Workshop Content

The topics covered in the Investment Ready Workshop are those where startup and scale-up founders typically seek the most guidance when preparing for and executing an investment round. The workshop is delivered either in-person over one full- or two-half days, or alternatively, in a modular online format via ZOOM.

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Deal Documentation

  • Introduction to the legal documentation required to complete an investment round: Term Sheet, Shareholder Agreement, Investment Agreement, Board Regulations, and Capitalisation (Cap) Table.
  • Detailed review of the key contractual clauses and areas for negotiation in Term Sheets for investments via Equity and Convertible Loan Notes.
  • The purpose and mechanics of Cap Tables.

Due Diligence

  • The purpose and scope of due diligence for an early-stage company.
  • The fundamental questions that investors seek answers to through due diligence, and how findings are classified and reflected in the deal documents.
  • Review of a typical due diligence information request list and how to create a simple online dataroom containing commonly-requested documents.

Financial Modelling

  • Introduction to the key financial statements: Profit & Loss (P&L), Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement.
  • Good practices for building a well-structured and integrated financial model using Excel.
  • How to develop financial forecasts for key business drivers: Revenues, salary expenses, and other expense categories.
  • Implementing a monthly cash flow planning tool for operational cash management and link to the funding strategy.
  • Defining performance metrics specific to your business, and metrics that investors track.

Valuation

  • Factors influencing the valuation of early-stage companies.
  • The challenges of valuing early-stage startups, and why "traditional" valuation methods for more-established companies are not meaningful for startups.
  • Practical valuation approaches for startups used by investors.

Funding Strategy

  • Determining how much to raise and how long the funds should last—sufficient to reach the next major milestone that justifies an increase in your company's valuation.
  • The pros and cons of raising funds via convertible loan note rather than equity, and scenarios where it makes sense to do so.
  • How to attract "Smart Money" investors: Defining the profile of your ideal investor, the importance of understanding their investment strategy, and how to find them.

Follow-on Coaching

  • Post-workshop, dedicated 1-to-1 coaching for individual startups and scale-ups is available to support you in your funding journey.

Your Investment

Please contact us to discuss your specific requirements and for details of pricing.

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Online self-paced learning with optional dedicated 1-to-1 coaching — all conveniently delivered online.

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Testimonials

The Investment Ready Workshop has a proven track-record of helping founders of FinTech, blockchain and other technology startups and scale-ups prepare and execute their investment rounds efficiently and effectively. See what some of our workshop participants have to say:

James Sanders
F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator

"We have been working with Matt for more than two years and his involvement is a true asset to the F10 program. It's great to have such an experienced and knowledgeable financial expert working with our startups preparing them for their future successes. We look to work with Matt for many years to come."

Renu Ann Joseph
CEO and Founder
Luminant Analytics GmbH

"I attended Matt‘s Investment Ready workshop at the F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator. I found the Financial Modeling, Valuation and Funding Strategy sessions that he offered very useful to me, as I had started evaluating various funding options as a first-time entrepreneur.

Matt took time to carefully review our financials and challenge our assumptions and made me think through what these mean for Luminant Analytics, as a company. What especially stood out was the practical advice that he gave about not just the financial modeling & valuation, but also about the intangible, but equally important factors that resonate with different kinds of investors. Matt is an individual who has helped companies at various stages, across different industries, and in addition to that experience makes for a very thoughtful and pragmatic mentor.

I´d strongly recommend early-stage entrepreneurs in all kinds of tech space—Fintech, Regtech, Insurtech—to reach out for his expert advice. You will come away with lots of great, actionable insights!"

Dave Bruno
Head Company Builder
SIX

"I've never experienced anything like the intensity of the information shared by Matt in his one-day course on getting Investment Ready. Every founder I know needs to hear it—solid gold from start to finish."

Dennis Münkle
Co-Founder and CEO
Reportix GmbH

"Matt's knowledge and experience in startup financing are indisputable. His one-day workshop at the F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator stood out for its content-rich and complete overview of the most important aspects of startup financing. Matt also provides useful tools—templates and other resources—that will help you save time and not reinvent the wheel. I can highly recommend Matt's Investment Ready workshop."

Michael Klien
Co-Founder
Safeside

“As part of SafeSide's participation in the F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator “Prototype to Product” program, I had the pleasure to attend Matt's outstanding Investment Ready Master Class workshop. At that time, we focused on financial modelling, due diligence documentation, and the investment process—basically the key tools to be ready for external investors beyond family and friends. Matt reviewed and challenged our financial and business plans, as well as provided invaluable tips and hints, that we are benefiting from today.”

