Why Are Most Startups Not Able To Raise Series-A Funding?

Most startups, even those who get angel funding or seed-stage funding or investments from accelerators/incubators, are unable to get follow-on funding. Why is Series-A funding so elusive? When Angel Investors invest in a startup, they do so after assessing whether the startup will be able to raise follow-on capital. That's how they have a chance of getting an exit for their investments. Why then, are startups not able to raise follow-on capital despite the mentoring and advice they receive from their angel investors or accelerators or incubators? At GHV Accelerator, we analyzed this problem and spoke to investors and startups to understand the reasons. And based on our conversations, we had some very interesting observations. Kindly note that these are reasons of decline by VC's, even when they believed that the opportunity was large and the concept/product was exciting. Reasons for startups to not get Series-A funding (This is in no order or priority, but investors mentioned

                  That they often see at least two of these reasons in angel-funded or accelerator-supported startups that they end up declining) When we spoke to startups, we realized that most were totally unprepared to engage with VCs. Here is a checklist of what we think startups should be prepared with. Of course, there are a whole lot more things that they need to be ready with, but these are absolutely necessary for even getting follow-up meetings after the initial interaction with VCs - research their past investments, understand their perspectives and thoughts on the market, etc. This helps startups align their thoughts and conversations in line with the VC perspective. Given that finding Series-A funding is such a challenge, we at GHV Accelerator, had organized webinar. Check the webinar details on - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy8W75wqAzw . About the Author : Vikram Upadhyaya, Accelerator Evangelist, GHV Accelerator Vikram is having diversified experience from Japanese Projects Offshoring to Global Corporate Strategy and New Ventures Turnaround, specialized for the Japan-India Cross Border Business execution. READ MORE