KONSULTORI SERVICE
Find Investors
Overcome the obstacles in your way
Which investors are right for my company?
How do I approach investors properly?
Is my business ‘ready’ for investors?
Which documents should I prepare in advance?
What is typical for a negotiation? And what isn’t?
What is the value of my company and how can I demonstrate it?
Draw inspiration from our projects
Financial planning and funding round at startup go2market
Financial planning and investor search for go2market. Petra Wolkenstein: “It’s a pleasure to support Thomas Perdolt and the team at go2Market by planning and implementing their expansion. We always work really effectively together. I’m so happy that go2market were able to find excellent investors to help them expand their business.”
Funding round platform for the health sector
To finance the expansion of an established industry platform, its Austrian founders sought external funding and challenging for a bidding process. Konsultori helped the startup team over a six month period with everything from processes, negotiations and due diligence preparations, to an expansion strategy and business consulting.
Whalebone funding round
Supporting cybersecurity startup Whalebone in its Series A round. Petra Wolkenstein: “Richard Malovic and his team have successfully proven that their product can be scaled.”
How we work and what we do
1
Initial consultation & project outline
2
Challenging all documents
3
Business valuation
4
Investment teaser & process
5
Long list of investors and pitch
6
Project management and negotiation support
We will guide you through the process.
Konsultori
- challenges your financial plan
- works with you on benchmarks to validate your assumptions
- produces documents for you which factor in KPIs
- assesses your business from an objective perspective
- advises you on process definition optimisation
- works with you to prepare your documents
- provides you with a long list of investors to approach
- assumes project management responsibilities throughout the process
- supports you throughout the entire investment process until funding is complete
- helps you to compile your due diligence documentation
- assists you with tactics during negotiations and prepares you for further talks.
The outcomes for you
- Financial plan review
- Investment teaser
- Business valuations
- Long list of investors to pitch
- Project management
- Negotiation support
- Co-ordination of legal consultants and auditor
Experts at Konsultori
Business valuation
We specialise in business valuations for early-stage startups. At this stage, the future growth of your business is still highly uncertain, meaning special methods for valuation must be applied. Late-stage businesses use the DCF method as standard, combined with a multiples approach. Sometimes, an asset valuation is also necessary.
Financial planning
In the creative industries and technology sector especially (platform model, SaaS model, corporate sales), we have several years of experience and provide templates for financial planning which are challenged using benchmarks.
Investment strategy & process
We support business sales and funding rounds with strategic or financial investors. Depending on your industry, different processes need to be defined in order to be able to manage and complete the process within the scheduled timeframe.
Equity Story
Investors need a few solid arguments to explain why your business generates added value and why your business valuation is forecast to increase exponentially in the future. That is summarised in an equity story and together with your investment teaser, it is the backbone of your investment story.
M&A negotiations & project management
With 20’ years M&A experience in the corporate and startup scene, project management and keeping tight deadlines in mind is second nature to us. Assisting our clients with briefing and debriefing on future procedures during the negotiation process is also nothing new to us.
Approaching investors & business matchmaking
A good network can definitely be beneficial. But these days you can reach out to investors and strategic partners with a short, well-crafted ‘cold’ pitch. We don’t believe that you need to approach business matchmakers for the sake of your network.
Your contacts at Konsultori
Petra Wolkenstein
Managing Director at Konsultori BD GmbH
Strategy, M&A and Growth Expert
Investor & General Partner for Africa Startup Wise Guys
Managing Director at key2investors & digital accelerator
- Nine years’ growth experience with startups and investors
- Funding rounds and sales in cybersecurity (Whalebone), eCommerce, and HealthTech
- Strategy development for one of Austria’s biggest platforms
- Training and preparing startups for accelerators (Startup Wise Guys, SFG, Wirtschaftsagentur, DGO Campus, European Space Agency)
- Three years’ experience in strategy and business development for mobile communications companies in northern and southern Europe.
- Ten years’ experience in corporate M&A for the telecommunications sector
Finding investors with Go2Market
“Konsultori and Petra Wolkenstein are extremely professional. Her experience really helped us to get through the first funding round. We were thrilled that the documents and arguments which we produced in the preparations stage were so well received in our search for investors and during negotiations. I appreciated such a straightforward, hassle-free and honest partner who never forgot our goals and timeline. Without Konsultori, we’d never have managed to achieve everything within such a short space of time”
Thomas Perdolt
CEO & Co-Founder, go2market
What we have achieved for our customers
28m
of investor capital secured
733+
hours of negotiating
75+
business assessments
Frequently asked questions
What are the advantages and mechanics of a convertible note? How does this compare to an equity participation of an investor?
Convertible notes are a loan that can be transferred into shares at a later stage or need to be paid back. They are used as a bridge financing instrument between financing rounds or at the very early stages of a startup when there is still no full financing round. There are some mechanics included that define the future valuation and conditions at which the loan is converted into shares.
How much money should I raise?
You need to be able to survive for about 18 months once the money is on the table. Increasingly, startups are in “continuous raising mode”, but you might want to account for 18 months cash.
Should I put the higher amount to raise in my pitch deck or the lower amount?
If you put in a higher amount than needed for the next 18 months, then you would give off more shares than needed. Moreover, if you do not get enough investors on board, then the financing round is not going to take place. It would be better to raise a realistic amount and if you could create more demand than money needed (potential oversigning) you can still decide to take in a higher round and scale faster, if you feel like being able to pull it of.
Which legal structure do I need to get an investor on board?
Depending on where you are located, there are different legal set-ups. Anything similar to a limited company is a minimum. Having a sole proprietorship, for example, is not an investment vehicle that would work. In some cases, investors would want to have an investment vehicle in their region, if they are not located in your region.
How much is an investor usually getting per financing round?
Statistically, anything between 10 and 25 % per financing round is within “normal” boundaries but there are always exceptions possible.
When can I start talking to investors?
When you are well prepared on your documentation, you are investor ready and have at least 4 months runway still available, you would be ready.
How can I calculate a valuation or does the investor give me the valuation?
The investor will have his/her own opinion on a potential valuation of your startup. To know whether this can be within a reasonable range, you need to build your own opinion and calculate a reasonable valuation range for your startup based on your financial plan, at least two different valuation methods and comparable benchmarks. Even in the case of accelerators who say that they would invest e.g. a standard amount for a standard share, this can be negotiated if your argumentation is right.
My competition is raising higher amounts than I need. I do not need so much money, but there is pressure. Should I raise more money now? I am in seed stage.
If you do not need more money, you would not raise more money because you would need, as a consequence, to give off more shares than necessary. However, if competition is using loads of money to pump into marketing and sales or to make a huge jump in tech, there is pressure coming from the side and you might be tempted to raise more. Still, your financial plan needs to reflect where the increased amount of money is used and you need to be sure to be able to deliver this.
As a founder, my shares decrease with every financing round. Is this bad for me?
If the valuation increases more than you give off shares and dilute, then it is positive for you to go into the next round. You would create more value with the additional capital you got into your company. You use the capital injeted for more value creation. So if all goes well, this is not bad for you. Think about it as owning a smaller part of a cake that is a lot larger. In absolute terms (if all goes well and that is the bet), you are better off in absolute terms even if you give off shares.
What is the vesting scheme with co-founders?
A vesting scheme between co-founders is a regime to build up respective shares per co-founder over time if performance is good and all get along well. Standard terms would involve a cliff (a period of time where a co-founder does not get any shares at all) and afterwards a regulation how many shares a co-founder would get per month.
