Need feedback on my project to help founders raising funds
Hello Hackers,
(I am writing this from the mobile phone at the airport, so apologies in advance if there are some typos).
My name is Alberto (LinkedIn profile below)and I have been in the startup ecosystem for the last 7 years across different roles: working with VCs and angel investors; fundraising; fractional CFO; advisor; etc. I can make a living out of this and have a small team supporting. However, my business doesn't scale easily, and I have been working on applying technology and make less "advisory" and more a "self - service" tech-enabled solution for founders.
Elevator pitch:
We offer tools to help founders to get funded faster an better, and save hundreds of hours of their time.
Solutions:
1- provide a investability scoring based on qualitative and quantitative inputs. The idea is not to pitch investors until they have a min. scoring. Else, founders will burn opportunities and waste time.
2- Valuation report. We provide a comprehensive valuation based on listed comparables and private transactions. This helps founders to back their valuation when negotiating with investors.
3- Pitch deck enhancement: we provide constructive feedback to improve the message on investor decks.
4- Investors matching: We rank investors based on the probability to invest in the project, provide their contact details. We have thousands of investors across Angels, VCs, Family offices and corporate investors.
Format:
The solutions are delivered through a platform, the investor list is automated, but the valuation, pitch deck review and warm intros are a bit more manual (24-48h turnaround)
Pricing and plans:
Although I would like having a SaaS-like monthly subscription, we are now giving acces to the platform for 3 months with two plans:
1- basic: 999 USD/3 months
2- pro: 1,899 USD/3 months
The difference between plans are:
1- basic plan includes 1 deck and financial revision per month.
2- pro plan includes 2 deck and financial revisions per month + 5 warm intros if we have relationship with the investor.
Customer persona
First time funders looking to raise a pre-seed /Series-A.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albertomorente
Thanks for reading and looking forward to your thoughts!
The problem does really exist. I feel the solution is missing something but I can't explain. I gonna re think it in order to give you a deeper feedback =)
Haha..thanks @wingedpigg, really appreciated
"Fuel your success! Seeking feedback on your project is the key to unlocking funding opportunities. Let our community of experienced founders guide you to perfection. Elevate your pitch, refine your strategy, and pave the way to investment success. Embrace feedback, fuel growth, and conquer the fundraising game!"
Thanks
I run a similar business but with design. Imagine Netflix for UI/UX & graphic design.
Thanks for your reply @pentaclay.
I had a look at your site and seems interesting, your pricing is a bit in the high end, but I believe it's working well for you.
I have some questions for you:
1- how does the "only one (or two in the premium plan) task open" work?
2- how do you ensure to have an on-time delivery if have multiple clients and a limited number of designers?
Happy to have a chat on zoom.
Best
Alberto
Hello @Albertomo
In the Standard plan, we will start with one task at a time, like we might start with the Logo Design first, then the landing page design. To complete both might take 6-7 days.
In the Pro plan, we will start both tasks side-by-side. To complete both might take 2-3 days.
If you have multiple projects to start at a time, you need to subscribe to the Pro plan, otherwise Standard plan is good enough.
When demand increases all of a sudden, we hire project-based designers instantly, we do have a good community of designers.
For the pricing, if you need a logo, brand guidelines, a 12-page website, and Pitch decks in a month, hiring Freelancers will be expensive, plus you might miss deadlines.
For us, we're bound to provide quality work, otherwise, we'll lose precious clients the next month.
I'm happy to jump into a Zoom call, please book a suitable time from my calendar 👇
https://calendly.com/pentaclay/intro
Thank you.
Best regards,
Erfan
Alberto, it's great to see that you have a strong background in the startup ecosystem and have identified a need for tools to help founders get funded faster and more efficiently. Your solutions, such as the investability scoring and valuation report, show a clear understanding of what founders need to succeed in fundraising. However, it would be beneficial to further automate the valuation, pitch deck review, and warm intros to provide a seamless user experience. Overall, your platform has potential to be a valuable resource for first time funders, and I applaud your efforts in creating a solution to a common pain point in the industry. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for your comment @RichardHolding, automation is indeed in the roadmap.
As a former fractional CFO myself I totally get where you are coming from. I tried a similar approach (years ago btw) and the main reason it did not work out is that the companies I talked to about this simply did not (yet) have the money to spend on something like this.
Most first time founders and people in pre-seed stage often don't need more info, they need somebody who actually does the work, as in mentoring, coaching, improving pitch decks, cleaning up reporting and processes. And that work is obviously even more expensive.
What might work is if you pivot your idea to some sort of startup-investor-matchmaking service for angel investors, as that solves a very real and very big problem . Just an idea though.
Thanks for your reply @jansroka, you are absolutely right!
I believe we need to offer educational content as well. Resources about how to pitch, creating a deck, etc will help to founders that do not want (cannot) engage somebody.
Happy to have a chat online to share experiences.
Best
Alberto