Melissa Bowley |
Flourish Care founder
With myriad challenges to fundraising, especially for women, here are some important concepts to keep in mind when deciding if and when it’s time to go the investor route.
Ask for feedback: Engage with potential investors early on. Before you are ready to raise capital, you want to share your idea and talk about it. You don’t want to wait until you are ready to start fundraising to start building relationships.
Bootstrap for as long as possible: Grow without external help for as long as possible. And try to generate as much revenue as you can while bootstrapping. That will make you more attractive to investors.
Give yourself time and runway: You want to give yourself enough time and enough runway to continue operating throughout the fundraising processes. What used to take three to six months is now taking six to 12 months, so remember that raising capital takes time.
Expect the unexpected: Don’t feel discouraged when not everything goes according to plan. It’s important to find the right investor. With enough runway, you won’t feel pressured to take just any investment.