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Fundraising
 

WatsonStrategic has extensive experience in identifying, contacting, qualifying and presenting to investors . . . however . . . that's not really why our clients hire us. They hire us because, when it comes to fundraising, we can do one thing better than anyone else. We can dramatically improve your ability to attract capital, by helping you change three things: your business strategy, your funding strategy, and what you say and show to investors.

Changing Your Business Strategy

Regardless of the product or the plan, the first big question in the investor's mind is always the same: "Do I believe the company's basic strategy?" If the answer is "no", a check is never going to be written. What most companies don’t learn (until it’s too late) is that, by nature, investors are strategic first, and then product/financial/ops-oriented second.  

With that in mind, most companies need to do some strategy development and refinement before presenting to investors (because most business plans have strategic holes in them). That's why our focus, at first, is on the business strategy, not the business "document". In fact, we always make a clear distinction between the business plan, and the business plan document. You can hire any number of people to write a document; but unless they are willing and able to identify, and then help fix, the underlying strategic issues of your plan, neither you nor your document will be able to articulate a credible, bullet proof strategy to  prospective investors.

We begin working on documents and financial modeling immediately, but we usually don't get very far before strategic issues start popping up. When that happens, we take the time necessary to resolve those issues, using our strategic development process; and we do that before continuing with the documents. We may have to wrestle with several issues at the same time, but the end result will be a strategic business plan that will not just survive scrutiny; it will impress investors. Great strategy attracts capital, and it enables you to negotiate harder for valuation, which lowers your cost of capital.

Changing Your Funding Strategy

You will already be making a huge change in your funding strategy when you recognize that investors are "strategic first" and you start taking steps to create a strategically compelling plan. We can also help you refine your strategy further, in terms of capital required (through more sophisticated financial modeling), your target investors (e.g., strategic, angel, VC, private equity), and your fundraising process (your procedure for networking, vetting and pursuing the targets). We have decades of experience in creating and executing fundraising strategies that have proven successful in raising money from all types of targets.

Changing What You Say and Show

We can change what you say and show to investors to make you more effective. What you say and show generally falls into three categories:

(1) Language - We will coach you on the language that you and your team should use (and what you should refrain from using) when presenting and discussing the investment;
(2) Investor Docs - We will create/edit the various documents, agreements and financial models, all of which will follow and support the strategy we develop;
(3) Investor Presentations - We will create/edit a presentation outline and script that can be used for live presentations, along with a recorded "Investor Webinar" that will be accessible online.

We have developed our own format for creating recorded Investor Webinars. These webinars have proven to be very successful in raising money because they cover the business model, management team, offering, and financial model. We get rave reviews on them, from clients and investors alike, who say that the webinars are informative and concise, with the right combination of macro elements (to keep the audience engaged) and micro elements (to satisfy their need for supporting detail). You can download and view a sample Investor Webinar, by clicking here: Sample Investor Webinar

Your success or failure in raising capital (and your ultimate cost of the funds you raise) will be largely governed by the three elements discussed here: your business strategy, your funding strategy, and your message content. We can show you how to make changes in these elements so that they work for you, instead of against you, helping you raise more money at a lower cost.

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