GUICK GUIDE

10 Steps to

RAISING MONEY
For the First Time

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Hi there, hope youre well!
This quick guide was written to help you having a clear picture of the whole process to raising capital
for the first time.
Not only youll learn the right process in a matter of minutes which typically takes years for other
entrepreneurs to understand and some of them dont ever figure this out but youll also know a
powerful step-by-step approach to building any type of successful business, even if it doesnt require
external capital from investors.
I hope you enjoy this gift and if you have any doubt or want to exchange some opinions, remember
that Im always here to help you. Feel free to email me anytime to
pedro@buildyourdreamcompany.com.

And in case we havent met yet

My name is Pedro Mouta, Im a Portuguese entrepreneur, and I left my Corporate Venture Capital
job to guide and mentor guys like you on creating remarkable businesses whether because you want
to earn more income, you want to do something you love or you want to live your dream lifestyle.
After entering the corporate world and working in two large organizations for several years, I
seriously started questioning myself if that was what I wanted for my life. 45 years of emptiness,
60% of my life just wasted down the drain simply because thats what the whole society forced me
to believe was the right path.
Honestly, I think Im too passionate about doing
something that gives me the certainty that I
wont feel any regrets when Im older. For me,
thats entrepreneurship, the feeling of knowing
that each minute matters and that I can make a
difference in your life. Can you imagine that by
following through this course you can possibly
become really successful and one day youll look
back and remember that it all started here? That
would absolutely mean the world to me.
If theres someone I truly want to help are those
guys who are humble and hard-working, that arent looking for getting-rich-quick-schemes, who
understand the importance of consistency and discipline, and just want to feel accomplished and
fulfilled with what they do.
This is who I am and this is what I believe in.

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GUICK GUIDE

The 10-Steps Guide

1

Knowing the customer really well

Understand in detail whos your AVATAR. Invest time in coming up with a really narrow,
unique, and specific profile for your customer. Ex: dont say your target are women, tell me
what type of concerns does your target have, what type of clothes those women wear, what
do they really value, what type of car they drive, what type of job, education, etc.

How can you find your avatar? And whats the best moment to address him? You want to
know exactly when and where to sell your product so you can start generating traction as
soon as possible, as youll see in the upcoming steps.

2
1

Squeezing your Idea

The Minimum Viable Product 2.0: You should find a way to start by the end package or
layout of your product, instead of investing time and money on developing something that
people dont want. If youre developing a new software, you should first design the mockups
of the final version of the software and give them life, so you can, first, gain traction through
some customers pre-orders or even by having your customers funding your whole business.

Future Pacing: This principle will help you a lot performing what we usually call Future
Pacing when addressing a potential customer for the first time. How can he possibly
visualize the end version of your product if you dont show it to him? Thats how you get
pre-orders or customers funding your business.

3
1

The First Signals of Traction

Validating the Idea: First, you want to present your future and costless layout of the product
to your potential customers thats why you start by understanding them in detail, by the
way and you want to evaluate their reaction. Ideally, youll want a hand of several sound
YES, take my money! before you invest time and money.

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Getting your first customer: This is also the perfect timing to get your first pre-orders even
before you have a product developed. If youre creating something to solve a specific
burning pain, you shouldnt have much difficulty in having a few customers or at least only
one paying in advance for the product.

Funding the Development of the Product

4
1

Customer funding: Through In-Person Negotiation for B2B products or other business
models like Subscriptions or Drop-shipping, you can have your customers buying your
product in advance or actually funding your entire project, depending on how you present
your concept and how well it solves their burning pains.

Crowdfunding: One other marketing tool you can use to fund the development of your
product, especially in B2C situations is Crowdfunding. Consider platforms like
Kickstarter.com, IndieGoGo.com, or GoFundMe.com.

Bootstrapping: Finally, the most common and old school technique bootstrapping. This is
how I always recommend you start a business, even if you have to borrow money from your
friends and family relatives to kick-start your business. It will give you all the time in the
world to learn at your own pace, to experiment and to make all the mistakes without having
a rope around your neck.

