GOING BEYOND THE “USUAL SUSPECTS” FOR FUNDING She has one main piece of advice for emerging entrepreneurs seeking funding. “Think about why you started your business, what issue you’re hoping to solve. Then when you’re first starting out, go for the lowest hanging fruit, the people who will be the most excited about you.” Investors can simply be people you know who share your passion and have some money saved and who can be more open-minded about what they’ll fund than venture capital firms. Kassan encourages founders to look beyond the traditional idea of VC funding, which is not realistically available to everyone. “Find like-minded people, those who are trying to solve the same problem as you are with your business. You can do this by writing articles and getting them published or by going to events for professionals in your field.” She says that often, funders will be even more excited about a business tackling a social or environmental issue than a nonprofit because there are fewer regulations and restrictions on how a small business can operate than on a legally registered 501c3 organization. She points out that 99 percent of investors are not professional investors, the sort of people with INVESTOR in their LinkedIn profile, who tend to go for startups that can get very big very quickly and whose founders have a proven track record. “Also, you don’t need one person to write a huge check,” says Kassan. “I raised $1.1 million for a startup once from 135 different people!” Kassan also advises entrepreneurs to structure their investment offerings to match the rate and time frame they expect for business growth. This is also easier with non-VC investors, who are less likely to have a preconceived idea of what a successful business looks like.
“Find like-minded people, those who are trying to solve the same problem as you are with your business. You can do this by writing articles and getting them published or by going to events for professionals in your field.”
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