ABSTRACT
Prior to beginning any fundraising plan, the people should talk with advisors and investors to determine if the people business is an appropriate candidate for outside investment from institutional or angel investors. One of the first steps in the fundraising process is to do an initial assessment of whether financing makes sense for the business. The management of the company should also discuss the prospect that fund-raising may not be successful, and a maximum amount of time the company will devote to fundraising before pursuing other alternatives or revising the business model. Before beginning the people fundraising process, the first step is identifying likely investor targets. According to one investment banker in the clean technology space, “Investors in clean technology companies are much less ‘geographically-focused’ than in sectors such as software. This chapter examines convertible note financings, and the differences with "priced" financings.
