Startup fundraising is the lifeblood of any startup. It’s how you get your company off the ground, get off your feet and build an amazing product. But if you want to make it as a founder, you’ve got to be prepared not only for the fundraising process but also for all that comes with it.
In this post, we’re going to talk about what we learned working with a startup Local Chow to raise funding and the most important thing you can do to prepare for fundraising.
The Startup on a Mission to Localize the World Food System: The Story of Local Chow
Client: Local Chow
Industry: Food tech
Our Role: Providing Local Chow with simple business and IT solutions that will help in its mission of localizing food and creating a more sustainable food supply system.
Client Situation
We want to raise funding for our startup to help drive the mission of food localization.
As a Utah-based food-tech startup wants to help people eat better, healthier, and more responsibly sourced food by connecting consumers with food vendors and local farmers within their communities so they can get the freshest foods possible.
The company has developed technology that makes it easy for farmers and vendors to sell directly to consumers through its mobile app.
To achieve this the startup is currently in a position where it needs funding to help grow its business, create more awareness of local food, and how it can be used to solve some of America’s biggest issues.
Our Approach
Position the company for funding
To begin with, we focused on crafting an approach that would communicate and appeal to the brand’s target audience (customers, investors, and vendors).
So we worked with the company to design and develop their website. Our goal was to create a platform that would showcase the company’s services while also providing a place for customers to learn more about the brand, its mission, and its value proposition.
The end result was a website that not only effectively communicated the company’s mission and value proposition to its customers, but also provided a place for vendors to sign-up and provide their services.
With the website completed, we developed a pitch deck that would allow us to communicate the value of the business and why investors should consider investing in it. We wanted to make sure that anyone could understand what Local Chow is, how it works, and why it’s so important for building a sustainable food system globally.
Services Provided
- Website design and development
- Website content writing
- Pitch deck development & design
- Blog content writing
Impact
$1 Million in Seed Funding
Local Chow has raised over $1 million in seed funding to build and scale its platform.
Expansion of services across the United States
Local Chow has expanded its service to include all 50 states allowing home food vendors and local farmers to connect with consumers within their neighborhoods.
Testimonial
Effe Towers are my go-to when I need something done for my websites. They have an incredible eye for design and attention to detail and have been fantastic about revising the website until it suits my needs perfectly. Would highly recommend them to anyone.
Tyler Taggart – CEO/Co-founder Local Chow
The Takeaways
While you’re preparing for the funding process, it is important to make sure that your business is ready. Getting ready to raise money is as important as raising money.
The first thing you should do is get ready. It’s important to prepare your startup for the fundraising process by building a strong team, developing a business plan, and crafting an elevator pitch that will leave investors wanting more. You need to be ready to answer any questions about your startup with confidence. You want to ensure that you have all of your ducks in a row before you start pitching investors.
Know your company inside and out so that when investors ask about it, you can provide detail without hesitation. Are there any metrics that are especially important to your business? What are the biggest challenges facing your company right now? How do investors fit into the picture in terms of funding?
The most important piece of advice I can give you is to ask for what you want. We’ve found that asking for the full amount we need from investors is not only necessary to run a successful business, but also essential to maintaining our sanity as founders.
If an investor tells us “no,” we don’t take it personally and move on by asking them who else might invest in our company or start another conversation with them about how their platform could help us grow our business.
In summary, here are the takeaways:
- Before you start fundraising, do your homework. Know your business and your market. Know who you plan to sell to and what value you can offer.
- Start small with a minimum viable product (MVP) and build up from there by getting feedback on what works and what doesn’t work.
- Your pitch should be concise and clear so that potential investors understand what they’re investing in (and why). The last thing an investor wants is to feel confused or misled when they get involved with one of these companies—and if they do, they won’t want any part of it!
- Don’t get discouraged if the first round of funding doesn’t go as well as planned! There are lots more options out there—just remember that they take time and effort too!
Conclusion
Startup fundraising is a challenge, but it’s not impossible. The hardest part is knowing where to start and how to proceed. We’ve learned that getting clarity on your vision, having a solid plan for execution, and being persistent in pursuit of investment opportunities are all key components of success. That said, the process will inevitably be difficult at times because it requires you to put yourself out there in front of people who may not understand what you’re doing yet (and also other startups who are competing for funding). But if you can stick it through this phase—and keep going even when things get tough—your startup will eventually find success.
