What Is Start-Up Funding?
Startup Funding is the capital you require to start and grow your business. There are many different sources for start-up funding.
For example, some entrepreneurs use their own money, or borrow money from family and friends. There are many government programs where entrepreneurs can seek grants and loans.
Once a start-up has gotten some traction then funding may come from financial institutions including banks, Angel Investors or Venture Capitalists.
Learn More
If you’d like to go even deeper and answer the question ‘How Do I Get Start-Up Financing For My Business?’ then click on this link.
Transcript
00:00
[Music]
00:03
welcome to the ask a business expert
00:04
podcast my name is gordon shepard and
00:06
today on the show we are interviewing
00:08
jade alberts now jade is a founder of
00:11
peer guidance and what he does he
00:13
focuses on helping startups to move
00:16
through the stages of angel investing
00:18
and venture capital investing and he’s
00:20
really just a massive proponent in this
00:22
space he’s made an exit himself he’s
00:25
helped others to exit from their
00:26
businesses and he’s looking for kind of
00:28
that next piece along the way but he’s
00:31
also aware of entrepreneurs sort of
00:33
mental health and making sure that if he
00:35
doesn’t have the answer someone in his
00:37
ecosystem does now we are lucky enough
00:40
that he contributed an article to
00:42
askthebusinessexpert.com and it’s called
00:45
how do i get startup funding for my
00:47
business and in there he goes through
00:49
six terrific steps that you can you know
00:52
have as a takeaway that you can actually
00:53
use to get startup funding in your
00:55
business and also you’re gonna get a
00:57
chance to reach out to jade himself
00:58
because he gives his contact information
01:00
at the end of this terrific interview
01:02
but with that in mind i want to take you
01:03
right there here’s the interview with
01:05
jade alberts jade welcome to the show it
01:08
is so good to have you here
01:10
yeah thanks for uh thanks for inviting
01:11
me gordon i’m always uh i’m always
01:13
pumped to share my uh knowledge and
01:15
stories about uh the great things that
01:17
are going on with entrepreneurship in uh
01:19
our wonderful province of alberta
01:22
well and alberta and beyond in terms of
01:24
the advice you’ve been able to give in
01:25
terms of because like we were so lucky
01:27
for the
01:28
askthebusinessexpert.com where you
01:29
contributed an article talking about you
01:31
know six great ways to get um you know
01:34
funding for your startup for for small
01:36
businesses and i’m looking forward today
01:38
to digging into that article but before
01:40
we kind of get started on that um i
01:42
wanted to take a second like if you had
01:43
to introduce yourself what would you
01:45
tell people
01:47
well i guess there’s lots of ways to do
01:49
that but professionally uh you know i’m
01:52
the founder of pure guidance purpose
01:53
before profit i’m an entrepreneur angel
01:55
investor and i love helping startups
01:58
grow scale and exit i myself have exited
02:00
a business i’ve helped three others exit
02:02
a business
02:03
and just connecting with like-minded
02:05
people
02:07
it just it just gives me passion and
02:09
drives my
02:10
my my true inner entrepreneurship um you
02:13
know to give back
02:15
well and i know one of the core
02:16
philosophies that you bring up in the
02:18
article and i’ve seen it all over your
02:20
website is this idea especially because
02:22
you’re working in a space where you’ve
02:24
had success and not many people get to
02:26
make an exit i mean that’s
02:27
percentage-wise it wouldn’t be as many
02:29
but you’re able to do that successfully
02:31
but you’ve got this idea of telling it
02:33
like it is yeah when you say that why is
02:36
it important to you and and what do you
02:37
mean when you say that kind of thing
02:40
uh it’s basically just
02:42
being honest is is it’s a nicer way of
02:45
saying that right without saying that
02:46
you need to be honest uh it’s so
02:49
important to tell people what
02:51
they they need to hear it’s not about
02:54
telling them what they want to hear they
02:55
got their families and friends and and
02:57
things like that to tell them that you
02:58
know what’s good go ahead but what they
03:00
do need is someone to come down there
03:02
and give them the brutal truth and it
03:04
might not always be brutal it might be
03:05
great truth it might be holy holy smokes
03:07
