With few exceptions, it’s difficult to develop prototypes, hire experienced staff, deploy powerful marketing messages, and more without the appropriate funds in place. As you know, it takes money to turn a great idea into a great product, and unfortunately, money doesn’t grow on trees. So how do you turn your dream into reality? In most cases, savvy entrepreneurs rely on startup investment.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of startup funding options to choose from. However, startup funding isn’t one-size-fits-all. You need to find the funding option that aligns with your business’s unique goals and objectives.

In this article, learn more about the five most common startup funding options. Selecting one of these funding options will, with some certainty, help you to raise a considerable amount of capital for your business.

Startup Funding Options: 4 Ways to Raise Money for Your Business

Choose from these high-powered and results-driven startup funding options to maximize your chances for fundraising success.

1. Crowdfunding: For early-stage startups, crowdfunding is one of the most popular funding options. There are plenty of crowdfunding sites to guide your funding journey including Kickstarter, GoFund, Indiegogo, and others. Last year, reward and donation-based crowdfunding platforms amassed more than $5.5 billion. Additionally, peer-to-peer lending generated more than $25 billion in total.

Crowdfunding Checklist:

• Run a Pre-Launch Campaign: Get potential supporters excited about your product/service by building some hype. Build some anticipation through powerful social media messages, email blasts, and more.
• Legal and Taxes: If you haven’t already incorporated, set up an LLC for your crowdfunding campaign and secure a business bank account.
• Set Funding Goals: Outline the funding goals and objectives. How much money are you hoping to raise? How will these funds contribute to your success?
• Set Reward Tiers: What will you give in exchange for funding?

2. Business Accelerator: A business accelerator supports growth-oriented startups through education, mentorship, and financing. An accelerator is a rapid-growth environment packed with resources designed to take startups from adolescence to adulthood. Typically, business accelerator members are required to have a minimum viable product in place prior to meeting with mentors, advisors, and other funding opportunities. Some of the world’s most successful businesses — Airbnb, Stripe, Reddit, Uber — have gone through intensive business accelerator programs.

Business Accelerator Checklist:

• Research Locations: Most startup accelerators require participants to be onsite for the duration of the program. A cross-country move can be especially painful for early-stage startups with little to no capital.
• Review Curriculum: Some accelerator programs offer industry-specific programming. Does your startup focus on healthcare? Have you built a new product/service for the finance industry? There’s a program built just for you!
• Consider Managing Directors, Mentors, and Investors: In many cases, the program’s executive team is more important than the curriculum itself. Have these leaders achieved what you are hoping to accomplish?
• Outcomes: What does the program promise to deliver upon completion?

3. Angel Investor: Angels invest in early-stage startup companies in exchange for equity ownership. Typically, angels invest $25,000 to $100,000 in a company, but can go much higher. Most angels want to see a clearly articulated business plan and any early evidence that your business is on track to produce favorable returns.

Angel Investor Checklist:

• Prepare Pitch Documents: Before meeting with potential investors, prepare mission-critical pitch documents including the business planand pitch deck.
• Ask for a Referral: Chances are that your friends and colleagues might be able to point you to potential angel investors.
• Take Advantage of Online Communities: Check out Crunchbase, Gust, and SeedInvest. Use these tools to access startup investor information.

4. Government Programs: Finally, there are a handful of government programs and loansthrough the Startup Bangladesh and Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF) that make it easy for startups to acquire funding fast. Be warned — the application, process time, and high chance of rejection is enough to put most startup founders off, but for those who can pull it off, the capital acquired can be a complete game changer.

Government Program Checklist:

• Apply Early: The application process for a government program can be quite lengthy. Start early and give yourself plenty of time to complete the application.
• Review Eligibility Requirements: Most government loans and grants come with a few stiff requirements. Make sure you’ve checked all boxes.
• Review Additional Resources: The great thing about government programs is that they usually come equipped with additional guiding resources including online application tutorials, free coaching, and more.

As you know, the path to startup success isn’t paved with gold.

Without a reliable funding source in place, your startup is destined to fail. If you’re like most entrepreneurs, finding funding can feel a bit overwhelming. First, you’ll need to find an investor that aligns with your business’s unique mission. Second, after you’ve received an offer, there are a few stipulations and requirements on the investment term sheet that you’ll need to work through quickly.

In this article, we’ll teach you the top five things you need to know about the investment term sheet. Use these expert insights to land a new funding round and scale your business to greater heights.

