Why should you consider fundraising? It’s an important question, one that founders of startups need to be asking. For me, the answer is, why wouldn’t you? An influx of capital through the right developer funding source may be exactly what you need to supplement and energize your efforts to grow your business.
In my first of a three-part series focused on developer funding, I’ll share my thoughts on the importance of fundraising as well as info about an exciting opportunity for those in the Intuit Developer community. Intuit and Lighter Capital, one of the first lenders to use revenue-based financing to fund tech companies, have teamed up to create the $15M Lighter Capital Intuit Developer Fund.
Stay tuned for posts two and three where I’ll explain further about finding funding and what to do with it once you’ve got it.
Why Fundraising is Important
As a developer, you’ve already come up with an amazing idea that meets a market need. You’ve translated it into a viable product and have started selling it to your target clientele, achieving a major milestone: making money. There’s one problem: you need more of it.
Up until this point, you may have been bootstrapping to get—and keep—the business going.
This means you’ve probably brought in co-founders that sync with your same ideals and vision for the business. You and your team have put immense time and effort to get the business viable, spending countless hours of uncompensated labor to do so. You may also be working a day job and using your own paycheck to fund your expenditures.
Inevitably, however, there comes a limit to how much you and your limited resources can do. Your partners burn out, your personal funds become tapped, or the costs of scaling your business have grown.
This is where developer funding comes in.
Receiving funds from an outside, credible source can lighten the burden and move your business forward. The increased cash flow can allow you to continue:
- Developing your product
- Adding new employees
- Researching
- Increasing your marketing efforts
- Responding to user feedback
- Paying your bills
You’ll need to find the right developer funding source, and it may take time you don’t feel like you have, but in the long run, the success of your business rests on being able to finance it.
How to Begin Your Fundraising Journey
To begin your fundraising journey, you need to first know about the funding options out there.
There are organizations dedicated to providing the funds you, as a startup, need to grow your business. They, in return, benefit from your success. The most common for startups are online lenders, crowdfunding, and revenue-based financing (RBF).
The RBF option, such as Lighter Capital, is one that we at Intuit feel is well-suited for our developer community. This option allows startups to exchange a percentage of their future revenue in exchange for receiving a set amount of funding in advance.
As mentioned earlier, our partnership with Lighter Capital provides companies in the Intuit ecosystem, and those using the QuickBooks platform, with access to the $15M Lighter Capital Intuit Developer Fund. This fund gives them access to $50K-$3M in growth funding without requiring loss of equity or dilution. While I’ll dive deeper into the details of this exciting fund (as well as looking more closely at the other lending options) in an upcoming post, I can tell you that if your tech company qualifies with Lighter Capital, you could be the recipient of much-needed funding in as little as 4-6 weeks.
The takeaway from today is the fact that you have options, and it’s to your benefit to pursue them.
Start Your Fundraising Journey Today
Determining that fundraising is important and taking the first step in securing developer funding is the best way to jumpstart your business’ success. Check out the $15M Lighter Capital Intuit Developer Fund today and stay tuned for my upcoming second post where I’ll explain further how to find the best developer funding option for you.
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