If you’ve ever tried to raise startup capital, you know what a time-suck it can be. Even for successful, seasoned entrepreneurs, it can take 6-9 months and hundreds of meetings to secure an investment. Compressing the fundraising cycle can have a huge impact on a startup and its chances of success. This webinar will help you speed up your fundraising cycle by arming you with the information and data that startup investors want to see. We’ll also cover the best ways to present data to investors using the latest technology and communications. Join Lighter Capital and Visible.VC to learn how Visible used their stakeholder engagement platform to help them secure funding in 15 days.

1. The Data and Metrics that Investors Need to See
How to Get Funded in 15 Days

2. Please feel free
to ask questions

3. • Fundraising can take a huge amount of time
• Can be an enormous drain of resources
• Represents immense opportunity cost
• No guarantee of success
The Fundraising Problem
Most businesses need outside capital to
scale. However:

4. • Legal documents
• Financial data
• Operational metrics and KPIs
• The best ways to engage with various
stakeholders
The Fundraising Solution
Visible.VC successfully secured growth
capital from Lighter Capital in 15 days.
To increase your odds of success, you
need to know the information required by
investor. This includes:

5. Meet the Presenters
Allen Johnson
Chief Investment Officer
Lighter Capital
Mike Preuss
CEO
Visible.VC

6. About Lighter Capital
Founded in 2010, Lighter Capital has created
a new fundraising path for early-stage tech
companies. Lighter Capital has deployed over
$100M across 400 rounds of financing.
Lighter Capital Revenue Based Financing
• Up to $2M of growth capital
• No equity dilution
• No board representation
• No financial covenants
• No personal guarantees

7. About Visible.vc
Founded in 2014, Visible is a stakeholder
engagement and data distribution platform.

8. Visible helps power investor and
management reports for over 500
companies across the globe.

9. Amount of time expected to close a round?
• Will vary by stage and funding size
• Realistic benchmark is 6-9 months to close
Success Rate
• 1% of companies successfully raise VC funding1
Common reasons for No
• Lack of scale / Total Available Market (TAM)
• “How does this become a $100M business?”
BENCHMARKING
Securing Equity Financing
1) Harvard Business Review, Six Myths About Venture Capitalists

10. Key Takeaways:
• The hurdle for growth & metrics
have never been higher
• Vast majority of investors don’t
get excited if under 3x growth
• Raising future rounds is
challenging
SaaS VC Funding,
highest bar ever
Source: Chris Janz – Point Nine Capital
What does it take to raise capital, in SaaS, in 2018?

11. Amount of time expected to close a round?
• Will vary by stage and funding size
• Realistic benchmark is 3-6 months to close
Success Rate
• Varies by product, lender and corporate structure
Common reasons for No
• Poor/incomplete financial statements
• Inability to produce required documents
• Pathway to repayment is unclear or deemed risky
BENCHMARKING
Securing Debt Financing

12. Items VCs need to see
• Legal Docs
• Corporation documents
• Cap Table
Items VCs like to see
• Team with a high pedigree
• Business and Finance KPIs w/ traction
• Lines not dots. Investors want to get to know you,
see trend over time, etc.
Items VCs want to see
• Customer Acquisition Model
• Hiring Plan
• Insane Growth!
WHAT INVESTORS NEED TO SEE
Equity Financing

13. Items Lenders need to see
• Historical financial statements (i.e. track record)
• Revenue model – products, churn, concentration
• Schedule of outstanding debt obligations
• Corporate documents - formation, bylaws, etc.
Items Lenders like to see
• Revenue growth and pathway to profitability
• Identified use of funds
• Management team overview
Items Lenders want to see
• Projections – upside and downside scenarios
• Transparency and consistency with story/numbers
WHAT INVESTORS NEED TO SEE
Debt Financing

14. • Personal guarantees
• Restrictive financial covenants
• True cost of warrant coverage
Key factors to consider:
Debt Financing
Equity Financing
• Equity dilution per round (~20-30%)
• Company control – ownership %, board seats, etc.
• Strategic advisor, benefits, networks

15. Visible.VC funded in 15 days
• First phone call: October 12, 2017
• Submitted Application: October 13, 2017
• Due Diligence: October 16, 2017
• Sent to Credit Committee: October 17, 2017
• Terms offered: October 18, 2017
• Money Wired: October 27, 2017
CASE STUDY
What Happened

16. Things were able to move very quickly
because they:
• Provided clean data
• Proactively shared business metrics and reports
• Detailed churn reports
• Clean customer data directly from CRM
• Quick turnaround of information requested
• CEO was transparent about the business
CASE STUDY
How it Happened

17. It’s critical to have high-degree of transparency
into your business
• What information should you always know/track?
• Reliable/crucial data sources
• How this informs management decisions
Understanding Your
Business

18. • Clean & easily accessible financials. Don’t get
locked into a platform, data your data with you.
• True North KPIs. New MRR is a lagging
indicator. E.g. Visible’s True North KPI = Product
Qualified Trials.
• ”CRM Data”. How much are they paying? How
frequently? What is their contact info? How did
we acquire them? Easy to pivot, report, filter, etc.
What Data & KPIs should
I track?

19. • What customer acquisitions channels are performing
better than others?
• What customer segments churn at a higher rate than
others?
• Are we growing fast enough to hit fundraising
milestones?
• What should we double down on? What should we hit
pause on?
Data  Informing
Management Decisions

20. How to optimize your relationship with, and
likelihood of success with, capital partners
• Best channels / platform for communications?
• Frequency, nature of communications?
• Proactive vs reactive
• Communicating with lenders vs VCs
Communicating with
Investors

21. How
• Go where your stakeholders are (usually email!). The less
friction the better.
When:
• $0 to $5,000,000 Revenue, send monthly reports
• $5M+ Revenue send quarterly reports
Where:
• Be proactive. Investors who receive updates are 2x more
likely to re-invest.
Stakeholder Reporting: How,
When and Where?

22. Company
• Internal team members and management team
Existing Stakeholders
• Investors
• Advisors
• Lenders
Potential investors, executives and lenders
• ”Drip” them your sizzle metrics and Updates. Will create
an engaged pipeline and help connects the dots.
• Shortens the cycle considerably to raise capital and hire.
Stakeholder Reporting: Who?

23. • Keep it concise, have specific asks.
• Always use comparable metrics and rates.
• Include Cash on Hand, Burn and Headcount.
• Include your 3-5 true north KPIs.
• Just do it! Get feedback and iterate.
Format

24. • Transparency is key when building relationships
with investors.
• Demonstrate strong knowledge of business
strategy, financials and key company metrics.
• Understand both upside and downside
scenarios.
Allen Johnson
Chief Investment Officer
Lighter Capital
RECOMMENDATIONS
Advice to any companies
seeking funding

25. • Fundraising is a process, treat it as such and make
it a full-time job.
• Have structured, clean and reliable data. It makes
everything from strategic decisions to fundraising
much easier.
• Establish relationships with financiers (VCs, lenders,
etc) and update them at a regular cadence.
Remember lines, not dots.
Mike Preuss
CEO
Visible.VC
RECOMMENDATIONS
Advice to any companies
seeking funding

26. Questions?
?

27. Allen Johnson
Chief Investment Officer
Lighter Capital
ajohnson@lightercapital.com
Tom Malcolm
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Lighter Capital
tmalcolm@lightercapital.com
www.lightercapital.com
@lightercapital
Mike Preuss
CEO
Visible.VC
mike@visible.vc
@mikepreuss
www.visible.vc
@visiblevc