Infographic – Statistics on Capital for Entrepreneurs – VC and Angel Funding in the US by Race, Age and Gender

A study conducted by CB insights has revealed a lot of details about VC backed companies across the country. The focus of the study was on the three largest players in tech startup; New York, California and Massachusetts.

Key Stats

40% of funded companies have two founding members, and they raise 19% more money on average than companies with one or three founders. A common scenario is one founder focuses on the technical and product side of the business, while the other handles more of the business and marketing. A two founder company has the advantage of a greater depth of knowledge, while still keeping decision making simple compared to larger teams.

Founding teams based in California, raise more money than the other two states. On average 67% more than teams in Massachusetts and 59% more than Nee York based teams.

On average, all Asian teams raise:
• 74% more than all white teams
• 82% more than mixed teams
• 207% more than all black teams

Founders According to Race and Gender

Most founders are white males, but on average Asians receive more funding. Massachusetts has a higher percentage of women founders, compared to New York and California.

Median Funding Received by Race:
• Asian Pacific – $4 million
• All White – $2.3 million
• Mixed – $2.2 million
• All Black – $1.3 million

Median Funding Received By Gender:
• All Male – $2.2 million
• All Female $2.2 million
• Mixed $4 million

Age and experience factors

Older age does not automatically translate into more funding. What is rewarded is more experienced founders.

Median funding Received by Age Range:
• 35-44 ($2 million)
• 26-34 ($2.5 million)
• 45-54 ($2.4 million)
• 18-25 ($1.4 million)

Former Titles and Roles

An interesting statistic is the breakdown of the previous job title and job role of founding members.

Former Title Breakdown:
• Other role – 46 %
• Sales & marketing – 13 %
• Product development & management – 12 %
• Engineering – 11 %
• Business Development – 8 %
• Software – 6 %
• Strategy – 4 %

Former Role Breakdown:
• CEO/Founder – 39 %
• Other title – 28 %
• Director – 10 %
• Vice President – 9 %
• Senior Vice President – 5 %
• Manager – 5 %
• Consultant – 4 %

Infographic – How Are Small Businesses Using Social Media?

Which social media sites are small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using for business?

Facebook (as usual) leads the way, with 19 percent of SMEs favouring this platform, ahead of LinkedIn (14 percent), blogs (13 percent) and Twitter, with the latter being used by just 4 percent of these firms.

While 81 percent of small businesses see the value of using social media as a business tool, just 25 percent spend 6-10 hours per week on social media, and 14 percent don’t separate personal and professional updates on these channels.

This data comes courtesy of an infographic via Sage UK, who collated results from several sources to produce this visual as part of their small business guide to social media.

20 Tips To Bootstrap Your Start-Up (And Hopefully Make Your Business More Investable)

Here are 20 tips to bootstrap your start-up and drive your business forward without spending a lot of money:

  1. Do customer surveys to find out about their level of interest in your product/service, how they would use it, what features they might like to see and how much they would consider paying for it.
  2. Raise money from family and friends.  Family and friends can be a great source for bootstrap financing. They have a vested interest in your personal success, and are more likely to take a chance on you than a bank or angel investor.
  3. Approach industry experts to get feedback and endorsements. Do they like your product?  Would they use it?  Is it better than the existing competitors?
  4. Build yourself a website.  There are loads of free and easy-to-use website builders like https://www.wix.com/ or https://www.moonfruit.com/.
  5. Offer people sweat equity in return for helping get the business off the ground.
  6. Set up a “coming soon” landing page and start collecting email addresses from people who’d be interested in joining your site when it launches. https://launchsoon.com/ offer a quick and easy way to set this up.
  7. Pull in favors from friends or colleagues who may be able to help.  Do you know a graphic designer who could do a mockup of your website?  Do you know someone who has a contact at the retailer you’re desperately trying to get into?  Using your contacts could be key in driving the business forward.
  8. Start building the right team as this is one of the main factors that investors will take into consideration when deciding whether to back you. Even if you can’t start paying them yet, you can have them on standby to join when you manage to raise some proper funding.
  9. Record a demo video of your product or service. This is a really effective way to showcase your business to customers and investors. You could either record one yourself or use a service like https://www.dunktank.co/ or https://explainify.com/.
  10. Hire interns and students. This is is a win/win for everyone. You get support at little to no cost. The intern/student gains valuable experience working at a startup where they’ll have more influence than they would at a larger company.
  11. Contact retailers to try to get some letters of intent or even pre-orders. This is a great way to prove there is interest in your product.
  12. Do some research to find out what sort of branding you’re going to use. This might just involve finding some other companies or websites you like the look of, so investors get an idea of what image you’re going for. Or you could use a site like Crowdspring (https://www.crowdspring.com/) to get a logo designed.
  13. Set up accounts and groups on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest or any other social media sites you think your target audience use.  This is a great way to start engaging with potential customers and industry influencers.
  14. Begin building partnerships that will allow you to grow your business faster through joint ventures, cross-promotion, referrals, content marketing, etc.
  15. Go to networking events to meet as many people as possible that are involved in your industry. This is a great way to meet potential clients, retailers, distributors, marketers, etc.
  16. Outsource jobs and use freelancers to get work done without having to take on employees.
  17. Start tracking stats as soon as possible. The sooner you establish your KPI’s (key performance indicators), the sooner you will be able to calculate your growth rate and determine which factors (like a new marketing strategy or website adjustment) have a positive impact on those KPIs.
  18. Develop your marketing strategy (and maybe even test it to determine your cost per acquisition and which marketing channels are the most effective).
  19. Assemble a team of expert advisors that you can approach for critical input and advice when you need it.  It’s important to remember: You don’t have to do it alone!
  20. Don’t get an office – Google and Microsoft started in garages, so there’s no shame in it.

Clever bootstrapping is proof that you have the most important elements of company building: passion, dedication, resourcefulness, focus and vision, which will make you and your company much more attractive to angel investors and venture capitalists. So make sure you spend wisely! Be sure also to hire reputable payment processing companies for your business.

What have I forgotten?  Let me know your top bootstrapping tips and strategies.

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Infographic – Social Sharing Boosts Email Marketing Results By 158%

Adding social sharing icons to your email marketing messages can increase your click-through rate (CTR) by as much as 158 percent. Email marketing campaigns with social sharing buttons saw a CTR of 6.2%, compared to a CTR of just 2.4% for those who used email alone.

Have you noticed anything that has improved the results of your email marketing?

 

Infographic – The most active investors in Europe revealed

According to a recent report from Dow Jones VentureSource, German seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is the most active investor in European companies – with 16 completed deals in the first quarter of 2013.  Danish VC firm SEED Capital with 12 completed deals in the same period.

The UK retained its position as the favoured destination for equity financing in Europe with a 34% share of all investment into European VC-backed companies.

While European venture capital declined in the first three months of the year – dipping 13 per cent in the number of funds and five per cent in amount raised from the previous quarter – VC investment into European companies experienced a slight increase.

For the full list of most active investors in Europe and other interesting stats on the European venture capital industry, check out the infographic below…