1. How to Fund your Startup Perspective of an entrepreneur
2. Who Am I First company, 2003, specialised in hosting. Sold.
Second company, 2005, Itrade Services, consultancy and e-mail/SMS
marketing product. Third company, 2015, Infinity Mobile, fintech
startup in mobile order & pay In 2012 also co-founder of
Paycento, a patented technology to pay using your social
identity
3. A first question... Do you actually need money ? BECAUSE
Still living a casa di Mama... You are able to live on expense of
your girlfriend ? You dont socialize
4. Not a student? Get Ready for Some Serious Damage
Adventure!
5. Second fundamental question... Do you want to remain the
sole owner of 100% of the company shares?
6. Bootstrapped life-lines ? Getting clients (... that pay in
time cashflow!) Get a big client that sponsors your project (quid
pro quo ?) Whole bunch of accelerators that provide office room, an
entry to potential clients, meeting room facilities, some buzz
Known examples: StartIt@KBC, Telenet Idea Labs, NestUp, Founder
Institute ... Several competitions you can participate in Bizidee,
Accenture, Belfius, Microsoft, ... Some companies provide also free
entry to their software range for first 1,5 years (eg. Microsoft
Azure, Proximus cloud, ...) Check out startup communities
Startups.be, Betagroup, StartupWeekend for more
7. Life-lines for need money, no equity Go to a bank and get a
loan (rinse and repeat) If you will create an asset, be sure to ask
for EIF (European funds, only Belfius) Others: for starters there
is a warranty given by (flemish) government (provided by all banks)
Interest rates are low Business plan and financial plan required Go
to friends and loan money (generally not advisable)
8. Third fundamental question EXTERNAL FINANCING ANYONE ? What
options do you have ?
9. Life-lines for need money, give equity Go to an incubator
that becomes active partner Provides traditional incubator benefits
Provides an operational structure for your company Provides
(mostly) exit options Go to Crowdfunding KBC Bolero, MyMicroInvest,
Crofun, ... Go to Business Angels BAN Vlaanderen BE Angels
10. Life-lines for need A LOT OF money, give equity Go to a
Venture Capitalist (VC) Typically all above 250K Dont go if you
have no clients, no revenue, and didnt check all other options
first From seed-stage onwards, most are growth stage Most VCs in
sectors IT and cleantech VC Type of financing Equity-based
Mezzanine Not much (IT related) VCs in Belgium (like 5), go check
out UK, DE, NL Dont give up if 10 VCs say no, improve your pitch
and keep searching
11. Dos and donts for VC Increasing gross margin YoY
(scalability) Raising money costs time... Lots of time! Try to be
picked up by press (when u are ready for VCs) Never send a business
plan to a VC, only executive summary and slides Practice your pitch
Adapt your slides after each VC visit
12. The government loves you (yes! a new taxpayer we can
squeeeeeze!) Federal government Startup plan Alexander De Croo Less
accountancy Less social taxes in first 3 years (private) investors
get up to 45% tax reduction for invested amount Flemish government
Subventions IWT (R&D related) iMinds projects FinMix Wallon
government Sowalfin
13. Thank you Feel free to connect me on LinkedIn Email:
[email protected] E-mail & SMS marketing:
www.mymailmarket.be Mobile Order & Pay :
www.infinity-mobile.io