ICON VENTURES

Finding And Receiving Venture Capital Funds As A Technology Startup

 

The first step is ensuring that the startup has something truly unique and then protecting it as well. This means applying for patents and trademarks around the world, ensuring that other companies aren't even close to creating a similar project, and truly thinking outside of the box. If these criteria are not met, it is not likely that funding will be forthcoming. If it doesn't seem like a company is going to stand above the competition, they are likely to be overlooked and lose out on valuable funding. 

 

Individuals who are willing to play the VC market, and especially higher level investors known as angels, are looking for a sure thing when they invest. This means a technology startup is going to need a strong set of patents, clear and precise code, and a software, hardware, or service solution that is unattainable by the competition. Copied software, hardware, and service is easy to find, truly revolutionary ideas are not. Remember, you are competing for funding that has been previously secured by the likes of Reddit, Apple, Facebook, and many more strong names within the technology world. 

 

The second thing to do is to avoid applying for or taking too much funding. While many startups want to ensure that they receive adequate funding, most go over their target and find themselves in a position where they cannot pay back what the have promised on that funding by the end of the initial 10 year period. Instead, focusing on enough funding to get the company running over a two or three year period can ensure that funding is easier to secure and that the company will be able to meet its goals as well. This can often mean that investors will receive returns on their investments well before they were initially expecting which may make further ventures easier to complete as well. 

 

After these expectations are met, a technology company will want to look for an incubator, a company or group that both provides funding and resources to them through the venture funds process. This is something that is completely unique to the technology world, and allows a tech startup to have a greater chance of succeeding than other companies looking for VC funding. As an added bonus, these incubators often offer mentoring and basic logistic services that many companies would be unable to access otherwise. 

 

Many of these groups are attached to universities and government programs. This means that they have very specific goals and needs that should be taken into account. Knowing what they are looking for ensures that your application has the best possibility of being considered. With a little over 6000 companies being funded within the USA alone, there are still very steep odds against being funded if a company applies to the wrong incubator. Forbes has published a list of the top companies, their focuses, and their funding records, but companies finding themselves outside of these ranges can and should look into other incubators for more information. 

 

The steps taken above will help narrow the true focus of the company, show strengths during the application process, and ensure that specific funding needs can be considered when each organization is reading over initial proposals. This will generally put a startup company well ahead of other applicants who only have their idea and a general understanding of the whole process. The less time a selection committee has to spend trying to understand an application, the more time they have to considered the actual proposal and benefits that it could bring to them as well. 

 

While ensuring that a company has the correct team, a good chance at the market, and many other considerations may help the process, ensuring value of the actual product and knowledge of the selection process will go farther to helping anyone ensure that their technology startup company receives Venture Capital funding.