Getting funding to scale in 2023
Getting Funding to Scale in 2023 is a Startups Magazine article series designed to guide early-stage founders through the complexities of raising finance, exploring in detail both how to raise capital and where to source it from, while emphasising why choosing the right investor at the right time is crucial. Written against the backdrop of a particularly challenging fundraising environment, the series acknowledges that 2023 brought heightened caution from investors and lower valuations in many sectors, making investment readiness and thorough preparation more important than ever for founders seeking to scale.
Founders and entrepreneurs have to have a determination and resilience that often distinguishes them from those that are paid employees. It is not only that they have to find a gap in the market that they feel they can exploit, but they also have to have the confidence to back themselves to do that.
Getting funding to scale a business in 2023 is certainly more of a challenge than it has been in more recent years. This does not mean that it is not possible.
Valuing any business can be a complicated and often inexact procedure, but arriving at a valuation for an early-stage business is so much more difficult.
When considering raising equity finance, most early-stage businesses would often have to turn to angel investors or crowdfunding as was explained in last week’s article.
Having decided to scale your business and having concluded that the only way to make that happen in a meaningful way is to raise equity funding, there are then some very obvious next questions. This would include how much exactly do you need to raise and at what valuation, and where is the best place to raise the investment?
Pitch decks and business plans are a very common area for discussion amongst founders and early-stage business owners, especially if those businesses are seeking to raise external funding in any way. And this is as it should be, as these two documents are essential foundation stones for both understanding and running your business, and for raising finance.
Having made the decision to raise equity funding, and assuming that you know how much you are looking to raise, you must then decide the best place to raise that funding. This will depend on the stage of your business, the amount you are looking to raise, the type of business, and various other factors. This will be explored in more detail in future articles.
Funding for your business can, in theory, come from many different places. It can be self-funded from your own resources, otherwise known as bootstrapping, or you can ask friends, family, and others that know you, to assist.
Many hundreds of thousands of new businesses are set up each year in the UK. Indeed, according to Companies House, just over 200,000 new businesses were established in the first three months of 2023. For some, the founders will be content with a lifestyle business or will not wish to scale in any meaningful way. But the majority of businesses will need to raise some form of funding and for many this will be during the early-stage of the business when it is looking to scale.