Megan Bingham-Walker
Co-Founder and CEO
Anansi Technology Ltd

"Matt's Investment Ready workshop is cleverly crafted to condense a huge amount of knowledge into an actionable, content-rich form. At Anansi, we still use some of the templates that he shared as part of the workshop to manage our early-stage business, which is testament to the usefulness of the session. If you have the opportunity to attend this workshop and/or work one-on-one with Matt to review your company’s investment model and strategy, you won’t regret it."

Chris Cowles
Co-Founder and CEO
Blocknify

"The Investment Ready workshop run by Matt provides great insights for startup founders about how to prepare effectively for investment rounds. In a recent discussion with an angel investor syndicate, their first question to me was, “Is your dataroom ready?” The Investment Ready workshop gave me a headstart regarding how to create a structured online dataroom, what information investors typically expect to be provided with, and how to manage the investment process."

André Bertolace
Co-Founder
Ex Indiciis

"The Investment Ready workshop proved to be extremely helpful in preparing for our financing round. You can expect to get an in-depth view and understanding of the investment process — including financial modelling, preparing for due diligence, and insights into the key contractual clauses for deal documents typically used in Switzerland. You may find other workshops out there but the key difference in Matt's workshop is the balanced approach between information/theory and its practical application, tailoring the information to your specific circumstances. We benefited a lot from the structured approach to financial forecasting and Matt's expert knowledge. We highly recommend the Investment Ready workshop to any startup looking to prepare for their financing round."

Brian Nolan
Co-Founder
Finteum

"Matt's knowledge from finance, accounting and governance, coupled with his insight as an experienced investor, gave the Investment Ready workshop unique value when Finteum participated through the F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator in 2019. Matt's close connections in the investor community are also valuable—this enables him to tie together the theory with today's real world investments. Both investors and companies seeking investment can benefit from the Investment Ready workshop."

Ricardo Orsi
Co-Founder, Co-CEO and CFO
Interlock Ledger

"The Investment Ready workshop from Matt was instrumental and extremely practical.  The tools he provided, as well as the concrete approach, made a very complex and intricate matter manageable for a startup like ours.  What also became clear is that his practical experience in the field with solid knowledge in the area helped us deeply in the process. Thank you Matt!"

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Jiang Shan
Co-Founder and CEO
Susfinteq

"Matt was the dedicated Mentor to Susfinteq (a Chinese FinTech startup automating the assessment of ESG risks of Chinese public companies) at the F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator in 2018. Matt helped us focus our investor pitch and presentation delivery, as well as develop financial strategies and approach potential investors. After graduating from the F10 Prototype to Product acceleration program, Matt has continued to support Susfinteq and me with negotiation coaching for our financing rounds, as well as executive coaching for leadership and team development.

I highly appreciate Matt's professionalism and passion for Fintech and Sustainable Finance."

Nelli Orlova
CEO InnMind
Blockchain Leadership Summit

"Matt coached the innovative technology startups and scale-ups participating at the inaugural AI & Blockchain Leadership Summit 2019, hosted by InnMind in Barcelona. He was also a jury member at the startup competition, helping InnMind and partnering funds to identify the strongest teams. His advice and coaching on topics including business modelling, strategy, financing and leadership were very much appreciated by every startup founder he worked with during the Blockchain Leadership Summit. Matt's expert opinion about the startups during the competition helped us a lot in identifying the best projects (which lately got impressive traction). I really enjoyed working with Matt and seeing the results of his impactful coaching and expert advice. I would highly recommend him as a reliable and highly knowledgeable person."

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Michael Sprenger
Co-Founder
Still Active

"I met Matt through the >>venture>> competition organised by ETH Zurich, where we managed to convince Matt to become one of our first advisors. Matt has supported us throughout our journey, from challenging our first pitch decks and financial projections, through to other important steps on our startup journey, including preparing for and executing our investment rounds. Matt always looks at the business as a whole and not from an isolated angle. This broad understanding of the company brings actionable insights on how to improve it. It's always been a pleasure working with Matt, and I am grateful for his time and dedication to both Still Active and me personally as a founder."

Paul Claudius
CEO and Co-Founder
BlockState

"I met Matt through the F10 FinTech Incubator & Accelerator in Zurich. He is helping startups at F10 with funding and a broad range of finance-related questions. Matt was great in helping us get a fresh perspective on our business case and financials. He supported us throughout the program and beyond. As a startup founder it is great to have Matt as an advisor — not only is he excellent in his field but a very fun person to work with."

