Rev1’s Entrepreneur Toolkit – An Overview of Capital Topics
Rev1’s Entrepreneur Toolkit is a handy, easy-to-use collection of practical tips and tools for entrepreneurs and founding teams. Please think of the Toolkit as an extension of the Rev1 Startup Studio, our unique approach that combines strategic services and capital to help startups scale.
Five Toolkit categories to match the critical success factors for taking a startup from concept to scale. Our roadmap is flexible. Adapting our expertise to your team’s individual needs and growth plan is easy.
This roundup provides brief descriptions and ready links to topics on Capital. Use this content to expand your knowledge or supply an easy-to-read series for your founding management team. Building and fulfilling a capital plan is at the top of every high-growth entrepreneur’s list. Rev1 helps client companies build business plans that validate markets and customers to reduce risk and match milestones to capital to attract investors. Along the way, we connect entrepreneurs with experts, mentors, and vetted service providers.
Rev1’s Virtual Library of Capital Topics
Up Your Capital Know-how
Rules for Startups Raising Capital in the Midwest – the eBook – For entrepreneurs who strive to be at the top of their fund-raising game, we’ve compiled an eBook, Rules for Startups Raising Capital in the Midwest. Based on our Capital Access Learning Lab, this eBook presents tips and strategies to help entrepreneurs in every step of the process of raising capital.
Business Models for High-growth Companies – Business models are not a one-size-fits-all; considerations vary based on the industry, the validated markets, and the value proposition the startup offers its customers.Rev1’s venture services team has extensive first-hand experience (as investors, company founders, and advisors) in the details of constructing business models.
Capital Access Planning – Raising capital is straightforward but not easy. Whether you work with an investment firm or raise funds from friends and family, successfully raising money requires a high degree of focus and a significant commitment of time from company founders and key management.
Company Formation: Corporation of LLC – Of the many decisions facing the entrepreneur starting a high-growth business, company structure belongs at the top of the list. Every founder must form a legal business entity; however, that doesn’t mean that the form of that entity can or should be decided on day one.
Developing Competitive SBIR/STTR Applications Starts Here – Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer—(STTR) funding is among the most desirable capital that an advanced technology startup can secure. Every entrepreneur needs to have a basic understanding of this vital source of non-dilutive capital, whether you recognize an immediate match or not.
Developing Competitive SBIR/STTR Applications – Part 1: Get Prepared – The purpose of SBIR/STTR is to increase private-sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal R&D funding. With over 70,000 issued patents, about 700 publicly traded companies, and $41 billion in VC investments, proof exists—SBIR/STTR works.
Developing Competitive SBIR/STTR Applications – Part 2: Prepare and Submit Your Proposal – The quality, the novelty of the idea, and the overall capabilities of the proposed team to execute the project as proposed are the winning ingredients. Strong proposals take time to develop and write. We advise companies to plan on ten to fifteen hours per week for three months for first-time applicants.
5 Ways to Bootstrap Your Startup Finances – It’s a misconception that entrepreneurs must raise a great deal of up-front capital to succeed. This is not true—nor is it usually possible. If moving from Pre-Concept to Seed stage without raising bundles of investment capital sounds good to you, heed these five bootstrap financing Tips.
How to Connect with Investors and Choose the Right One – As the founder of several successful healthcare and technology companies, and an investor himself, Ray Shealy, CEO, understands that great working relationships between investors and entrepreneurs are critical to a startup’s success. Ray shares his experience in attracting and optimizing relationships between investors and entrepreneurs.
How to Write a Startup Business Plan – A well-thought-out and well-written business plan is the cornerstone of every new venture. A business plan is a definite requirement for any fund-raising–whether grant, a loan or equity capital.
Making Your Elevator Go to the Top – The places an entrepreneur might be giving an elevator pitch could be anywhere—and most of them are not in an elevator. Here are five tips to make yours outstanding.
6 Tips for a Strong Start with Every Potential Investor – If we have one piece of advice for entrepreneurs: Be prepared to devote a significant portion of your time to fundraising. And when it comes to fundraising, our second piece of advice is to begin preparing for the process of fundraising long before the company is ready to seek or accept outside investment.
