# How to get funding and raise capital for a startup
- URL: https://www.petrikajander.com/how-to-get-funding/
- Author: Petri Kajander
- Date: 2020-09-10
- Language: en

I put together some points about fundraising and things that really matter. It's probably not fun to hear but often the easy things are not the ones you should focus and spend your time on.

[Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU)

The content:

[00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=0s) Getting funding is easy!   
[00:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=22s) Why and what are you doing?  
[01:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=77s) Customer pain points  
[03:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=189s) Target market  
[03:14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=194s) Revenues  
[03:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=207s) Cap table  
[04:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=255s) The hard part  
[04:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=291s) Relevance  
[05:08](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=308s) Show don't tell  
[06:21](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=381s) Excuses  
[07:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=430s) Practise makes perfect  
[08:41](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=521s) Summary  
[09:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU&t=550s) Bonus

Earlier this year, I wrote a similar [post](/getting-funding-is-easy/) that was the basis for this video.

## Transcript (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mAlFIxVBEU)

[0:01] What if I say that getting funding is easy? I know you don't believe me. Well, watch till the end, and I explain why I think it's easy. Before going there, let's do a bit of a checkup, if you will, about the state of your company and your funding plan. What is your business? Why are you doing it? Are you passionate about your business? Are you really jumping out of the bed in the morning to solve some issues or troubles, some pain points for some target market, some group of people who you'll really care about? Is that what you're oozing? Is that something, what do you really crave to do every day? So you barely can sleep and wait to jump out of your bed in the morning.

[0:54] Is your team doing the same? Do you have an awesome team around you who are as passionate as you to do and change the world with your solution? Are you in love with the solution? Notice, I didn't say, are you in love with the product? Are you in love of the pain point and solving that and whatever the means to solve that because it might be that you've been already building something? It might be that you already have something to offer, but if people aren't buying, if it's not really moving the needle in your revenues, maybe the solution is not exactly what it's supposed to be.

[1:51] Maybe, it's not the people who are not getting what you are offering? Maybe you haven't found the proper product/market fit? And that's why I'm saying, are you in love with the solution, the pain point, finding the exact perfect awesome solution to those people to have their life easier? If you're in hunger, you need to have food. You want to have food. And if somebody can offer you the most amazing meal, they are so happy. What type of food they are eating that's a different question. But oftentimes when you're building a company, you focus on that type of food or what's happening in the kitchen or how awesome techniques or equipment you have in the kitchen.

[2:52] When you are in hunger, when you need food or you are just looking for that awesome experience you're having, while you're eating the food, it is not the kitchen process, which is so interesting. So keep that in mind. Maybe you just haven't find the right customers? Maybe the target market is a bit off? Maybe your business model is not actually reflecting where you are at this point? Maybe your revenue model is not in place yet. Maybe you're in a stage where it doesn't need to be in place. And that's okay as well. How about your cap table? How many rounds of funding you have already taken? Have you already given up maybe a bit too much equity? Do you have already tons of people on your cap table?

[3:46] There's so many other ways or other things that need to be taken into account when you're building a company as well. If you starting, that's a really good starting point. I mean, you can still plan these things. You don't need to go deep in all of these things. You can keep them in mind while you're building a company, But the funding is easy if you have done the hard work. The hard work is to know why you are doing what you doing. What are you doing, to whom you doing it, with whom you're doing it, with what type of model you're doing it?

[4:36] All these things need to be in place. Before you start to talk about the funding round pricing, valuations, all these things. These are sort of technical things. First, you need to convince that what are you doing is worth the effort and time, and it's meaningful and it's so important that other people should care. And the best way to show that its actually to show that with your customers. If your customers are so excited about the things what you do with them, that they really love you. It's so easy to convince the other parties.

[5:26] It's so easy to recruit people. It's so easy to get investors excited as well. But if you're not excited, what are you doing? If your team is not excited, if the product is not exciting, if the numbers in your revenues or any other metrics you're following are not exciting, and usually, they reflect the other excitement, the genuine excitement of relieving some pain points. You have a genuine problem you're solving, which is meaningful and important. So it's not just a fun feature, but it's actually a real pain point. These are the things which may make your funding lack.

[6:22] Is not the deck, is not the story, is not the sales pitch. If you're passionate and you stumble with your words, you'll mumble the numbers, or you hesitate with your pitch, but you're passionate and you have a compelling story. Those will compensate, those will win hearts and minds and it's okay. But if you don't really feel and ooze the excitement of the things you're doing, then pushing the numbers, then pushing the facts, then pushing the story then trying to push whatever you're pushing is still pushing. And that's the problem.

[7:13] So the reason I said funding is easy. It is easy, but only when all the other stuff has been done. And that's the hard part. It's easy to fix the excel when you know how to put the numbers in there. The sales projections are easy when you know, what type of parameters to put in there. It's easy to plan the product when you know what the people need, what are the most urgent things to put in place. It's easy to put the employment numbers, employee numbers, your costs into that excel when you know, what are you going to do. But it's so hard when you don't have an idea.

[8:07] Same thing with your deck. It's so easy to make a nice beautiful pitch when you already know, what are you going to say. And it's so hard when you are having that foggy feeling that I need to push it. I need to put it in there, but I don't exactly know, or this doesn't really feel right. This is my message. It's work. Trial and errors. But please don't focus on the technical details. Don't focus on those tiny things. Focus on the big things, focus on the hard things, focus on those things which matter.

[8:58] Why should anyone care? Why should you care? Why should your team care? Why are you doing these things? And are you doing with them the right thing the right way? Till next time! There are some things which are relatively easy to fix, but those are the things, for example, I get often asked, please, can you come in and check the deck? Can you check my sales pitch? Can you do this or that? Well, those are usually things to fix. I know it takes time. And, a lot of hours probably, but why I'm saying they're easy to fix is that those are presenting, what do you already have. The hard work is to think about those things.

[9:51] The hard work is to do those things and that's the tough part.