WITH DOUGLAS HAGEDORN1

CEO & Founder of Tactalis

No formal training in grant funding

Started a few small businesses

22 years of school

Strong writing background

Received multiple grants

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YOUR RESULTS WILL VARY

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GRANT

Grant, contribution, subsidy, incentive, scholarship, cost-share, rebate, award, prize, contest etc.

Anything that has an application process and provides support

Applications are very different than pitches!

Grants are not free money!

Grants are tools, designed to achieve a specific task

They apply additional support or reduce energy needed

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Funder Contributed I Contributed What I keep

U of C Student Travel Bursary $500 0 $0

SSHRC $17,000 0 $17,000

QE2 Graduate Scholarship $10,000 0 $0

CNIB Hochhausen $10,000 $100 0

Tecterra CSS $50,000 $2,500* $2500 GST

AITF $15K Voucher $15,000 $6,000 $1000 GST

Innovate Calgary Perfect Pitch $15,000 $200 $2000 + services

Tecterra TAP $7,500 $15,000 0

AITF $50K Voucher $48,750 $16,250 0

TecEdmonton VenturePrize $30,000 * ~15,000

Tecterra Geo-Placement $42,500 (of 50,000) $50,000 0

Total $218,750 $87,800 $20,500

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Bottom up, back to front

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Representatives

Expert Strategy

Group

Marketing OrgGrant

Where do grants come from?

Project Team

http://www.nce-rce.gc.ca/NetworksCentres-

CentresReseaux/CECR-CECR_eng.asp

Expert Strategy

Group

Expert Strategy

Group

More Jobs! Clean Air!

Wealth! Longer Lives!

International Fame!

Investment opportunities!

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Introduction - Who are you?

Proposal - What do you want? What are you planning to do

Due Diligence – How Risky is this? How legit are you?

Outcomes (AKA – Impact, Deliverables, Long Term Value… )

Introduction Proposal Due Diligence Outcomes

You can’t win a game in your own zone,

but you can lose one

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Their decisions are based on your ability to serve that purpos

Outcomes justify a funder’s investment in you

Your potential funders goals are now your goals

Start writing at the back and describe yourself as someone who can achieve the outcomes your funder wants to see

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BEWARE!

Many funding programs are not actually designed to help start-ups, because that’s not their purpose.

A grant may stimulate your company, but hurt its growth

This seems stupid and is exceptionally frustrating!

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Here's how I think of my

money - as soldiers - I send

them out to war everyday. I

want them to take

prisoners and come home,

so there's more of them.

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Lets say you’re a broke start-up leaving a party at AcceleratorYYC and you meet a funder who wants to split a cab.

They’re going to a party way down south, you’re going downtown to where all the action is at.

Convince them you’re going the way they’re already going!

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1. Be concise

2. Use consistent terminology correctly

3. Cohesive applications get funded

4. Be your own consultant

5. Complete their sentences

6. Be correct and confirmable

7. Be current and contemporary

8. Be calendar sensitive

9. Don’t be funding contingent

10. Be creative and clustered, but not-competitive

11. Collaborate with partners

12. Represent a community of practice

13. Become a known commodity

14. Explain valuable credentials

15. Don’t just copy and paste

16. Connect with past recipients

17. Offer a solid corporate foundation

18. Contribute back and be courteous

19. Use careful word choices

20. Circulate you application

21. Understand the chain of command

22. Leave some cash on the table

23. Commercialization potential speaks volumes

24. Consider the funder’s perspective

25. Have a just cause

26. Display cross country value in your own backyard

27. Be confident, not too cocky or too cautious

28. Understand the chain of grants

29. Proof of concept first, then commercialization

30. Calculate your value before and after 19

Say only what you need to and only where you need to!

Being concise lets you say more in limited space

Being concise doesn’t test the reviewer’s patience

You can refer to places where you’ve said things elsewhere

“See attached business plan, pg 17”

“As mentioned in Section 1.8”

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Using inconsistent terminology confuses reviewers and weakens your application

Use only three terms to describe your value prop:

What you do

What you call it

What it’s a type of

We make an interactive tactile computer system, called the Tactalis Origin, which is a type of touchscreen tablet with a haptic interface for blind users.

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One question may actually be many

Describe the technology environment of the project in relation to current industrial practice, problems, opportunities and key innovative elements that would be addressed by the proposed project/product.

Make sure your response aligns with other sections

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Describe the current technological problems;

What are the state of the art leaders in this field proposing to address or circumvent these problems?

How did you select the technology to be developed and the primary applications?

What do you see as the key innovative aspects and advantages of the product or service (refer to the comparative table, if provided)?

What is the scientific basis of your proposed technical advance?

Why do you think your proposed solution has not been implemented before by others?

Is this a continuation of an earlier NRC-IRAP project (feasibility)? What is the contribution of the results of the previous project to this one?