Sources of Capital for High-growth Companies – When you are starting a business, raising capital may be the first thing you think about, but it’s not the first thing you do. Validating the market, differentiating your product, testing the value proposition, signing up customers—all these things come ahead of raising capital. BUT that doesn’t mean an entrepreneur can postpone learning what you will need to know to build a credible strategy to secure capital investment when the time comes.
Who Is Responsible if Your Company Runs Out of Money? – The number one job of a startup CEO is ensuring the company never runs out of money. From time to time, I have heard CEOs of startups express frustration that their current investors are unwilling to make further investments in the business. Making one investment in a company is not a promise to make future investments. Investors—even friends and family—make investments with an expectation of returns.
Master Capital Planning Tools
Developing Competitive SBIR/STTR Applications – SBIR/STTR funding is among the most desirable capital an advanced technology startup can receive. SBIR/STTR programs provide non-dilutive capital (do not require shares of company stock in return) and do not have to be repaid (not a loan). Funding typically starts around $100,000 but over multiple phases, grants and contracts can reach $1 to $2 million or more.
5 Questions for Choosing the Most Effective Financial Modeling – The financial model that a company chooses validates the business model and must be consistent with its business plan. It is the basis for fund-raising, and it is an effective and consistent way to communicate to investors, board members, and employees as the company gains traction and grows.
How to Develop the Perfect Startup Pitch – The preparation for the perfect investor pitch begins long before the opportunity happens. An effective investor presentation is the result of months of hard work on your business and your plan. This startup pitch development guide will help you organize all that effort and create a thoughtful and well-rehearsed pitch that gains interest from investors.
How to Write a Shareholder Letter – Now that you have capital from others, you will need to keep your investors informed about the status of the business they invested in with a shareholder letter. Just as public companies issue quarterly reports, the CEO should send a quarterly letter to the shareholders, reporting on the progress of the business. Quarterly communication can build a nice bank of goodwill with your shareholders.
Investor Pitch Template – The preparation for the perfect investor pitch begins long before you are invited to present. An effective investor presentation will show that you have you been spending months of hard work on hustling your business. Learn more about pitching to investors here.
Learn to Think Like Investors Think
Best Practices for Virtual Pitches to Investors – Your slide deck is ready. It is nearly showtime, so you launch Zoom. How do you knock your pitch out of the park over a video call? Rev1’s Managing Director, Michael Kindrat-Pratt, and Director of Corporate Connections, Andrea Ewing, share practical advice on meeting with investors. Watch this video to learn how to prepare for that make-or-break Zoom call, and how to conduct a winning conversation that has investors returning for more.
11 Dos and Do Nots for Winning Investor Communications – The relationship between entrepreneurs and investors is a key determinant of whether the startup succeeds or not. And the business communication method that an entrepreneur chooses to use with investors is key to the relationship.
Checklist: 14 Red Flags Every Investor Looks For – If you are looking for capital for your company, be aware. There are red flags that can cause an investor to put the kibosh on your funding round. Most, if not all, of these, are preventable. Heed this checklist, so you don’t become that entrepreneur who says, “I wish I knew then what I know now.” Remember, you can’t un-ring a bell.
Chicken Or Egg: How Startups And Investors Drive Each Other In The Race For Investable, Scalable Companies – The pandemic reshaped so many aspects of business in the U.S. that there are new lessons to be learned—especially in supply chain management. Investors and founders leverage supply chain changes to improve the quantity and quality of deals.
5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Ace the Due Diligence Process – When venture capitalists invest in entrepreneurs and startup companies, they understand that they are taking a risk. Due diligence is the process investors use to assess, with first-hand confidence, what those risks are. The goal of due diligence is to prepare your company to raise capital.
7 Ways to Make Your Deal More Appealing to Angel Investors – When the opportunity to make a formal business plan presentation arrives, be ready with a thoughtful, well-rehearsed pitch that captures investors’ attention at the very start. Your delivery and content counts—and your understanding of your audience. Learn to think like an angel investor.
In Entrepreneurship, Cash Rules – The challenge that every young business shares is reaching breakeven before the money runs out. Successful entrepreneurs learn how to manage cash. Here are eleven tips.