Wolfgang Millat
Co-Founder
TaxLevel

"I know Matt via the F10 Incubator & Accelerator where our startup participated in the first P3 Product to Market acceleration programme. The focus of Matt's coaching was on building highly-effective and motivated teams, as well as other strategic topics that play a role in the growth phase of a company. Matt has the ability to identify the essential points that are important for the current status of a startup. I appreciate Matt's calm and thoughtful manner. For me personally, and also for my founding partner, it has led to a better reflection of the current situation and a regular exchange on strategic issues. I know Matt as a cosmopolitan, very skilled and profound coach and trainer who can draw from a huge wealth of experience - I can highly recommend working with him."

Patrick von Schulthess
Co-Founder
Opus Néoi

"I was introduced to Matt through the Innosuisse - Swiss Innovation Agency startup program. He was recommended to us as being an expert in negotiation strategy for commercial deals. Matt supported us in laying the framework for negotiating commercial terms—in particular, exclusivity—with a major industry player with whom we seek a strategic commercial relationship. Matt’s coaching was especially helpful for us to get a grasp on how to evaluate commercial terms; his ability to ask insightful questions helped us to get a clearer view on how to structure our negotiation approach to achieving our business aim. For a startup, negotiating with a much larger strategic partner is a David vs. Goliath situation. Thanks to Matt’s coaching, we now have a structured approach and are confident in handling the negotiations."

Ellen Batens
General Manager
DOLFINOS

DOLFINOS was selected for the scale-up program of Innosuisse - Swiss Innovation Agency, which gave us access to excellent coaches like Matt. Matt coached me on optimizing our financial plan and funding strategy, but he went well beyond that, including how to position our firm towards investors and how to incorporate a longer-term investor strategy. What I found particularly useful was the fact that Matt made sure I was focused on the big picture, as well as being ready to go into the detail needed for specific deal documents himself. I highly recommend Matt to every start-up founder/CEO as he is focused on empowering the individual as well as delivering the best result for the company.

Philipp Buschmann
CEO
AAZZUR

"Matt was one of our mentors at F10 – and an excellent resource for our startup. He has an excellent network and is a pleasure to work with. Furthermore, Matt has a wealth of insight into startups from the perspective of an investor and executive mentor. My co-founder and I like Matt’s openness and ability to think into an opportunity always wearing these two hats. This results in actionable insights and investment ready companies. “Top Man”, as they would say in the city."

Mahmoud Hamada
Managing Director
SAMAWATT AG

"I met Matt through the Innosuisse coaching programme for innovative technology-focused Swiss startups where he is a Special Coach for Fundraising and Investor Relations. Matt supported SAMAWATT by reviewing and challenging our business plan and financial strategy to help us prepare effectively for a funding opportunity. Despite the tight deadlines and magnitude of the task, Matt demonstrated a strong commitment, meticulous approach and perseverance in helping us meet the requirements. I was very pleased to work with Matt and can highly recommend him to other Innosuisse startups."

Gianmarco Pizza
CEO
Nispera AG

"We met Matt as a coach in the Innosuisse scale-up program and started working together on exploring our financing options and getting prepared for an investment round. Over the course of the coaching programme, we have been impressed by the breadth and depth of Matt’s preparation and by how he has been able to challenge our assumptions and always bring a new worthy perspective and insights to the table. Matt also provided well-structured workshop material, which helped keep us focused on the big picture while discussing the specific details of each topic covered in his Investment Ready Workshop: Deal Documentation, Due Diligence, Financial Modelling, Valuation and Funding Strategy.

We do not hesitate to recommend Matt to any start-up or business who is looking for an experienced, well-prepared and extremely helpful coach to craft a solution to any kind of financial matter. Thank you Matt!"

Workshop Facilitator

Matt Lanfear, PhD is an Executive Coach helping innovative high-growth companies through to established financial institutions and corporates to accelerate their business transformation, optimise financial performance and increase leadership effectiveness.

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As a consultant and coach, Matt supports financial institutions and corporates undertaking major business transformation and change management initiatives. Matt advises and coaches startup and scale-up founders and teams on topics including financial strategy, corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions, company valuation, due diligence and funding. Matt is an active supporter of the Swiss startup community as a coach, mentor and jury member at startup competitions, accelerators and hackathons, and is also a Special Coach for Innosuisse - the Swiss Innovation Agency.

As a professionally-trained coach — accredited by the International Coach Federation — Matt coaches entrepreneurs and executives leading rapidly-growing finance and technology companies, helping them to increase leadership effectiveness through Accelerating Leadership Growth, Building High-Performing Teams, and Developing Mental Toughness.

"What is the path to raising funding for your startup? How can you find suitable angel investors? How does the founder and angel team transition into venture capital investment? Business transformation expert and startup coach Matt Lanfear, PhD takes us through the process, from your first founding capital (family & friends) to angel investors and your first venture capital round."

David Bruno (The #MakerZone)

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