A 4-step story-driven process for fundraising — Every unicorn starts as a pitch deck. Even the rocket-like trajectory of tech giants like Airbnb or Uber started with a small number of slides that were the entrance key to external capital. Good traction is vital when seeking financing, but before you get a meeting or a call, your…

Part 1 of 5 in the “Financial Modelling for Startups” Series — Raising financing from venture capitalists and institutional investors can be a significant hurdle for any startup. Whether a venture seeks funding for product development, testing of market hypotheses, or scaling up of operations, at some point, every founder has to prepare for the often time-consuming and stressful process of fundraising.

Level 1: Revenue — A brief refresher In a previous post, I have discussed the importance of deeply investigating the dynamics underlying your top-line growth rates, especially in the current market sentiment that prices sustainable, high-quality, and, at best, profitable growth above anything else. An entry framework to evaluate traction dynamics is growth accounting, which breaks down…

An introduction to Growth Accounting — A new (growth) sentiment Tech valuations have suffered in recent months, starting with the public markets and then rippling through private growth companies and down to early-stage startups. Depending on who you ask, what we are currently experiencing is either a long-needed correction, a short-lived overreaction that will quickly subside, a fully-fledged crisis and…

Part 5 of 5 in the “Financial Modelling for Startups” Series — In the startup lifecycle, receiving external funding is only an intermediate step within the bigger picture. …

Part 4 of 5 in the “Financial Modelling for Startups” Series — When looking at startups to invest in, it is a common saying that most investors tend to discount 50% from every forecast they receive. …

Part 3 of 5 in the “Financial Modelling for Startups” Series — When investors evaluate your business case, they try to develop an intuition if what you are doing now on a small scale would work on a big scale with a lot more firepower through additional funding. Unit economics and KPIs are excellent indicators for that since they provide a micro-level…

Part 2 of 5 in the “Financial Modelling for Startups” Series — The market environment is a focal point of analysis for startup investors since it is a critical variable affecting the prospects of customer acquisition, margins, and, ultimately, reaching profitability. …