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Networking for Female Founders
Have you ever thought of raising Venture Capital or Angel Investment? Follow this lesson to understand how these two funding options really work. Discover all the advantages and disadvantages of each of them and make the right choice for your startup!
Networking
What is it?.
Introverted Women Can Be Great Networkers
A Venture Capitalist (or VC) is a private financier willing to invest in early-stage or growing businesses that have a high potential to succeed in scale, in exchange for a share of the company’s equity. Venture capitalists generally merge their money together into a fund controlled by a so-called VC firm. Basically, such a firm (or fund) manages the money of many individuals and controls where the money will be invested. Usually, they do so in businesses or ventures that others may consider too risky for investment (for example, because they are still in their early stages). However, despite the high risk for VCs in investing in such companies, the possible return they might get in case of success of such business is much higher!Types of Networks You Need as a Founder
There are different types of networks you can join, depending on your needs and availability. As a founder, these are the types of contacts you would need to look for: potential customers, business partners, investors and other entrepreneurs to exchange experience.
The first step is of course to know which kind of contacts you need the most and then look for such in the following network setups.
VCs provide high amounts of capital in order for you to grow faster (going from 100000 $ for pre-seed startups to more than 20 million dollars for medium-size businesses), so you won’t have to worry about your company’s living costs nor, generally, about additional assets for the growth of your business.
If the startup does not succeed, the investors will simply lose the money they have put into it. Unlike a regular business loan, you won’t have a debt to repay for your VC’s losses.
Apart from the funding, VC firms can provide a startup with experts to mentor and advise them in their growth process. This can be in the form of assistance in business decisions, financial management, company scaling. etc.
VC firms help founders to build a prosperous network of key connections for their startups. They do so not only in the prospect of future funding opportunities, but also in the one of building partnerships with fellow entrepreneurs, collaboration opportunities with industry experts, building a clientele and/or a team of co-founders and employees in order to scale the company
7 Steps to Build Your Network
Building networks doesn’t just happen overnight. It requires your dedication, intent and energy to commit to networking. To do this, we developed these 7 steps with the support of our experts that will help you to build, grow and maintain your network. These steps range from defining what kind of network you need; preparing for a networking event beforehand; starting and leading conversations during the networking event; and then getting contact information and finally following-up.
Then you’ll learn about the most common mistakes to avoid when networking and you’ll end the course with a thrilling networking challenge. Go to the following 7 lessons to become a networking pro! Let’s dive in!
