26 Fundraising Questions for Startups

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26 FUNDRAISING QUESTIONS FOR STARTUPS

Are you looking to raise some money for your fledgling startup? Here’s what investors might ask you when you meet them for the first time.

Why listen to me? I am just a high-school dropout who raised $250,000 from respectable investors such as 500 Startups. Exactly.

Learn more about the book

Goran Duskic – 26 Fundraising Questions for Startups

About the book

170 PAGES SPREAD ON 5 CHAPTERS:

CHAPTER 1 | Inspiration, Motivation, Self-discipline

Investments aren’t something you get; they’re something you attract. To become attractive or to build an attractive business you need self-discipline, inspiration and dedication every single day. You can find little clues inside the book how I managed to do it. Don’t get me wrong, motivation isn’t everything. As Jim Rohn used to say, if you have an idiot and you motivate him, you now have a motivated idiot. But you still have to motivate yourself, and once it wears off, you have to do it again and again. Picture on the left was taken when my company WhoAPI won a pitching contest.

CHAPTER 2 | Startups and Networking

It’s not what you know; it’s who you know. Meet the problem-solvers. Hang around game-changers. Model winners. Would you like to learn a neat trick how to exchange business cards or take pictures with any speaker, like the CTO of Amazon? Would you like to beat your stage fright? I cover these subjects and share some personal stories. I also recommend some other books that helped me get where I am now. Nothing happens overnight, but this will get you closer. Picture on the right was taken when I was giving a guest lecture on Founder Institute event after spending 4 months in Silicon Valley.

CHAPTER 3 | 26 Questions

This is where the rubber meets the road. Don’t meet with an investor before you go through the 26 questions. It’s time to interrogate your startup. Answering all those questions, can serve as a crash course in preparing you for your first meeting with an investor. Sometimes these conversations will feel like being pulled over by police. It’s stressful, and in most cases you are leaving the location empty handed. If you ever watched Shark Tank you know what I am talking about. If you experienced it yourself, then read these questions and get an advantage next time you speak with an investor.

CHAPTER 4 | Fundraising and Pitching

Once you are dedicated, inspired and self-disciplined enough to take all the beatings, after you pursued every dead end, and after you learn everything you need to learn, you are MAYBE ready to pitch and fundraise. Inside the book I go through the nitty-gritty and behind the scenes of someone who was an introvert, turned to a person doing extreme pitching in the streets of Mountain View, California. Not only did I pitch my startup with a megaphone, I stood in front of hundreds of guests in San Francisco, New York and Berlin to name a few cities. In the crowd there were investors, media, other startup founders and other guests. Picture on the right was taken in Silicon Valley, Microsoft campus during 500 Startups demo day.

CHAPTER 5 | Founder Interviews

In the fifth chapter we go head to head with some of the most renowned startup founders! Together they raised almost $200 million dollars, and since the last round for some of these guys was in 2015, we think this number will probably cross even $300 million in the near future as they go on to raise additional money. Not to mention the amount of goodwill, provided value, incredible technology they are making. Isaac Saldana (SendGrid), Mitch Wainer (DigitalOcean), and Bart Lorang (FullContact) are co-founders of their respectable startups. Also, we get a sneak-peak on the other side, an interview with super angel and founder of Gust David Rose.