Lifestyle or High Impact Business: 5 Points of Differentiation and Why Investors Care – There are two classic types of companies: lifestyle business and High Impact companies. Entrepreneurs found both. Both are risky and require investment capital, great tenacity, and a solid understanding of customers and markets. But the goals and scalability of each type of business plan are radically different.
Nailing Your Investor Pitch: Part 1 and Part 2– Learn from this informal survey of the Rev1 team, a group of entrepreneurs and investors who have seen entrepreneur presentations of every stripe over the years.
NVCA-Deloitte Study Provides Actionable Insights on Creating More Successful Startups – The 2019 NVCA-Deloitte study assesses the state of talent management, with a special focus on diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the U.S. venture capital industry. This study benchmark results against baseline findings from the first edition. Today, nearly three years later, there is D&I progress—and the considerations remain relevant.
Powerful Reasons to Launch a Startup in a Recession – This article shares five good reasons to launch a startup when the economy is heading down. Lots of successful businesses started in down markets—apple, Sony Corp, and Walmart, to name three.
The Top 10 Things Early Stage Investors Want to See – Getting investors to begin due diligence on a startup company can be a daunting task. Investors with Multi-million dollar funds under management want to see customer, market, and investor validation—and more.
The Top 10 Things to Never Say in an Investor Pitch – Your slide deck is ready. You’ve rehearsed your main points. It’s nearly show time. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Here are ten statements that are sure to tank any investor pitch.
Capital Access Grows in Our Own Backyard
Backyard Effect: The Heartland’s Formula for Recession Recovery – The lessons of this pandemic have been many. People have been surprised by events that they never imagined. This crisis re-educated them about things they knew but perhaps forgot. Through the lens of the pandemic, they also recognized and recommitted to things that they had been doing “right” all along. Here in the Midwest, one of those right things is a phenomenon that we call “The Backyard Effect.” Columbus Is the Perfect Place to Start a High-growth Company – Innovation infrastructure is strong. Sources of talent are abundant. Investment capital is growing. Fortune 1000 companies connect with entrepreneurs as customers and investors.
Funding Milestones, Capital Investments, and Cutting-edge Solutions – We enter 2022 with startups that are scaling and venture funds posting new records—all amplifying the promising future for our region’s technology industry.
Noteworthy Updates: Diverse Workforce, Innovative Solutions, and Record-breaking Funding – As venture capital expands in the region, young companies build company cultures that scale. Rev1 fuels startup workforce diversity with Innovation Internship Program.
Rev1 Spurs Startup Growth by Closing Capital Gap; Announces First Investment from Pre-seed Fund; Rev1 Ventures Launches $10MM Pre-Seed Fund with OSU & Ohio Third Frontier – The first investment from the Rev1 Future Value Fund I (FVF), the company’s $10MM pre-seed fund and the largest pre-seed stage fund in Columbus history, is for Redi.Health, the provider of health management technology that improves total patient health.
Rev1 Ventures Launches $15MM Fund with The Ohio State University and Nationwide Children’s Hospital to Support Research-based Healthcare Innovation – The $15MM Rev1 Catalyst Fund II with investment is three times the size of the first Life Sciences fund and aims to deliver critical investment capital and support for research-based spinouts and healthcare innovators.
Rev1 Ventures Commits Nearly $3MM to Expand Diversity in Entrepreneurship – With this grant, Rev1 will tap into its proven startup services and inclusive entrepreneurship approach to address the challenges identified by women and entrepreneurs of color. The funding will support expanded mentor diversity and availability of one-to-one assistance, along with enhanced access to peer groups and resource networks through targeted activities for women and entrepreneurs of color.
Rev1 Ventures Launches Second Corporate-backed Fund to Support High-growth Companies in Ohio and Beyond – Rev1 Fund II, a $20MM corporate-backed fund aimed at supporting high-growth companies in Ohio and beyond, marks the second fund of its kind for Rev1.
Rev1 Ventures Leads to Nearly $450MM in Capital, Revenue & Exits in 2020 – Rev1’s impact on Central Ohio’s economy is cumulative. To see where we are going, look where we have been.
12 Exciting Updates: New Fund, Amazing Startups, and National Recognition – Columbus continues to expand its results and reputation as the Midwest’s hub of entrepreneurship and innovation.
