The Founder Playbook to Raising a Seed Round
3 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Learn the art of pitching your idea to early-stage investors to secure seed funding.
The Founder Playbook to Raising a Seed Round
3 Weeks
·Cohort-based Course
Learn the art of pitching your idea to early-stage investors to secure seed funding.
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Course overview
What to expect from this course
While almost everything about running a startup tends to be difficult, one of the first challenges is securing the funding necessary to actually work on your idea. The initial capital raised by a company is usually called “seed” capital. Seed capital plays a major role in the startup's likelihood of success. As a result, the highest impact thing you can spend time on as a founder is raising money. Funds allow startups to grow by hiring key team members as well as investing in product/engineering, sales and marketing.
In this course, you'll gain a fundamental understanding of what it takes to raise seed capital during the early days. While this course is not intended to be a complete guide to all aspects of fundraising, sessions will cover the fundamentals most founders will need. The content in the course comes from my own experiences as a startup founder who has raised capital from some of the top VC firms while also referencing widely-respected and reputable sources on startups and venture capital.
This course is designed for
01
Early-stage founders preparing to raise a seed round from VCs
02
Founders looking to refine their fundraising strategy and gather feedback on their pitch
03
Founders currently assessing if raising money from VCs is right for them
What you’ll get out of this course
Learn the basis of various seed financing options
Students will learn the basic concepts behind venture financing and explore what's needed to begin raising a round. From legal terms and documents to cap tables and valuations, we'll cover all the basics while exploring various options for seed financing
Understand the strategy and art of investor outreach
We'll cover the fundamentals of how to secure meetings with as many investors as possible in order to optimize your chances of getting to a close. We'll also cover the main rules to follow when preparing to meet with investors to set yourself up for success
Refine pitch materials needed to successfully raise a round
We'll cover the materials typically needed for investor meetings while learning about the elements that make a great pitch deck. Additionally, we'll cover the fundamentals of powerful storytelling to help turn your company vision into a remarkable pitch that investors remember
Gain tips, tricks and tools to nail pitch meetings and manage your fundraising process
Finally, we'll explore methods to effectively manage your fundraising process so you can optimize for closing deals. I'll also provide tips and tricks on what to do and what not to do while communicating with investors
This course includes
Interactive live sessions
Lifetime access to course materials
In-depth lessons
Direct access to instructor
Projects to apply learnings
Guided feedback & reflection
Private community of peers
Course certificate upon completion
Maven Satisfaction Guarantee
This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.
The Founder Playbook to Raising a Seed Round
Course syllabus
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Meet your instructor
Fatima Dicko
Fatima Dicko is the Founder & CEO of Sugar, a resident experience platform that helps apartment managers build vibrant communities. The app allows residents to socialize with one another, buy and borrow items, unlock doors and easily engage with management. Sugar's vision is to turn strangers into neighbors and neighbors into friends. The company has raised over $3.5M in VC funding from some of the leading investors in the industry including Metaprop, Lightspeed, and Concrete Rose Capital.
Before Sugar, Fatima spent 5 years at P&G as a senior engineer on a product innovation team. While at P&G, she received several patents and was 1 of 127 nominated technologists awarded the annual 'Most Transformative Product Innovation' award.
Fatima came to the U.S. from Mali at a young age and grew up in New York City, receiving her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and MBA from Stanford Business School. She was named as '18 Inspiring Women to Watch' by Inc Magazine, listed on the 2021 Forbes 'Next 1000' list and has been featured in major publications such as TechCrunch, Business Insider, Crunchbase, Black Enterprise and CNBC.
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The Founder Playbook to Raising a Seed Round
Course schedule
5-7 hours per week
Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Thursdays
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
We'll meet 3x a week to cover course materials. Sessions will involve live workshops, group discussions and activities to help students gain a deeper understanding of course materials
April 16, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
Am I ready to start fundraising?: Fundraising readiness criteria as well as various things to consider before deciding to raise capital
April 17, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
Fundraising 101: We'll cover fundamental terms and concepts associated with raising seed capital including but not limited to equity, cap tables, valuations, etc.
April 18, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
Financing Options: We'll explore the fundamentals and pros and cons of various financing options including equity, debt, SAFEs and crowdfunding
April 23, 2023
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
Winning Pitch Decks: We'll cover the basic elements of a strong pitch deck and learn how to best leverage your deck to close investors
April 24, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
Effective Storytelling: Data gets people to believe you but stories get people to care. Here you'll learn how to effectively pitch your company through powerful storytelling
April 25, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
Supplementary Materials: We'll touch on additional materials that can enhance your pitch and prepare you for follow-up investor conversations
April 30, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
Investor Meetings: We'll discuss strategies for securing meetings with investors as well as rules to follow before, during and after meetings
May 1, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
Negotiations & Terms: We'll cover the basics of navigating negotiations and tactics to best position yourself for success
May 2, 2024
4:00pm - 5:30pm EST
Tips & Tricks To Close: We'll cover tips and tricks on what to do (and what not to do) while communicating with investors in order to get to a close
Weekly projects
2 hours per week
Students will be given take-home projects to help prepare for their seed round. All projects and assignments involve real materials that will be used during fundraising
Learning is better with cohorts
Active hands-on learning
This course builds on live workshops and hands-on projects
Interactive and project-based
You’ll be interacting with other learners through breakout rooms and project teams
Learn with a cohort of peers
Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you
Frequently Asked Questions
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