Fundraising Mastery for early-stage founders - supercharge your game!
Applications are now closed.
👋 Hey there, founder!
Tired of the constant stress and uncertainty that comes with fundraising? We feel you - we’ve been there too, and we want to pour the collective wisdom of BADideas.fund community so that it’s just that little less stressful for you.
We’re thrilled to launch Fundraising School, an actionable & comprehensive 4-module bootcamp that is rooted in the experience of 150+ successful startup founders & operators and covers all your early-stage fundraising needs. The course culminates in curated, individual speed-dating sessions with top-tier angel investors & VCs, setting you up for success in the Q4 2023 fundraising game.
By the end of the course you will have:
- built a solid fundraising strategy,
- crafted intro emails (and actually connected with seasoned investors some of whom may write the next check for you),
- polished your elevator pitch and
- refined your term sheet, all to get Q4 2023 fundraising nailed.
In other words, you will have equipped yourself with the essentials to know about raising capital and networked with our community to get personal & actionable feedback. We genuinely want to make the process as painless as possible, so you can focus on building your startup.
This program is possible thanks to a partnership with Investment & Development Agency of Latvia.
👨💻 Who is this designed for?
We strive to accept as many applications as possible but want to make sure that the cohort is similar in terms of business maturity and fundraising outlook. In line with our own focus, we will prioritize applications from Latvia and other CEE countries. This bootcamp will be perfect for you if you:
- Are a founder at an early stage tech startup (an incorporated entity)
- Are building (or have built) an MVP with traction from first users / clients
- Have a pitch deck (at least the first version)
- Are preparing to fundraise for your first round in Q4 2023 or Q1 2024
- Are ready to commit around 25 hours across September-October to the School
🎯 Course Highlights
- Actionable, practical curriculum that covers the mechanics of fundraising A to Z
- Strategies to win over investors and secure that 💰
- Step-by-step guidance on crafting powerful pitch decks
- Customizable course materials and templates to save you time and energy
- Fireside chats with successful founders and investors to get real-life insights from their fundraising experience
- A community of fellow founders to learn from and support each other
- Practical homework to put those learnings to practice
- Interactive peer mentoring sessions to address burning questions
- Individual, curated speed-dating sessions with pre-selected investors
📚 Course Modules
| Title | Module | Date | Session type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. Understanding the Fundraising Landscape and Material Preparation | September 12, 2023 | Webinar | - Course introduction and expectations (of the course and of students)
- Overview of the fundraising landscape
- Understanding different types of investors | |
1. Understanding the Fundraising Landscape and Material Preparation | September 14, 2023 | Webinar | - Fundraising reality in 2023
- How much to raise?
- The stages of fundraising & supporting documents
+ Homework | |
1. Understanding the Fundraising Landscape and Material Preparation | September 19, 2023 | Fireside & AMA | Moderated by Diana, a panel with founders:
- Toms Niparts, CEO at Jeff App
- Alyona Mysko, CEO at Fuel Finance
- Alex Serdiuk, CEO at Respeecher
Will cover:
- Deep dive into fundraising process and what to prepare for
- Learning to craft a compelling story
- Calibrating timeline expectations
- Reflect on mistakes made and what would you do differently | |
1. Understanding the Fundraising Landscape and Material Preparation | September 21, 2023 | Peer mentoring & workshop | Peer mentoring session about fundraising goals and runway assumptions. | |
2. Fundraising Go-to-Market Strategy | September 26, 2023 | Webinar | - Identifying and reaching out to potential investors
- Positioning your startup for fundraising | |
2. Fundraising Go-to-Market Strategy | September 28, 2023 | Webinar | - Crafting your unique selling proposition (USP)
- Aligning your message with investor interests
- Homework: Craft your USP and prepare a brief elevator pitch for potential investors, including those sourced from Block 1.