Investment Term Sheet: Here is Everything Entrepreneurs Should Know When Raising Startup Funds

An investment term sheet outlines the specific conditions between you and the investor. As you can probably imagine, an investment term sheet is one of the most critical documents that you’ll ever sign. The long-term fundraising success of your business depends on the unique conditions outlined in the investment term sheet. When raising a new round of startup capital, there are five things you need to know about the investment term sheet.

1. Valuation

The valuation section of the investment term sheet outlines what an investor believes your company is worth. There are four key valuation issues that you must address:

• Pre-Money Valuation: An estimate of the company’s worth before investment.
• Post-Money Valuation: An estimate of the company’s worth after investment.
• Capitalization Table: Percent ownership between the founder and investor.
• Price Per Share: The per share value of the company’s stock.

2. Liquidation Preferences

To help guarantee their investment against unforeseen roadblocks, investors will typically request what is commonly known as “invested capital liquidation preferences.” In short, the invested capital liquidation preference allows investors to receive, upon the company liquidation, a return on the money previously invested in the company before any other shareholder receives payout liquidation funds. Additionally, investors may have the option to convert their preferred stock shares to common shares. This allows the investor to receive a cash payout on their percent ownership in the company.

3. Binding vs. Non-Binding Agreements:

Occasionally, term sheets carry certain provisions that are legally binding and other provisions that are not. Meanwhile, some term sheets are explicitly binding or non-binding. In short, a binding agreement requires both parties to carry through with the terms outlined in the investment term sheet. “Some term sheets explicitly say that they are non-binding, with no agreement to enter into a definitive agreement,” says Attorney Aaron Hall. “In these cases, nothing in the term sheet is binding, rather it is simply an understanding between parties.”

4. Options Pools: An option pool is the amount of stock a company sets aside for employee compensation and other internal matters. In most cases, companies typically allocate 10 percent of the total stock to the option pool.
5. 5. Participation Rights: The participation rights section grants investors the right to “participate” in future equity sales of the company that they’re investing in. This is important because new fundraising rounds generally mean that the company is either doing exceptionally well or has fallen on hard times and needs additional “bailout” money.

In the first instance, investors are given the opportunity to participate in new funding rounds that are much better than those previously offered.

5 Amazing Startup Pitch Deck Examples worth Checking Out

In this article, we’ll share the top five pitch deck examples you can steal ideas from. Modeling your approach after these top-tier startup pitch decks doesn’t necessarily guarantee startup fundraising success, but it will certainly point you in the right direction. Don’t miss these amazing startup pitch deck examples.

1. Airbnb

Airbnb’s pitch deck is one of the most searched pitch deck references on the internet. Why? Airbnb is one of the most recognizable brands in the world, and this startup pitch deck was their startup’s first step towards stardom. Ultimately, Airbnb’s pitch deck, right from the start, explains the problem (expensive hotels) and potential solution (low-cost apartment or room rentals from local hosts).

2. Buffer

Buffer is a social media management tool used by the world’s largest businesses and organizations. In 2011, Buffer was accepted into AngelPad’s startup accelerator program. There, the company raised an initial investment of $120,000. In general, the company has taken the approach of being profitable and having decent revenue at the time of raising funds. The real value of their startup pitch deck is in the number of partnerships and integrations that the company had prior to investment.

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn pitched for a Series B in August 2004. During this time, social media was on the rise — Friendster was at its height, MySpace just raised a premium round from Benchmark and Kleiner, and Facebook was in its infancy. In the pitch deck, LinkedIn did a great job at addressing investors’ objections. LinkedIn knew that it was one of many new and exciting social media tools. However, LinkedIn explained how it differs from the competition, how it would amass millions of users, and what investors could stand to gain if they jumped onboard right now.

4. YouTube

YouTube is the largest video sharing website in the world. Founded in 2005 by former PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, it was bought by Google just one year later. YouTube’s no-frills approach to its startup pitch deck showed investors that they meant business. In fact, within the first few slides, YouTube promised to become “the primary outlet of user-generated content on the internet, and to allow anyone to upload, share, and browse this content.”

5. Uber

Over a year ago, on the ninth anniversary of the founding of Uber, its co-founder Garrett Camp shared the company’s initial pitch deck via Medium. Since then, Uber has become the largest ride-sharing service. Their pitch deck does a great job of explaining exactly how the service works. Let’s face it — at the time, jumping into another person’s car felt a little odd, right? Uber explained how their service was fast and efficient, affordable, and super easy to use.