The 10 Best Startup Funding Courses On The Internet
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Startup funding has its hurdles for anybody seeking to manage their business. As a result, raising funds for your startup becomes a daunting task.
Moreover, it is not just about raising funds for your startup but also about your startup valuation, developing a pitch deck for your startup, understanding term sheets, and many other factors. So if you want your business to grow manifold, you must be an expert in each area.
Hence, you can always begin with a course to hone your skills.
Here are the 10 best startup funding courses on the internet to help you succeed in learning additional skills.
The Rundown
- To learn the startup fundraising process for free: Y Combinator’s Startup School, “A highly detailed yet free-to-enroll educational initiative by Y Combinator including an 8-week online course on how to start a startup.”
- To understand the financing basics: New Venture Finance: Startup Funding For Entrepreneurs“A Startup funding course designed for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to learn how to get capital for their business. This course will explain essential financial concepts to provide entrepreneurs and budding entrepreneurs with a roadmap for securing capital.”
- To learn startup bootstrapping: Startup: Bootstrap First, Raise Money Later, “A comprehensive course designed for entrepreneurs on how to bootstrap their startups with relevant case studies.”
- To understand startup valuation: Valuation and Financial Analysis For Startups Specialisation “A well-structured course to master practical startup valuation methods, estimate startup value, understand financial statements and make sound investment decisions.”
- For those who want to finance without an Investor: How to Finance and Grow Your Startup – Without VC. “A course designed for entrepreneurs who need money to start and expand their businesses at any career level without venture capital.”
- To learn the art of developing pitch decks: The “Best" Startup Pitch Deck - How To Raise Venture Capital. "A fast track guide to creating the best startup investor pitch deck and insights towards raising venture capital from an actual VC."
- For those interested in crowdfunding: The Complete Crowdfunding Course for Kickstarter & Indiegogo "A practical, step-by-step strategical course designed to scale up your startup's crowdfunding campaign."
- To better understand term sheets: Investment Banking and Finance: Venture Capital Fundraising. "A well-planned course that will guide you through the whole process, from planning to finding investors to understanding and negotiating a Term Sheet."
- To see things from a VC's perspective: Basics of Venture Capital. "A well-planned comprehensive course that explains the basics of venture capital and the working of venture capital firms."
- To validate your business model before fundraising: How to Use the Lean Canvas to Validate Your Business Model. "The Lean Canvas course is a tactical planning tool that helps entrepreneurs navigate from ideation to developing a successful business.
Recommended Startup Funding Courses
To learn the startup fundraising process for free:
Probably the best way to learn how to raise money for a startup is by attending Y Combinator's Startup School. The course is taught by some of the best startup investors and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and that too for free.
Your teachers will include people like Sam Altman (President of Y Combinator), Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder of Facebook and Asana), Paul Graham (co-founder of Y Combinator), Elon Musk (co-founder of Tesla, SpaceX), Marc Andreessen (co-founder of Netscape), and Reid Hoffman (co-founder of LinkedIn).
You will also get access to a number of online resources and tools like templates for financial projections and cap table simulations.
The best part about this course is that it is for everyone. You'll find resources for:
- Finding that perfect startup idea,
- Validating your startup idea,
- Assembling a great team,
- Creating a beautiful pitch deck,
- Launching your startup,
- Accelerating your startup,
- Fundraising for your startup.
Take this free startup funding course from Y Combinator today and get started on your journey to becoming a successful startup founder!
To understand the basics:
Whether you're trying to understand the basics of startup financing or have been working on it for a while, this course will provide you with an essential overview of the most commonly used forms of startup financing.
It teaches you everything from finance fundamentals to the tactics that can help make your startup look valuable to investors. You'll learn the types of startup financing available for your startup along with how to secure the same.
You will learn about
- The types of investors,
- Different types of funding,
- What are the key characteristics of the term sheet,
- How to perform company valuations,
- The techniques used to help the entrepreneur get to the close, and
- How to perform a great pitch.
The course is ideal for those who want to secure funding for their startup and are interested to know how to go about getting it.
If you are interested in learning about the financial aspect of startups, and want a detailed guide to all the topics mentioned above, this is the right course for you.
To learn startup bootstrapping:
Bootstrapping is when a startup uses its own resources, rather than outside funding, to grow. This could mean using personal savings, reinvesting profits back into the business, or taking on debt.
This could be a perfect course for you if:
- You want to maintain full control over your startup.
- You're not ready to give up equity in your company.
- You want to test your business idea before committing to it long-term.
This course is a guide-cum-curated collection of case studies of startups who successfully bootstrapped to their success and startups who bootstrapped first and raised capital later. The cases and lessons you can draw from here are -
- How to bootstrap your startup?
- How to get funding with an upper hand as you've bootstrapped first?
- How several renowned companies bootstrapped their way to success?
- How to think like investors?
You also will learn how potential companies need to bootstrap their way to fundability and sustainability. It further explains how bootstrapping supports a startup in reaching the stage where it can be financed.
The course includes practical case studies to let you better comprehend the ideas and apply them to your business.
To understand startup valuation:
This specialisation is a deep dive into the topic of startups valuation and financial analysis. It includes a collection of videos covering various valuation methods used in the startup industry.
