Date post: | 16-Jul-2015 |
Category: |
Business |
Upload: | non-dilutivecom |
View: | 267 times |
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Finding Non-Dilutive Funding For Your Technology Startup
Finding Non-Dilutive
• Why Non-Dilutive?
• Should you consider Government Sources?
• The Process: Customer Development
• The Best 3 Sites for Customer Discovery
• Customer Validation
• Conclusion
Why Non-Dilutive?
• Early money is expensive!
• Advantages of Non-dilutive funding:– Preserves equity ownership of founders/investors
– High risk, seed and early stage funding
– Build value for later rounds
– Very much like Non-Recurring Engineering
– Leads to customer engagement
– Positive value and traction message to investors
Should you consider the government as a Strategic Partner?
• Strong regulations favoring and protecting small businesses
• Relies on small businesses and not Prime Contractors for innovation
• Variety of funding and contracting mechanisms suited for “non-traditionals”
• Well documented requirements
• Completed projects lead to customer engagements
The Rosetta Stone
• Funding type is 6.1 through 6.6
• Aligns with Technology Readiness Level (TRL)
• Translates to Angel, Seed, and Early Stage VC funding.
• Most common funding vehicles/programs:– Broad Agency Announcements
(BAA)– Other Transaction
(OT)….Consortium– Small Business Innovative
Research (SBIR)– Across a variety of agencies (
The Process: Customer Development• Adapt Customer Development process to funding (Diagram)• Customer Discovery
– Alliance Mapping• The right partner with the right stage of funding
– Identify the Agency– Identify the Opportunity
• Customer Validation– Engage with Program Manager
• Create feedback loop• This is Business Development
– Very relational, high contact– Not just proposal writing– Results in funded projects and follow-on customers
Customer Discovery
• Your best resources
– DTIC: Follow the money
• Research and Development Descriptive Summaries
– FBO: Find the opportunity
• Fedbizopps.gov
– Defense Innovation Marketplace: Your Dashboard
– SBIR: Zyn.com
• Tutorials at Nondilutive.com
Defense Technology Information Center (DTIC)
• screen
FedBizOpps
• Search for all funding
Opportunities here
• First try funding type Keyword search
– BAA, Broad Agency Announcement
– OTA, Other Transaction
• Then drill down into
technology area
Defense Innovation Marketplace
Dashboard for latest:
-Strategic documents
-Agency presentations
-Funding opportunities
Customer Validation
• Determine if the opportunity is a good fit
• Engage with Program Managers or Principal Investigators
– Early engagement pays dividends
– Short window duration for engagement
– Drill down on Requirements
– Customer perspective is key
– Determine technology fit or pivot
Summary
• Treat every funding opportunity like a business development engagement
• Look for technology, agency, and funding type fit just like investor or partner
• Agencies use funding vehicles like “Other Transactions” for agility and ease of use
• Find out more at www.nondilutive.com