Money Matters - how to finance your startup when there is no money

MONEY MATTERSwith

How to finance your startup and survive the valley of death

#geniusfinance #geniusict #FemTechSE #femalefounders

• Pernilla Rydmark, Internetfonden• Anna Söderholm, Almi Invest• Pontus Frohde, FundedByMe• Lisbeth Vigermyr, IBM Global Entrepreneur• Anna Caracolias & Annika Englund, Genius

#geniusict #FemTechSE #femalefounders

TONIGHT:


// GENDER COUNT

• What went well in 2015, what didn't, and our plans for 2016

• In what was a record year for Nordic investments we have no statistics on how many female founded startups were funded

• The 2016 Nordic Funding Analysis - crunching the numbers for female entrepreneurs


FINANCING GENDER

Kickstarter and personal insights in gender dynamics when

financing startups with crowdfunding


THIS WE KNOW• Women are less active than men in entrepreneurship or

business investing

• Women start businesses with significantly less capital than men

• This limits our ability to grow and increases our risk of financial distress in periods of adversity


A KICKSTARTER STUDY• Men seek and raise significantly more money than women for

their Kickstarter projects but women have higher success rates than men in funding projects

• It was not women’s more modest financial goals that accounted for their higher rate of success according to research by the Kauffman Foundation and UC Berkeley - women are simply better at it


FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS• These findings indicate that crowdfunding may increase

women-led projects/startups

• These findings indicate that crowdfunding may also lead to more women as investors

• Important to encourage women to enter male dominated fields like games as it may have more growth opportunities

• Important to change perceptions regarding gender equality as perceptions play a role in investment decisions


DO RESERACH!1. which crowdfunding platform is the right fit for your campaign?

(I ended up developing my own) 2. which campaigns reached the multi-million level and why? 3. which type of awards is the right fit?

• Skip the “atta girl” type rewards and focus on higher level rewards that include your product and/or equity

• Low-level rewards result in petty cash, higher rewards require less sales effort, i.e fewer sales to reach your goal

• Include time-limited rewards - a sense of urgency

LEARNINGS FROM CROWDFUNDING MY OWN STARTUP


BUILD YOUR OWN NETWORK BEFORE YOU NEED IT

• The word “crowdfunding” is sometimes a mislabelling - in general, the majority of money raised comes from people who know of you directly or are 1 - 2 degrees away

• Few campaigns go viral, don’t expect it



PUT THE “WHY” INTO YOUR STORY

• To influence, persuade or convince people - nothing is more powerful than a good story

• People don’t buy WHAT you do, they buy WHY you do it

• People want to be part of something bigger



EXPERIMENT AND SHOW MOMENTUM

• Research you target audience - a one size fits all marketing approach doesn’t work

• Facebook ads, YouTube and Mailchimp in addition to my own channel were clear winners in my campaigns

• Backers will stay on the sidelines until they see that others have joined - so target the people you think are likely to back your campaign - before you launch!



• Be agile • Strategize every day of the campaign• Change tactics based on what is working in the moment!

FINAL ADVICE …

How much I raised? 1,4 million dollars in 10 days


GOOD LUCK!

(and please speak to the FundedByMe rep tonight!)


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Money Matters - how to finance your startup when there is no money