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SWAT, RACI, WSB, ROI

Going through the motions of project management counts for a lot

It gives the impression that you’re not just an amateur making this up on the fly

Bureaucracy likes bureaucracy

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What would be the key business success factors that need to be controlled to achieve the expected benefits?

The key factors for business success that need to be controlled to achieve the expected benefits in this project are:

Cost of customer acquisition

Barriers to market entry

Intellectual Property Protection

Etc

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Solid Current Facts and legitimate stats count for a lot

“According to the World Health Organization there are currently 285 million people world wide who are blind or visually impaired.(WHO FS282, 2013)”

See http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/

Good referencing: is expected in most grant applications

makes you an expert

Saves your review time from looking things up

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Innovation funders fund innovation

How are you the leading edge? What is your zeitgeist?

Noted consumer and tech trends Let others sing your song (PWC, Pembina, Huffington post, etc)

For Tactalis: Touch 2.0, tablet computers & accessibility

See also:

Total Retail, Nano Tech, 3d Printing, Big Data, Responsive Web, Robotics, Clean tech, Sustainable

Energy, Broadband Wireless, Geolocation, Remote Sensing, Wearables, IOT,

Avoid:

The paperless office, loyalty programs, new social networks,

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Applying for money that isn’t there yet/any more won’t help you

Applying when the funders are concerned about other things ( Christmas, Fiscal

year end, etc) won’t help you

Most programs have a regular cycle for EOI’s

Time your application when your and their bank account is full

Most funders have to publish their annual reports online

Or, call and ask someone what their deal is

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Who would you rather fund?

If they get this grant they can pay themselves for six months

AND spend some money on product development

AND if everything goes according to plan they won’t be screwed.

Startup B

Has more than one profit center and enough cash on hand or incoming revenue to stay alive past the duration of the grant.

Therefore, the grant won’t go to waste once the project is done.

Startup A

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How do you fit into the landscape

Are you a part of a building critical mass?

Do you build upon foundations laid by other companies?

How do you create innovation and synergy opportunities

for other companies?

Do you compete directly with something they’ve already

funded

Funders love the ideas of industry hubs where highly

qualified professionals want to work

Calgary is an oil and gas hub

London is a fashion hub

The Alberta Touch Interface Cluster

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Unite the strength of many organizations

Funders love when their money benefits more than one group

Partnering with established companies reduces risk and accelerates progress

Industry, Academia, NGO,

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Show how you’re not just a lone start-up

Industry organizations lend credibility

Shows who might care about what you do

Funders know you’ll put your logo on a slide at the conference

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Prove that you know what you’re talking about outside the application

Make your opinion and feedback matter

Don’t be a surprise

Have them expect or even want to fund you

Speak at events

Attend tradeshows

Follow them and their staff on twitter

Write a blog

Publish papers

Make introductions

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The letters behind someone’s name and their past home runs only count if you explain how they add value to your future project

If you don’t bother to explain what Dr. PhD’s contribution to the project is the default assumption is that he or she is expense overhead

Is one actually worth two associates?

How does this person add more than they subtract?

Expensive overhead = risk

More education = more specialization = less flexibility

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Tailor your writing for every application

What was great for one application might be exactly the wrong thing for another

Copied and pasted responses rarely make sense or say everything they need to

Every touch

makes you

better

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Find others who have been there before you

Learn what works and what didn’t

Avoid their mistakes

Get the big picture

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It doesn’t matter how great your proposal is if your business isn’t sound and your numbers don’t stand up to scrutiny

Do you actually have employees? Are you full time?

Do you have any money to begin with?

Do you have business insurance? Are you properly incorporated?

For many applications you will have to provide 1-2 year financial statements within 30 days of approval

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Those surveys you get in your email actually matter, A LOT!

Reporting, endorsements, and testimonials are often a big factor in how much follow on funding a granting organization receives

Ask an actual person for their logo to put on your slides and website

Introductions count for a lot

Don’t bite the hand that feeds you

Dance with the person you came with

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Speak their language

For MedTech Funders, speak medicine

For Geomatics Funders, speak geomatics

For Digital Media Funders, speak media

Understand their comfort zones

Develop Patent Application

Vs.

Develop Patent Strategy

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A second pair of eyes will always find additional mistakes

Better that they find it, than the reviewers

Don’t just send it to friends, send it to critics

If it doesn’t make sense to a stranger you know, it won’t make sense to a stranger you don’t

Just because someone has received a grant before, doesn’t make them a good writer (especially consultants)

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CEO

Treasurer

Intake Advisor

Application Reviewer

Admin Assistant

Program Coordinator

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You’re more likely to get funded if you can show that you’ve done your homework and know what things actually cost.

Consider:

We want $50,000 for half of a software developers salary

Vs

We want $44,000 because that is just over half of the average software developer’s salary in Alberta according to data collected by the Altalis portal

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Grants will help you bridge an R&D gap from where you are now, to where you want to go

But, that other side has to exist

Commercialization potential informs timelines

Bigger immediate demand = more need for high dollar value programs

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What you see

New exciting technology opportunity

A better mouse trap

A perfect new team member A small expense

A small investment

A lifesaving product

What they see

Extensive R & D for an unproven market

Something that will make our current portfolio company obsolete

Someone without any proven credentials

A big part of their bottom line

Not their industry

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Be the sort of project that they would want to write about in a newsletter

Give your story some Upworthy spin, social impact or human interest

Consider:

Statistical analysis of long-term deforestation

Vs.

