7 myths of startup financing
Launching a startup is one of the gutsiest things to do.
However, if you have a great idea, what else are you going to do? Sit on it and wait for someone else to do something with it? No! You are going to start it up!
Related Story: Do you want to fund a startup? Read this first.
Once we begin the work of financing our idea, we discover that having come up with it and assembling the frame of our business was the easy part. Many of us, in love with our great idea, never could have guessed how much finding venture money would resemble sticking thread through the eye of a needle.
We must package our idea to make it saleable.
Related Story: Fake it until you make it: Steps for gaining credibility as a startup
Then there is the stark, cold reality that we're not the only ones with a great idea, that there are actually hundreds and hundreds of them out there fighting for the same resources. Some of those ideas are even too much like our own for our own comfort.
We must shine like a veritable star to attract attention. Then we need to glow like a supernova to keep it.
Related Story: 5 ways to protect your startup from copycats
Finally, we succeed, only to find out that there are additional “rounds” of financing to secure. First we must succeed in finding the money, then in keeping it coming and finally, in making money.
It’s because of the challenge of financing a startup that we must enter the situation with our eyes wide open.
In this slide show, created by Reid Hoffman and first published at Slideshare, we do just this. We learn seven important myths about startups and the truth about them.
