Education

Angel 101

Angel Investors are popping up all over the place and getting involved in Colorado’s thriving startup economy. Angels are making great returns on their investments while also making connections, learning about cutting edge technologies, and giving back to the community by sharing expertise.

Angel investors who are part of an angel group don’t technically need to know anything about the process since they can rely on the expertise of other “lead” investors. Smart angels will take the time to learn about the process and how to evaluate a deal, even if it’s with the help of others.

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Believable Financial Projections

Proformas can be tricky – showing your financial strategy as you scale your company is very hard to do and it can make or break a company. This workshop will walk through essential topics, such as:

“Beginning With the End in Mind.”
How will your exit strategy influence what your company is doing now?
Scaling Strategies
How will different aspects of your business grow as you scale up to achieve world domination?
Competition
Your closest competitors can be the best guides and show you where the market is going.
Validated Assumptions
How can you use a very small amount of resources to prove that your hypotheses hold water?
Using Tabs
How to use Tabs to break out the detail, while rolling up to a consolidated statement.
Identifying your Assumptions
Allow investors to modify the numbers to come up with their own “what if” scenarios.

This is a highly interactive workshop so participants are encouraged to bring their own proformas so that ask specific questions along the way.

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Boards & Post-Investment Management

This session centers on board formation, board positions, and overall best practices for entrepreneurs and investors when it comes to startup boards. This workshop addresses the importance of board diversity, strategy of forming boards, how to best vet a board candidate, how to run board meetings, and more. It also will touch on best practices for post-investment management for both entrepreneurs and investors.

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Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is a fundamental tool for startups and investors to utilize. This session helps guide entrepreneurs through the Business Model Canvas and Value Proposition Canvas tools, along with exercises to put together these tools for investor due diligence. This session is also a part of the RVC HyperAccelerator program.

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Cap Table Dynamics

This workshop is valuable for entrepreneurs and investors to better understand the basics of capitalization tables (cap tables) and the impact of fund raising on ownership. We go through some of the basics and then dive into the mechanics of cap tables, using examples of startup company cap tables that progress from founding through multiple funding rounds and to exit. This session will also address employee stock options, vesting schedules, strategies for your cap table management, and more.

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Capital Strategies Workshop

Financial strategy is essential to raising not just your first Venture or Angel Capital round but subsequent angel and institutional funding. This class is for both investors and entrepreneurs. Some of the key questions that will be answered are:

Am I raising enough capital to bring me into the “sweet-spot” for a series A or bring my company to cash flow positive?
Will the current round be enough to accomplish the traction necessary to attract VC investment?
Is my company a target for an early exit?
What is a proforma cap-table?
How will future rounds dilute current investors and company founders?
And Much More!

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Due Diligence Workshop

Investors learn how to:

Determine the key items to look for in due diligence
Work with other investors in a team to conduct due diligence
Detect red flags to watch for in the process
Syndicate with other investors, VCs and angel groups
Research patents, corporate history and individual background checks

Entrepreneurs learn how to prepare themselves for the due diligence process:

What documents need to be collected and in what format?
Why does due diligence take so long?
What are the things you should have done to get your organizational house in order, but haven’t gotten to yet?
How to keep momentum.
The phases of due diligence – what happens at each phase?

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Exit Strategy

Begin with the End in Mind (Habit #2 of Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Successful People)

‍This 2.5 hour Exit Planning session will discuss the following:

What is an exit or liquidity event?
How does your exit strategy impact valuation now?
What will your company be worth in 5 years?
How and when to target potential acquirers.
How to build an exit strategy even though it’s five years away.
Implementing the exit.

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Funding Options and Strategies for Startups

Funding Options and Strategies for Startup Companies provides a high-level overview of the different financing tools available to startup founders (grants, traditional debt, alternative debt, angels, venture capital, and more) and how founders should formulate a capital strategy from the beginning.

This session will highlight the pros and cons of each financing option along with recommendations of resources for each.

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How to be a Lead Investor

The lead investor plays an important role in getting the deal done beginning with showing a commitment for the deal and communicating with peer investors to gauge interest and guide them through the deal.

The lead works closely with the due diligence team to make sure that all the critical questions are answered and that risk has been mitigated for investors. The lead assists RVC staff in negotiating the deal by preparing the term sheet and ensuring that the terms are acceptable to all investors in the deal.

The lead may also play a role in syndicating, not only within RVC, but with outside VC and angel groups. This helps bring out of state money into Colorado, but also helps to fund RVC companies and close out the rounds.

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How to Pick Apart a Pitch

How to Pick Apart a Pitch is a module of the RVC Angel Accelerator program. Knowing what to look for in an entrepreneur’s pitch is essential to becoming a successful angel investor, especially when you listen to multiple pitches in one session.