Save the endangered lemurs!

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It’s great that you serve customers in Calgary, but most funders are nationwide.

They can better justify their expenses if they benefit an entire nation or more

Everyone likes to see the home town kid make it in the big show.

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Ask yourself, what would it look like if I dialed it up or down a notch in either direction? If you can’t go any further, that’s probably not where you want to be.

EG: We’re going to install our software in every restaurant everywhere

EG: Our long term goal is to install our software in one restaurant over the next five years.

Based on our forecasts we will be able to install our software in 10 new restaurants per month, for the next three years.

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Opportunity

Assessment

Proof of Concept Commercialization

Support

Industry Projects

$5k - $15k $15K – 50K $25K – $100K $100K+

Recipe

Emphasis on Research and Design

Expected failures

Funds for expertise

Bursaries and co-payments

Germination

Think about the type of restaurant you want to open while proposing your recipe. Can you get a constant supply of fresh

octopus in Calgary each morning?

Restaurant

Emphasis on growth and market penetration

Go from start-up to Home Run

Funds for operating capital

Loans and partnerships

Long term company survivability

You might think you’re ready to open a restaurant but can you prove it?

Where is your recipe on paper?

(Hint: it’s in your business plan or opportunity assessment)

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Funder’s do want to see you succeed

Show them exactly what their money is buying

Secretly everyone wants to help create more investable companies

We currently do $10,000/month in revenue with 3 employees in 1 country

Now we do $100,000/month with five employees in 10 countries

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No, they got it. You’re pretty special alright, but so what?

Did you give people a reason to get excited about them?

Funders want to give you money, really badly! For real!

Unlike everyone else, they’re not trying to keep their money they’re trying to deploy and leverage it

It is literally their job to give out money, if they don’t give out money effectively they won’t get more money and then they can’t pay themselves.

Your job is to help them justify pulling the trigger Cool is never enough justification

Sometimes you can get away with ‘well aligned’

They will tell you what they like to give money to if you look and listen

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Most grant programs operate in steps

Most funders are extremely risk averse even though their goal is to help negate risk

Who would you give $100,000 to?

Startup A: Is riding a wave of hype

Want’s $100,000 to take a hot new idea to market right away or recover/move on from a recent failure

Startup B: Gets $5000 and does what they said they would,

then gets $10,000 and does what they said they would,

then gets $25,000 and does what they said they would,

then gets $50,000...

Now want’s $100,000 to take a new but now well developed ($90,000) product to market 55

IRAP – Proof of concept projects but not commercialization

AITF – Viability Assessment then Research and development

Tecterra – Technical Capacity Building and hiring HQPs

CMF – Digital Content Creation

BCIP – Commercialization Opportunities

Alberta/Finland/Germany/Jalisco – Industry Partnerships

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The only correct answer is yes!

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The Usual

Find out about a grant, probably last minute

Download online application form

Copy and paste text about yourself from something else

Hit Submit

Get rejected two months later

Pout and mope

Try again, maybe

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Sign up for a funding organization’s email list or meet them at an event and ask to keep in touch

Hear about the grant as soon as it’s announced (+ updates too)

Call and talk to who ever runs the program

Have them email you the application or go online and download it

Research the funding organization

Talk to a past recipient (maybe get a copy of their application)

Write your outcomes

Plan your project

Write the rest of your application (using all the C’s)

Call the program coordinator for clarifications and idea bounce

Send it out to a friend for editing

Hit Submit

Prepare

Get approved and get going

Reporting and paperwork

BETTER!

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There’s no such thing as a free lunch

Reimbursement many grants live on your books

You pay the GST

Payment is never on time. Ever.

You pay now!

Yes does not mean authorized and approved

You can’t just give away equity

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You wanted money for something that’s not eligible for funding Prepare a patent vs. prepare a patent strategy

Commercialization vs. proof of concept study

You’re too big or too small or too early or too late for their program

You can’t sustain the grant’s benefit

You just don’t have the cash to make it happen

You’re already eating/have eaten from the same trough

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Try to find service providers that are the same size as you, with skillsets you don’t have

Glue your hands to the steering wheel!

Get flexible terms

You are lowest on a service providers totem pole

Grants usually aren’t enough to occupy a service provider full time

They know that you don’t have the money to retain their services after the grant

They know exactly how much money you have to spend

Split up the pie and make them fight for a second piece

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The last minute is just as long as the first

Don’t draft your application in the online portal

I like Microsoft OneNote (a lot!)

Find ways to do what you’re going to do anyway

By the hour, grants are pretty good money!

Pass it on

Crush it!

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