Developing your First Version

Getting the right human capital: You want to start by asking yourself if you have the right
internal capabilities to developing the product. If, perhaps, youre lacking technical skills to
code, you might want to consider finding a technical equity partner first.

Never outsource your core business: Typically, outsourcing is a big no-no because youll
have to pay an extra profit margin to the external supplier, youll many times have to accept
delayed deliveries and lots of bugs, which will take you many time in iterations with the
supplier to have them fixed.

Develop what you agree with the customers: Very important, do not under-deliver. If
youve agreed with your customers a specific product and a set of features in a time frame,
do exactly as you promised. Youre building relationships for LIFE, its not about the sale.

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6

Solidify your hyper-local operation

Incorporate: Theres no need to incorporate your business before you really have an
operation, and this is the right timing to formally create the company.

Dont try to be forty before youre forty: A typical big mistake is reaching the entire country
from the beginning. Go hyper-local first, start on a single street, really narrow down your
whole operation so you can have everything under control.

Get Traction Signals: Here your goal should be to pay at least some of the basic
infrastructure costs, for example, the cost of the servers running. Focus on one single goal
do not spread between conversion rates, growth rates, social proof, etc. Focus on achieving
that X number of customers or having that X% of growth per month. Be simple.

7
1

Its time to find Investors

Events / Summits / Conferences: While the process of finding investors might not be
immediate, this is definitely the quickest and easiest way to find business angels or venture
capital. If you can, invest some money in 1 or 2 tickets for a major summit. Were talking
about events such as Web Summit, Startup Grind, Launch, Collision, etc.

Incubators and orbital players: The second method to getting a meeting with an investor is
through incubators, accelerators, company build studios, and any other stakeholder involved
with startups. Schedule a brief 15-minute chat and present your business to one of the
founders of an incubator for example.

Networking: Start by talking with the VCs analysts the investment teams -, dont rush
trying to addressing principals or partners because you wont even get into their mailbox.
Talk with orbital entities and people that can introduce you to investors, make sure you
circle them so at a certain point its virtually impossible not to meet with you.

Preparing the Pitch

8
1

The Execute Summary: Start by investing a lot of time in a 1-slide summary of your whole
business. This is the slide you want to send out to people avoid sending your pitch deck,
not to mention the business plan.

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The Decks of Slides: Prepare two types of deck of slides. One for the 3-minute pitches, and
another for the 15-minute pitches. I cant possibly detail them here.

Memorize each and every word: This is the best advice I can give you. Memorize word by
word, letter by letter so you can focus on what really matters: the form. Typically, we dont
ever understand that 93% of communication has nothing to do with the words you say.

9
1

Meeting with Investors

The structure of the meeting: Youll start with 10 minutes for presentations, then 15
minutes for the pitch, and then around 25 to 30 minutes for the Q&A. Remember, youre the
one running the show, not the slides. Have your pitch well memorized.

Body Language and Communication: If youre concerned that you might be perceived as too
young or inexperienced, remember that the way you speak is what really conveys your
maturity level. Speak slowly, show a happy and calm state of self-confidence, dont appear
to be needy, and dont interrupt the investors EVER. ;)

The Offer

Evaluating the Offer: The first step is naturally evaluating whether this is an offer that
defends your business interests or not. You have to be tough and cold, dont be too
emotionally attached. I can teach you how to know exactly hows a perfect offer, thats one
of the things I save for my premium students.

Negotiating: Typically, investors will want to exploit you. Thats just the way it works, and
you have to defend your business interests with solid arguments, a robust and humble
posture, showing that youre grateful but that youre also incisive.

Signing the Agreement: If youre in early stage just starting out, barely without any
revenues the process of Due Diligence will be a lot simplified. But usually you have a firm
investigating your companys legal and accounting documents to make sure what you
presented was the truth.

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