It is hard to grasp the extent to which the startup funding landscape has shifted in just a few short weeks, since the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Like the sentiments of investors of all kinds, startup angels and venture capitalists initially made a public showing of near universal pessimism and bearishness.
But of course, economic downturns are always times of new business creation, when visionary founders spot the new market opportunities and build category-defining companies.
While opinions of investors are likely to continue to run the gambit for quite some time, from full-on ‘buy-now-while-prices-are-low’ to ‘freeze-all-spending-indefinitely’, the following funding resources are each items that the FI HQ team has found to be insightful, whether into the perspective of investors or entrepreneurs, bearish or bullish, in the short, medium, or long terms - all offer insights related to fundraising, and relevant to any founder considering a funding round during this period of uncertainty.
Startup Funding in the Age of COVID
- Octopus Ventures has a great, short guide for both founders and investors on tips for approaching remote pitch meetings.
- VC Mark Suster shares a deck from his recent presentation given at SaaStr outlining his own investment outlook, as well as this post on how VC-backed startups can make sense of the PPP loan program.
- In a Medium post, Rockstart ventures CEO Rune Theill advises startups that can to postpone their next fundraising until Q4 2020.
- DocSend has an interesting real-time Pitch Deck Interest Index that tracks investor interest and engagement via reporting from founders actively raising funding.
- FounderSuite CEO Nathan Beckord wrote this post on 'Raising Capital In A Turbulent Market' with four opportunities and four things founders can do now.
- Learn about the do's and don'ts of fundraising in this webinar replay that Techstars hosted.
- The Forbes article "Guidance for Startups/VCs From VCs Around the Globle During COVID-19" reminds founders that deals are still happening, and advises both sides how to move forward and handle agreements.
- Get tips on how to raise capital and survive in this Entrepreneur article written by the CMO of Myia Health.
- For US-based startups here are government sponsored Relief Resources for SMBs.
Special thanks especially to our friends at TechStars, the good folks at Grasshopper Bank, and to JetBlue Technology Ventures’ Ashley Lowes and Sarah Mattina, each of whose own resource lists and guides the Founder Institute team referenced in the creation of this COVID-19 funding guide.
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