Financing Options For Startups
I got a bunch of great suggestions in my kickoff post on this topic last week. Based on that feedback, the series is going to look like this:
- Friends and Family
- Contests/Prizes/Accelerator Programs
- Government Grants
- Customer Financing
- Vendor Financing
- Convertible Debt
- Preferred Stock
- Venture Debt
- Capital Equipment Loans & Leases
- Bridge Loans
- Working Capital Financing
This list is roughly in chronological order of how a small company might avail itself of the various financing options, but there are always exceptions. Starting a company is more art than science.
I want to do each financing option as its own dedicated post so I’m not going to start today. I will start next week with friends and family.
If you are looking for some meaty MBA Monday reading this week, I point you to Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson’s awesome venture capital term sheet series, which is required reading for anyone seeking to raise venture capital.