I got a bunch of great suggestions in my kickoff post on this topic last week. Based on that feedback, the series is going to look like this:
1) Friends and Family
2) Contests/Prizes/Accelerator Programs
3) Government Grants
4) Customer Financing
5) Vendor Financing
6) Convertible Debt
7) Preferred Stock
8) Venture Debt
9) Capital Equipment Loans & Leases
10) Bridge Loans
11) Working Capital Financing
This list is roughly in chronological order of how a small company might avail itself of the various financing options, but there are always exceptions. Starting a company is more art than science.
I want to do each financing option as its own dedicated post so I’m not going to start today. I will start next week with friends and family.
If you are looking for some meaty MBA Monday reading this week, I point you to Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson’s awesome venture capital term sheet series, which is required reading for anyone seeking to raise venture capital.
