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:
Friends and FamilyContests/Prizes/Accelerator ProgramsGovernment GrantsCustomer FinancingVendor FinancingConvertible DebtPreferred StockVenture DebtCapital Equipment Loans & LeasesBridge LoansWorking 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.
From the Comments
Wil Schroter added:
Fred, with so much emphasis on angel and venture funding, I think most people forget that 99% of companies will receive neither and seem to get by just fine. This may be captured within a different category, but traditional bank financing, SBA Loans, Microloans, etc. are also part of the picture.
Also, I'm glad you added customer financing since I'd argue it's the most valuable.
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MBA Mondays - Business 101 for startups by Fred Wilson
Non-FictionMBA Mondays was originally a series of "business 101" articles written by noted venture capitalist Fred Wilson that ran between 2010 and 2013. The illustrations included are created by Jason Li on http://www.mba-mondays-illustrated.com/ , under a...