A simple way to keep a fair and reasonable percentage in your startup when getting funding is this.
Argue you require a sufficient percentage to keep you motivated.
Tell them you need enough stake to bring out your best performance. That they are investing in your performance and that this is part of the human make up. Then remind them that you are human.
While dropping into Startup Camp in Melbourne last week I started chatting with Jonathon from Melbourne Angel Investors. I asked him just one question:
What is more important in their investments, the team or the concept / product?
His reply was a simple one and here it is:
We’d invest in an A Grade team with a B Grade product, but we wouldn’t invest in an A Grade product with a B Grade team.
Startup blog agrees. Though I did here that he was pretty ‘anti-tech’ as far as their investments go…
But the first piece of advice is worth adhearing to. Above all things build an A Grade team, be an A Grade entrepreneur.
And so again we hear that the people in your startup are way more important than the secret sauce. It is without irony that A Grade teams more often than not find A Grade ideas too.
