Don't Ask for Money - Ask for Advice
Rasmus Makwarth gives some valuable advice on how to approach Business Angels and VCs. He has successfully raised money for his own company Opbeat, a collaborative web operations platform launching January 2014.
This is a guest post in our new series 'A Word of Advice', where we're asking successful developers, designers, and entrepreneurs to share a bit from their experience.
When your company is in the early stages you're struggling to keep your head above water. You're in all sorts of trouble: You're weeks from going broke, you're trying to figure out what you'll actually be selling, the business model - and 96 other problems.
If you're bootstrapped, profitable and proud you got a lot less concerns than most startup founders. If not, you need help.
Business wise and financially. When entering the fundraising game my advice is this: Try not to worry about getting money - worry about becoming smarter. Fast.Spend all of your time getting introduced to smart entrepreneurs, angels and VCs who can give you great entrepreneurial and business advice. Get going by asking fellow entrepreneurs in your local area who they'd recommend for you to talk to: Meet with them. Get new introductions. Repeat.
Over time, hopefully, you'll have developed yourself, your business knowledge and spread the word enough for angels or VCs to offer you advice and money.
Rasmus Makwarth is the co-founder and CEO of Opbeat. We help developers operate the apps they build. You can learn more about Opbeat and our advisors (who're also our investors) at blog.opbeat.com or sign up at opbeat.com.