this is great i had a conversation with
03:09
a with um a team today and they are
03:12
doing awesome things and they don’t need
03:14
peer guidance as help like so it’s like
03:15
holy smokes i can make three or four
03:17
introductions to you you guys are doing
03:18
great keep doing what you’re doing and
03:20
we’ll go from there and you know that’s
03:22
not always the case either but it’s
03:24
really important to make sure that
03:26
you’re honest with these people you’re
03:27
telling them exactly what uh
03:29
you know the advice that they may need
03:32
to grow and of course you’re there to
03:34
help them if they if they want the help
03:36
well and no knowing that you’ve walked
03:38
in their path in a sense they must get a
03:41
lot of assurance from that so that when
03:43
you go to say
03:44
the things that they need to hear i’m
03:46
going to guess you’re in a great
03:47
position again to give the peer guidance
03:49
that you’re able to give to them i’m
03:51
going to jump right here into the
03:52
article because i know that when we
03:53
kicked off and we got going like saying
03:54
what kind of article can you contribute
03:55
and what would you like to talk about
03:56
you said one of the questions you get
03:58
all the time is how do i get funding
04:00
yeah right and you’re able to sort of
04:02
help really structure this article in a
04:04
great way that gives some very practical
04:06
steps that we kind of can walk through
04:08
and i’m just going to remind you about
04:09
the header from the first step which is
04:12
you want to make sure that if you’re a
04:13
startup you can prove that a real
04:15
customer
04:16
wants to buy what you are selling why is
04:18
that sort of the you know someone said
04:20
hey i’m looking for funding uh they’ve
04:22
come to you for looking for advice but
04:24
you’re saying wait a second you have to
04:25
prove there’s a customer first why is
04:26
that so important well i mean if there’s
04:29
no customer there’s no business i mean
04:31
that’s that’s just the
04:33
the the end the end-all be-all you know
04:35
question right if you go out there and a
04:37
lot of customers a lot of angels are or
04:39
investors in in our ecosystem here and
04:41
it which differs from the valley in
04:43
toronto and in other places in the world
04:45
but
04:45
really we want to see we want you to
04:47
scale your company with our investment
04:50
not build it
04:51
get out there show that you can do it
04:53
show that you can sell show that you can
04:55
you know put yourself out there grind it
04:57
out i mean a lot of us did it and one of
04:59
the most things i’m proud of is we were
05:01
able to bootstrap our business the
05:03
entire way and that’s not very easy but
05:06
we found people that wanted to buy it we
05:07
just kept re you know reinvesting
05:09
reinvesting
05:10
um you know not all companies want to do
05:12
that if you want to scale fast that’s
05:14
where you need the investment but if
05:15
you’ve proven that somebody wants what
05:17
you’re selling it is so much easier to
05:19
get somebody to to back you with the
05:22
finances
05:23
and so i don’t just get to watch an
05:24
episode of dragon’s den and show up with
05:26
a good idea and just get some money
05:28
well you will but you can see how some
05:30
of those end on dragons then
05:31
oh my goodness
05:33
the second step is don’t ask for
05:35
investment too early now what do you
05:38
mean when you say that in the article
05:40
well it’s kind of the same concept a lot
05:41
of people get out there and say oh yeah
05:43
well you know i
05:45
i’m good everybody else does it they
05:46
look and see oh this guy got investment
05:48
or this guy got investment and and
05:49
companies all over the world are getting
05:51
investments but
05:53
you know if you spend too much time
05:55
going out there and and it is important
05:57
to go out there and network and
05:58
introduce yourself but if your first
05:59
question is walking into seeing jade or
06:02
seeing randy thompson or startup team or
06:04
whoever you know brian from motiquity
06:06
and saying yeah i’m looking for money
06:08
can you help me
06:10
well i mean i’m not interested in that i
06:11
want to learn more about you i’m
06:13
investing in you our investment’s a you
06:15
know a five to ten year type marriage
06:16
like it’s a long term thing i want to
06:19
know and if that’s all you’re interested
06:21
in in our relationship it’s not that
06:23
appealing to me it’s more of a one-way
06:25
so
06:26
you know focus on your business if you