+ Homework | |
2. Fundraising Go-to-Market Strategy | October 3, 2023 | Fireside & AMA | - Dive deep into Silicon Valley investment trends
- Learn invaluable insights from a seasoned investor
- Explore the nuances of tech startup success | |
2. Fundraising Go-to-Market Strategy | October 5, 2023 | Peer mentoring & workshop | Role-play session simulating investor meetings
+ Homework | |
3. Crafting the Pitch Deck and Delivering the Pitch | October 10, 2023 | Webinar | - Components of a successful pitch deck
- How to tell a compelling story
+ Homework | |
3. Crafting the Pitch Deck and Delivering the Pitch | October 12, 2023 | Webinar | - Prepare effectively for pitch meetings
- Convey key points persuasively, handle tough questions
- Follow-up strategically to secure funding | |
3. Crafting the Pitch Deck and Delivering the Pitch | October 17, 2023 | Fireside & AMA | Panel of 3 Founders to share their stories and experiences | |
3. Crafting the Pitch Deck and Delivering the Pitch | October 19, 2023 | Peer mentoring & workshop | Practice pitch delivery in front of peers
+ Homework | |
4. Aspirational/Closing | October 24, 2023 | Webinar | - Understanding investor negotiations and expectations
- Best practices for evaluating investment offer
- How to close investment deals
- Maintaining investor relationships and planning for growth post-fundraising | |
4. Aspirational/Closing | October 26, 2023 | Peer mentoring & workshop | Full simulation of an investor meeting, from pitch to negotiation
+ Homework | |
Investor speed-dating | November 3, 2023 | Investor speed-dating | Speed dating with select investors (online) | |
🤓 Expected commitment & what’s in it for you
- Two 1h instruction webinars + 30min fireside chats with successful founders across a two-week cycle
- 1h peer workshop & homework teardowns in each two-week cycle
- One-off curated matchmaking session with select investors (1h)
- Optional: ~1h additional reading time per module
- Total: 16h online sessions + ~4h homework + 1h matchmaking + ~1h reading time = ~25h in total
🎤 Meet the Instructors
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🙌 Testimonial
🤝 About BADideas.fund
BADideas.fund is an early-stage angel syndicate, providing €50K-€200K funding for CEE startups, led by helpful founders and operators who've built companies like Vimeo ($450M funding), Printify ($54M), Pandadoc ($51M), Pipedrive ($90M), Bolt ($1.3B funding), Apollo ($151M), Bird ($783M funding), Shopify ($122M), Whimsical ($30M), Lokalise ($56M), Deel ($679M), Printful ($130M), Twilio ($614M), Veriff ($192.3M), Wise ($1.3B raised), Interactio ($30M raised), Vinted ($562.3M), NordVPN ($100M), Hubspot ($100.5M).
🤝 About LIAA
Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA) works to increase export and competitiveness of Latvian companies, facilitate foreign investment and implement tourism development and innovation policies. Among its strategic priorities are supporting innovative ideas, turning them into products and businesses, as well as attracting foreign investment to help companies grow.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
This course is designed for anyone at the early stages of building a startup, validating their product and preparing to fundraise for their first round. You need to be an incorporated entity to apply. We will strive to accept as many applications as possible and will prioritize applications from Latvia and other CEE countries.
In total, you should expect to invest around 25h over the course of the entire programme.
There are no formal prerequisites for this course, but it will be most beneficial for founders who are in the early stages of their startup journey, have incorporated their company, have built an MVP (with early traction from first users/customers), already have a first version of the pitch deck and are looking to fundraise in Q4 2023.
The course mixes online instruction with self-paced learning. We want to make sure that the sessions are impactful and rooted in practical takeaways, so we’ll combine webinar-style delivery, fireside chats and AMAs with those who’ve “made it”, as well as homework that we’ll supercharge through peer support. We believe that the combination of various learning approaches will maximize learning and investment outcomes.
You will access to peer community, and our team will be available to answer any questions and provide guidance throughout the course. We will also help you stay accountable for your weekly progress.
Yes, you will have continued access to the course materials for the following year (including session recordings), so you can revisit the content whenever you need a refresher.
This program is powered by LIAA, which helps us offset the costs. As an incentive to complete the program in full, we are asking for a EUR 100 upfront deposit that we’ll return to all participants who’ve completed the program.
Sorry - applications are now closed!
There really isn’t one - the course is free as long as you complete it in full. We’re not doing this to make money, but instead uncover and support future investment opportunities as well as strengthen the CEE ecosystem more widely (which will also help us uncover more investment opportunities down the line). Call it a win-win!
If you have more questions, feel free to reach out to us at fs@badideas.fund