How I got my small startup business funded…
Category: Business Advice
Tags: funding for business, private investor, startup business
If you are tuning in for the first time with us here at CanadaStartups, we constantly update our audience with interesting articles, tools and resources on how to start a small business, launching and expanding, funding and all that good stuff.
But today we are doing something a little different.
We spent some time with one CanadaStartup members who used the Small Business Startup Platform and was able to launch their business, find funding and succeed.
This member is Barinder, of ManuTek Devleopers based out of Toronto, Ontario. You can read Barinders full success story here.
Here are our questions we had for Barinder and his responses for you to learn from:
Tell us a little about your startup business
We started out small business in April of 2015, so we are still a young startup in a competitive industry in the very competitive city of Toronto. We are all web and software developers who started together after the company we all worked for closed it’s doors and we were left without work. Our goals are to become a leading software technology firm, developing new software’s as well as managing client projects. With a team of 8 members, all developers and software engineers we believe we have an advantage over most of our competition. Our biggest disadvantage is that we lack business experience, and needed help starting our formal business organization as well as being able to pitch our business model to potential investors who would help us fund the purchase of equipment, pay for some salaries and help us do some R&D.
What are some challenges you faced before you found success?
There is a number of challenges we faced. Being a startup in a competitive industry we found it very difficult to land our first contract. With such a big team we were all over the place trying, but had no luck. We really needed a plan to follow and that is one of the things we lacked. Aside from that it was money. The lack of money was a major concern and made us all worried daily, which sort of had an effect on morale and maybe the reason why it was so difficult to be invested in the business as much as we needed to be.
What convinced you that you needed help?
After we came together and discussed the need for change in order to succeed we contacted a few business consultants. i think that was the first time we knew we needed to do something. But again, after speaking to a consultant (multiple ones in fact) we were given prices to get our business plan in order which ranged from $2,500 to over $5,000. Again, as a startup with no funds…that was the end of that.
How did you find CanadaStartups?
We were very lucky to find CanadaStartups. One of the consultants that we dealt with who spoke with us regarding creating a business plan for us, actually suggested a low priced version of what he could do for us (but we would have to do all the work ourselves). For less than $300 we knew this was either going to work and get us at least 50% of the way where we needed to be or we should shut our doors down. So we took the chance, and started with CanadaStartups. And within a month, we finally found some success.
How much funding did you obtain?
Well it wasn’t just the money that we obtained, it was actually a private investor who was able to provide us with nearly $13,000 in funding. He in fact helped us with the launching of the business and helped us purchase the computers, the software, paid for the office we were in (to meet clients and to work). So it really worked out. He is a tech company investor and really believed in us. We also applied to 2 grant programs offered by the government and got approved for a $25.000 government secured loan, but we didn’t accept it as of yet due to the investor promising us the same form his account.
What is your advice to other startup entrepreneurs?
Don’t wait. If you feel like you can’t do it yourself, get help right away. It took us months before we actually did something about it. Whether you do the work yourself, or through CanadaStartups…just be sure to take advantage and do the work to get ahead. If it didn’t happen yet on its own, it most likely will not.
What is it that you would do different if you could do it all over again?
Like I said before, if we could do it all over again I would have contacted CanadaStartups early on. By this time we would have been deep in business. But we learn from our mistakes and I believe it makes our business stronger to know how difficult it was.
Any other comments?
Yes. To any new or existing small business out there, the key to success truly is planning (or the planning process). Get your team together and think everything through. I believe that knowing everything about your business, your industry and your audience you are only 50% ahead of the game. The rest is luck (and for us, that luck was finding such help as offered by CanadaStartups and being able to capture such a great investor who is helping us succeed.
That’s all we have from Barinder, or ManuTek. Again if you would like to learn more about his story you can read the full success story here.
Keep an eye out in the future as we discuss other success stories and be sure to check out what CanadaStarups membership has to offer to your startup.
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