Overview:
Raising capital (or funds) for your venture can allow you to rapidly scale your business, hire the right talent, and invest in production facilities. Today, capital is available from a wide variety of professional sources, but they can always be reduced to either debt or equity. Debt in the form of loans generally requires some form of collateral, and a consistent record as a company. Equity is available in the form of venture capital and angel investment. Note that in some cases, the startup phase might happen after fund-raising, although it's more common to find an entrepreneur starting up before she can raise funds.
Pre-requisites:
You need to have 3 things in place before raising equity based capital: a strong core team, a solid business plan, and some kind of market validation (perhaps through a prototype). Debt can be raised from banks if your venture already has consistent performance and collateral to secure the loan with.
Resources in the Grid:
Use the Resource Bank to locate Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors. Also use the business plan guide and the marketing plan guide to develop a compelling set of go-to-market plans for your investors. While negotiating with a Venture Capitalist, you can use the Term Sheet guide.
