“I have a financial model, but it is problematic – it took too long to build, it cost thousands of pounds and the end-result had too many tabs. Nobody in my company understands it and investors also don’t understand the model. There has to be a better way”
We spoke to a frustrated startup founder recently and we feel his pain. There has to be a better way!
One of the biggest problems entrepreneurs face when starting and scaling their businesses is financial planning. It is an essential step to making good decisions and having conversations with investors.
The two key reasons founders struggle are:
- The traditional approaches to financial planning – hello Excel – are too complicated and beyond the grasp of all but a few founders with some consulting or investment banking experience.
- There is a perception that financial models must be complicated and require specific expertise to put together.
These challenges freeze a lot of founders in their tracks. They just don’t know how to go about it or don’t have the resources. Many just give up and don’t bother fundraising thus hampering their growth. Even then, running their businesses without proper financial planning is “flying blind” and not ideal
That is why, over the past four months, we’ve facilitated several Masterclasses for UK founders, where we demystify some of the most ‘daunting’ concepts of financial modelling – and fundraising in the broader sense.
Last week we hosted virtual webinars for both VirginStartups StepUp cohort on ‘Selling your vision with numbers’ and the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) ‘From Idea to Scale-up: Tackling Fundraising, Team Building & Financial Modelling to Successfully Commercialise Engineering Innovations’
The topics we cover include (but not limited to):
- the key components of a financial model
- when and why you need a financial model
- how and where to find assumptions
- storytelling with numbers.
"I came to this from a position of exactly zero previous knowledge on this. Thank you for this presentation!"
We are excited that we will be having our first self-hosted masterclass, ‘Fundraising for early-stage startups: selling your vision with numbers’, on February 17t. This will allow us to equip even more founders with this skill that is critical, not just for fundraising but also for running a successful and sustainable long-term business.
Do you know anyone – accelerator or organisation – that would find our Masterclass useful? We’re happy to customise what topics we cover/focus on to your audience. Every session also includes a Q&A.
If so, we would love to hear from you. Contact us at contact@caena.io
