explore several avenues to ultimately get in front of sophisticated investors with an aim to having engaging and promising conversations. The foundation of their fundraising strategies is to maximise opportunities to showcase their ideas and sell their stories to investors. Founders need to spend focussed time on thoroughly researching avenues that are likely to give them maximum results and of course to manage expectations. Undisputedly, the obvious path to a qualified investor may be a warm introduction, but how many such introductions is one likely to secure, and are they still likely to meet your funding raise requirements. Ultimately, it is about leveraging the critical triggers that will result in conversations with a stronger prospect of raising investment, and striking a balance between warm introductions and a breadth of cold outreaches would certainly result in more favourable outcomes. #startups #raisingfunds #bestpractices #managingexpectations #emerture

Startup businesses may always have a reason to relocate; ranging from the allure of opportunity to explore new markets, easier access to raising capital, and tapping into diverse talent pools. Most of course have the dominant reason to unlock a wider customer base and access a larger pool of funding sources. Some geo locations offer unique opportunities for businesses offering certain products or solutions from a regulatory or market dynamics standpoint. Startups can reap substantial benefits from relocation overseas - besides access to a wider talent pool and diving into a new market opportunity, the other reason to excite businesses is access to more capital, bigger ticket sizes and more favourable terms. Having said that, relocating is never a smooth process often requiring significant time and resources, and often more favourable for those who have raised capital from the targeted region of relocation for smoother access to regional resources. #startups #relocation #newmarkets #talentpool #emerture

There are countless different versions of presenting the perfect investor deck. Some Founders even prefer to not follow the typical deck format and just put together a few slides capturing the core essence of the investment opportunity. A good pitch is considered to be a balancing act often dependant on the investors receiving it – their profile, investment sentiment and past investment history. Many a times as part of their narratives, founders put in a lot of time and effort in presenting financial projections at very early stages. These projections generally project aggressive revenue growth without much traction or a clear and consistent path to customer acquisition. Further based on these projections, an exit plan is presented without even capturing a fraction of the addressable market. Ultimately, what really matters is demonstrating the team’s authentic passion for the challenge or problem at hand, a compelling GTM based on market conditions and competitive landscape., their execution capabilities and their resilience for solving it creatively together. #startups #earlystage #fundraising #storytelling #emerture