This workshop looks to live and recorded startup company pitches to help show investors the green and red flags to look out for in a 5-minute pitch, and how to quickly analyze what’s being presented to speed up your analysis of an opportunity.

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Marketing For Early Stage Companies

One of the most common risks that early stage companies face is the lack of a validated go-to-market strategy. In other words how is your particular company going to let the world know that you exist and eventually achieve domination. This can be incredibly hard to do and is usually what a seed stage investment goes towards.

At this workshop you get answers to important questions such as:

What are inexpensive things that I can do to help validate my marketing strategy?
What are the low hanging fruits when it comes to marketing?
How do I begin to create a brand?
How can I show investors that my strategy is sound?
And much more!

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RVC Pitch Academy

The RVC Pitch Academy is a half-day workshop designed to polish your investor pitch, sharpen your strategy and provide a background on what investors are looking for, connecting with your audience, and negotiating a successful deal.

Key topics covered include:

Focus your 5 minute pitch
How to present
Effective pitch deck design
How to pace your presentation
How to communicate the value of your company in a way that doesn’t close doors
How to communicate your “deal”
How to balance pitching your product vs. pitching your company
Understanding investor psychology
Raising equity vs. convertible debt
Communicating risks in such a way that investors are put at ease
What to do to follow-up after the pitch

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Strategic Planning

The difference between a low value startup and one that excited investors and hits the highest valuations is often nothing more than strategy. While you can’t make a million dollars in a weekend by updating your strategic plan, you can significantly increase the value of ANY company of any size by implementing a strategic planning process.

A strategic plan should be a dynamic, changing document that provides a roadmap for all the stakeholders in the organization. We will cover how to create plans that can be changed frequently vs. those that set your course in stone.

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Tax Impacts and Strategies of Angel Investing

This workshop is designed for Angel investors interested in better understanding the tax implications of Angel investing. The sessions includes overviews of IRS Tax Code Sections 1202 (the Qualified Small Business Stock), 1045, and the impacts of Convertible Note investing on taxes. Tax credits and other strategies will also be addressed.

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Term Sheets

We will talk about what level of detail is appropriate and how to structure an Angel term sheet so that the company will be attractive to VCs in a follow-on funding situation.

Investors: You will be able to read a company’s term sheet and identify red flags, bad terms, and other reasons to walk away after this course. Find out how to protect yourself from dilution and protect your investment from future fundraising or exit troubles. You can’t afford to miss this one.

Entrepreneurs: You should walk away from this workshop better prepared to evaluate the key terms of an investment term sheet – specifically those that relate to the economics of a deal and control of your company. Market conditions dictate terms but learn how to avoid common missteps and be a better, and informed, negotiator. You can’t afford to miss this one either.

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Valuations for Startups

This workshop teaches founders and investors the following important skills:

How you assign value to a company with no income and no assets.
If discounting future value works.
What is the role of risk quantification in early stage valuation.
Find out how an inflated valuation can deflate a company.
Hands-on practice with FIVE different valuation methodologies.
How to use valuation models for negotiation.
How exit strategies five years in the future can impact your valuation NOW.

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Become an Entrepreneur Member to gain access to one of the largest and most active angel groups in the country. This includes discounted registration to RVC's world-class educational events as well as invitations to all RVC networking events.

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Apply to Pitch

The RVC Pitch Academy is a half-day workshop designed to do much more than just polish a founder’s pitch and presentation skills. From delivering a compelling presentation to negotiating a successful deal, this workshop will prepare founders to understand many of the terms and processes used by VCs and sharpen their venture strategy.

The RVC HyperAccelerator^® is an innovative immersion program to develop and prepare tech, healthcare, and consumer product companies for investment and fast growth. Companies that graduate from the program are more likely to raise angel and VC funding and to grow quickly and demonstrate key milestones.

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Become an Investor Member to gain access to high quality deal flow, professional due diligence, investor education, monthly investor forums, and RVC's network of strategic partners and angel groups across the country.

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RVC's Active Deals
If you are an investor member please follow the link below to access the list of current deals in play, due diligence materials, and investment information.

Deals in Play

High Quality Deal Flow from Companies Nation-Wide
RVC screens 1500 applications per year, nation-wide. We've funded companies in many sectors including Tech, Life Sciences, Clean Energy, and more.

Portfolio

Building a Community that Engages & Educates Women Investors
WIN's mission is to increase diversity in our investing community, and to engage and educate women on opportunities to invest.

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18 Classes with High Quality Content for Both Investors & Entrepreneurs
RVC's educational programs are tailored for current and future investors to help them develop successful investment strategies.

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Education

Pitch Academy

RVC HyperAccelerator^®

Angel Investing 501

Women's Investor Network

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Education

Pitch Academy

RVC HyperAccelerator®

Angel Investing 501

Women's Investor Network

Entrepreneurs and Investors:

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RVC HyperAccelerator^®