1. 1. How to Fund your Startup Perspective of an entrepreneur
2. 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. 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. 4. Not a student? Get Ready for Some Serious Damage Adventure!
5. 5. Second fundamental question... Do you want to remain the sole owner of 100% of the company shares?
6. 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. 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. 8. Third fundamental question EXTERNAL FINANCING ANYONE ? What options do you have ?
9. 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. 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. 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. 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. 13. Thank you Feel free to connect me on LinkedIn Email: geert@infinity-mobile.io E-mail & SMS marketing: www.mymailmarket.be Mobile Order & Pay : www.infinity-mobile.io