1. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com September 2015
Created By:
Alysia Silberg
Darren Chertkow
Email: StepUp@acceleforce.com
Twitter: @acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Essentials of Sourcing and
Winning Investor Funding

2. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Hi All Young Aspiring Entrepreneurs!
Welcome to Edition 2 of the #StepUpTakeFlight Entrepreneurs’
Revolution Start-up Guide!
One of the greatest challenges facing most young entrepreneurs
today is raising investor funding to make their dreams come true!
Given that we too have experienced these same challenges, we
thought it worthwhile to dedicate this next free eBook to Investor
Fundraising.
Just to give you some info on what you can find inside:
Part 1: Must-listen podcasts from YCombinator and a Tim Ferriss
interview with Naval Ravikant (one of the best angel investors around,
definitely worthwhile!)
Part 2: Investor fundraising books that really helped us get to the next
level (we included a short summary for each of the books). As you all
know by now from my TED talk (http://bit.ly/StepUpTF), I absolutely love
Audible.com and I strongly encourage you to start trying it out for
yourself, you won’t regret it!
Part 3: Top pitch videos to watch (You’ll learn a lot here)
Part 4: Best pitch decks to use to wow potential investors
Part 5: Great resources to learn more
Part 6: Thought leaders that you’d seriously benefit from following via
social media

3. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Exciting new addition to the
#StepUpTakeFlight Entrepreneurs’
Revolution!!!
On a very exciting note, we’ll be launching our first Start-up CEO
Virtual Peer- to- Peer Monthly Networking Session on Friday October
30th
from 4pm- 5pm SA time.
Our aim with these awesome sessions is to connect ambitious,
dedicated Start-up founders and experienced mentors and thought
leaders from SA, Africa, the USA and eventually from around the
world, promoting engagement whilst delivering a platform to share
their ongoing business challenges.
Should you feel that you could benefit and add great value to our
sessions, feel free to reach out to us by email and we’ll try and see if
we can include you.
Also, in order for us to learn more about you and see how we can
help you succeed in your start-up, please could you fill out the
easy survey questions @ http://bitly.com/StepUpSurvey. Not
only are we learning from your answers to help you ultimately
succeed, we’d also love to include your start-up story in our
upcoming book!
Good-luck and as always, please feel to reach out and email us, if you
have any questions!
Keep Hustling!!!
Alysia and Darren
Contents:
Part 1 – Must Listen Podcasts
Part 2 – Investor Fundraising Books
Part 3 – Top Pitch Videos
Part 4 – Best Pitch Decks
Part 5 – Great Resources
Part 6 – Awesome Thought leaders worth
following

4. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Part 1: Must Listen Podcasts
Must listen podcasts: From the coolest
entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, YCombinator:
https://itunes.apple.com/za/podcast/how-
to-start-a-startup/id922398209?mt=2
Short Summary
Sam Altman and the folks from Y Combinator
offer up an amazing course in "How To Start A
Start-up" at Stanford. Course includes lectures
from: Sam Altman, Dustin Moskovitz, Paul
Graham, Adora Cheung, Peter Thiel, Alex
Schultz, Kevin Hale, Marc Andreessen, Ron
Conway, Ben Silbermann, Alfred Lin, Patrick
and John Collison, Aaron Levie, Reid Hoffman,
Keith Rabois, Ben Horowitz, Marissa Mayer,
Hosian Rahman, Kirsty Nathoo, Carolynn Levy,
and more

5. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Tim Ferriss interviews Naval Ravikant, The
Person He Calls Most for Start-up Advice
http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/08/18
/the-evolutionary-angel-naval-ravikant/
Short Summary
Naval Ravikant (@naval) is the CEO and a co-
founder of AngelList. He previously co-
founded Epinions, which went public as part
of Shopping.com, and Vast.com. He is an
active angel investor and has invested in more
than 100 companies, including more than a
few “unicorn” mega-successes.
Timothy Ferriss has been listed as one of
Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business
People”, Forbes Magazine’s “Names You Need
to Know,” and is the 7th “most powerful”
personality on Newsweek’s Digital 100 Power
Index for 2012. He is an angel investor/advisor
(Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, and 20+
more) and author of numerous #1 New York
Times Best Selling books including the 4 hour
work week.

6. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
The Launch Pad: Inside Y Combinator,
Silicon Valley's Most Exclusive School for
Start-ups
Short Summary
Twice a year in the heart of Silicon Valley, a
small investment firm called Y Combinator
selects an elite group of young entrepreneurs
from around the world for three months of
intense work and instruction. Their brand-new
two- or three-person start-ups are given a
seemingly impossible challenge: to turn a raw
idea into a viable business, fast.
By Randall Stross
http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/The-
Launch-Pad-Audiobook/B009IS9FD8
Part 2: Great Investor Fundraising
books to read as you embark on your
…journey

7. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your
Lawyer and Venture Capitalist
Short Summary
As each new generation of entrepreneurs
emerges, there is a renewed interest in how
venture capital deals come together. Yet there
really is no definitive guide to venture capital
deals. Nobody understands this better than
authors Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson. For
more than seventeen years, they've been
involved in hundreds of venture capital
financings, and now, with Venture Deals, they
share their experiences in this field with you.
By Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson
http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Vent
ure-Deals-Audiobook/B005UPZF82

8. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Do More Faster: TechStars Lessons to
Accelerate Your Start-up
Short Summary
It is a cold, hard fact of business life that most
start-ups fail. Even many of those
entrepreneurs who ultimately succeed have
stories of personal challenges, unsuccessful
companies, and difficulties along the way.
The founders of TechStars, a mentorship-
driven start-up accelerator, have worked with
entrepreneurs and companies over the past
twenty-five years, and have seen a number of
the same issues come up again and again.
By David Cohen & Brad Feld
http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/Do-
More-Faster-Audiobook/B0072L4VC8

9. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
The Six Secrets of Raising Capital: An
Insider's Guide for Entrepreneurs
Short Summary
Based on Bill Fisher's three-day seminars that
regularly sell out all over the world, this
audiobook offers the kind of capital-raising
street smarts no entrepreneur can do without.
As a banker in Silicon Valley in the '80s and a
businessman who founded a number of
successful companies beginning in the '90s,
Fisher has seen first-hand the kind of rookie
mistakes aspiring entrepreneurs make that
end up stopping them before they have a
chance to get started.
By Bill Fisher
http://www.audible.com/pd/Business/The-
Six-Secrets-of-Raising-Capital-
Audiobook/B00U0CF4EA

10. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Part 3: Check out Founder’s Institute
Winning Pitch Videos
The Founder Showcase, an event hosted by
the Founder Institute, has been helping seed-
stage startups get exposure to Silicon Valley
investors and press since 2009. In fact,
previous contestants have gone on to raise
over $355 million.
While more than 900 start-ups have
competed in the competition, just 130 have
competed on stage, and we have crowned
only 15 champions. Here are the videos of the
last thirteen pitches that won the event.
http://fi.co/posts/426
Source: Richard De Santoro
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141102042838-3787127-how-to-pitch-your-startup-to-investors

11. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Part 4: Best pitch decks to use:
We really like these 2 resources, check them out and
let us know how well they work for you!
The Only 10 Slides You Need in Your Pitch
Deck from the Art of the Start 2.0
Guy Kawasaki
http://www.slideshare.net/GuyKawasaki/th
e-only-10-slide-you-need-in-a-pitch-from-
the-art-of-the-start-20
A Really Useful Pitch Deck Template and
Sample Content
The Pitch Deck Coach
http://www.slideshare.net/PitchDeckCoach
/the-ultimate-pitch-deck-template-by-
pitchdeckcoach

12. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
A Really interesting excerpt from Reid
Hoffman’s LinkedIn pitch to VC Greylock
http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-pitch-to-
greylock/
Part 5: Great Resources?
There’s a growing number of websites dedicated to helping navigate the
funding journey.
National Venture Capital Association
The National Venture Capital Association is the voice of Venture Capital in
the US and is the logical first step to learning about VC funding and the
process.
http://nvca.org
Founder Institute Startup Resource Vault
The Founder Institute startup resources list is a curated set of sources that
will teach you how to start a company from scratch. Sharing knowledge
with you from the idea stage, all the way to scaling your business.
http://fi.co/vault
Angel Capital Association
This site offers a great insight into America’s most prolific early stage
investment class.
http://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/faqs/
Kaufmann Foundation Entreprenuership.org
Explore Entrepreneurship.org to find resources for all aspects of starting
and growing a business. Designed with entrepreneurs in mind, our
resource center allows you to find materials to grow great ideas.
http://www.entrepreneurship.org

13. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight
Part 6: Thought leaders you definitely
should be following, if you want to
raise investor funding and want to
learn from the best!
Brad Feld @bfeld
Marc Andreessen @pmarca
Elon Musk @elonmusk
Sam Altman @sama
Paul Graham @paulg
Sequoia Capital @sequoia
Reid Hoffman @reidhoffman
SURVEY QUESTIONS
For a chance to win a free 32” LG Flat Screen TV and be included
in our book, you must please go to the following link and answer
our short survey.
http://bitly.com/StepUpSurvey
Thanks for reading!
Alysia and Darren – Team Acceleforce and founders of the
#StepUpTakeFlight Revolution
PS, Start living your dreams today!

14. © Acceleforce 2015 - http://www.acceleforce.com
StepUp@acceleforce.com
@acceleforce
#StepUpTakeFlight