It covers calculating the value of a founder's ownership before and after additional investment and interpreting financial accounts. In addition, you will learn to create Pro-forma statements, assess a startup's financial health and condition, and anticipate future profits and value.
This course will also guide you in applying different investing criteria to decide whether and where to put your money.
By taking this course, you will learn:
- Time value of money
- Discounted cash flows technique
- Financial statements assessment
- Capital budgeting decision rules
- Bond Valuation
In the end, you will be able to determine the value of your startup using the methods taught in the course.
For those who want to finance without an Investor:
If you are a startup founder who wants to build your business without going to VC, this is the course for you. It is a quick, easy-to-read, beginner-level course that introduces the five time-tested approaches you may utilise in your startup to raise funding from your customers.
You will learn about:
- How taking venture capital is a bad idea, at least early in the life of your venture?
- Match-maker models and how to use them in your business?
- Pay-in-advance models for your venture
- Subscription models
The course offers real case studies to help you better grasp the topics and apply them to your business.
You will study a series of compelling real-world stories. It will help you learn everything an entrepreneur or an investor needs to know before interacting with the person across the negotiation table and taking an entrepreneurial business from startup to exit.
To learn the art of developing pitch decks:
If you have a startup and want to raise venture capital, this course is a must-have. It will teach you what VCs look for in deals and how to prepare yourself and your pitch deck for such investors.
The course includes an overview of the most important parts of the startup pitch deck, why VCs prefer certain parts and not others.
It will help you:
- Develop an efficient and effective pitch deck that gets investors' attention and has high chance of getting an investment
- Understand investors' funding strategy
- Develop presentation skills to present your deck better
- Avoid common pitching mistakes.
The course takes you through the process of pitching to a VC, from initial contacts and the first email to a pitch deck and a call.
It walks you through the entire process and gives you step-by-step guidance on how to avoid common mistakes that founders make when creating and presenting a pitch deck for their startup.
Take this course to learn the best practices for pitching and preparing for a pitch from a VC POV.
For those interested in crowdfunding:
Crowdfunding is when you raise money for your business or project by asking small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically through the internet. In return, you offer either rewards, equity, or a combination of the two.
Crowdfunding can be a great way to raise money for your startup, but it takes more than just posting a campaign and hoping for the best. This course will teach you how to run a successful crowdfunding campaign from start to finish.
This course shows how the crowdfunding market works. It covers the basics of running a Kickstarter or Indiegogo campaign with a step-by-step approach to growth hacking.
You will also learn about pre-campaign research, ways to initiate and gather traffic for your campaign, and what you need to do after the campaign has ended.
By taking this course, you will be able to
- Plan an entire crowdfunding campaign from start to finish
- Track your crowdfunding competitors using web scrapers
- Learn about the Kickstarter and Indiegogo ranking algorithms
- Discover how to become a staff pick and be listed on crowdfunding websites
- Use growth hacking techniques to get significant traffic to your campaign
By the end of the course, you will successfully be able to raise funds for your startup through the crowdfunding campaign.
To get a better understanding of term sheets:
This course is for anyone wanting to know what investors look for and how they evaluate startups and entrepreneurs.
This course aims to provide a detailed insight into the world of Venture Capital Fundraising and how to reach out and pitch it to investors. However, unlike other courses, it doesn’t stop at pitch decks. This course also teaches you the intricacies of the term sheet and how you should negotiate the same.
By taking this course of this specialisation, you will learn about:
- How venture capital works
- How to find the right investor for your startup
- How does the fundraising process work, and how to manage the same
- How term sheets work and how to negotiate the same
This course is essential for an entrepreneur or founder because this will help you position your company for funding while avoiding numerous mistakes and errors.
To see things from a VC's perspective:
A comprehensive course for students and aspiring entrepreneurs of all disciplines interested in learning about venture capital. This course covers the fundamentals of venture capital and how venture capital firms operate.
You’ll get to see venture capital operations from a VC’s point of view. You’ll learn –
The structure of a VC firm (whom to approach for better response)
- How do VC firms make money?
- Who invests in VC firms?
- How do venture capitalists find deals
- How do venture capital firms analyse startups
You will also learn about the various stages of venture capital that the businesses or investors concentrate their efforts on, which influences how they invest. Take this course if you believe understanding the other side better will help you negotiate better, understand the deal structure better or can help you in any other way.
To validate your business model before fundraising:
This course is designed specifically for entrepreneurs to help them navigate the most crucial parts of beginning a business – idea validation.
It covers the processes such as identifying clients and their issues, building a unique value offering that focuses on the solution, and mapping out methods to reach customers. It also includes defining essential performance measures, examining revenue streams and cost structure, and ultimately aiming for an unfair advantage.
This guided course will help you learn to:
- Identify clients and the challenges the market's existing suppliers have not addressed.
- Differentiate yourself in the industry by providing your consumers with better solutions than the competition.
- Determine your performance while pivoting and iterating using the canvas to create the best company plan
You will also be able to use the Lean Canvas to brainstorm potential business models, prioritise where to start, and monitor ongoing learning.
Take this course if you want to be able to:
- Articulate problems of your customer
- Determine the customer segment
- State the solution and the channels
- Enumerate the revenue streams and the cost structure
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