06:28
come and and show me that you’ve done
06:31
that not you know growing your business
06:32
and you say hey i’m looking for advice i
06:34
need to scale i’m looking for
06:36
you know some investment how do i get
06:38
investment would you be able to help me
06:39
can can can i pitch to you those types
06:42
of things you know down the road a
06:44
little bit but you got to work in your
06:45
business you got to show us that you’re
06:47
there
06:48
just asking for money isn’t gonna isn’t
06:51
gonna open any doors for you so you
06:53
better make sure that uh you know you
06:55
use your your networking uh abilities to
06:58
to really ask for help before you ask
07:01
for money
07:02
this makes total sense and i think if
07:04
that’s the one piece that people took
07:05
out of here obviously when they’re going
07:07
to approach an angel or maybe even
07:09
venture capital or whatever it is we’re
07:11
starting to hear sort of both sides of
07:12
the equation and when you mention a five
07:14
to ten year relationship why would you
07:16
want to get married before you went on a
07:18
date we hear that frequently in terms of
07:19
how things are going i know the third
07:21
point you make in your article rings so
07:23
true for me because i’ve done the lone
07:24
wolf thing just way too much and only in
07:27
the last couple years have i really
07:29
learned how to you know reach out and
07:31
ask for help but i know you’re a big fan
07:33
of this kind of idea why do you think
07:36
startups need to ask for help
07:38
yeah you’re not alone i mean this it’s a
07:40
journey and you know not too many people
07:42
make it by themselves they have a good
07:44
team around them whether that’s friends
07:46
to start and then of course then you add
07:49
add the people that you need to as you
07:50
grow but
07:52
you know it’s kind of like an idea an
07:53
idea is a starting point as soon as you
07:55
ask yourself gordon you’ll give a couple
07:57
points you ask me i’ll give a couple
07:58
points ask my wife she’ll give something
08:00
then that idea turns into a potential
08:02
business and it’s no difference when
08:04
you’re scaling you start putting the
08:05
right people in in place you start
08:07
asking peer guidance or you’re going out
08:09
to ask these investors saying hey can
08:11
you introduce me to someone that knows
08:13
how to scale a business or i need some
08:15
help with financing can you can you
08:17
introduce me to someone that can really
08:18
work on my books and again that’s how
08:20
that relationship starts and you don’t
08:22
need to do this alone everybody out
08:24
there has solved your problem at one
08:27
point and chances are when you’re out
08:29
there networking and you’re asking for
08:31
this help they’re gonna introduce you
08:32
the person that went walked in your
08:34
shoes already and and then that makes it
08:36
so much less stressful so because i mean
08:39
being an entrepreneur is a roller
08:40
coaster as we all know the ups and downs
08:42
the stresses
08:43
and and anything that you can do and
08:46
anybody that you can reach out to to ask
08:48
for help makes that journey so much more
08:50
enjoyable i think that makes total sense
08:52
it’s actually the entire philosophy of
08:55
what we’re doing here at ask a business
08:56
expert we know there’s too much to do we
08:58
know you’re good at what you do
09:00
how do we then surround you with that
09:01
right team at the right time to get you
09:03
the answers that you need to move
09:05
forward in that moment it’s just i’m so
09:07
appreciative of your philosophy and
09:09
completely agree with where that’s going
09:11
now the other part is when people are
09:12
thinking about asking for money it can
09:14
be pretty uncomfortable
09:15
are investors accessible i mean in terms
09:18
of what you’re talking about here in the
09:20
next step it’s this idea of actually
09:21
being able to reach out to them you mean
09:22
i can just pick up the phone or walk up
09:24
to them like what do you mean when you
09:26
say reach out to investors oh yeah i
09:28
mean it’s
09:29
just start emailing them
09:31
you know start local and
09:33
and and i said there’s lots out there
09:34
you reach out to to start up tnt and
09:37
then
09:38
you’ll be able to to meet a lot of
09:39
investors there you come to a thursday
09:41
night networking event at uh you know
09:43
with tnt you’ll meet you know other
09:45
investors you come to founders coffee
09:47
tuesday mornings
09:49
you’ll meet investors and that’s how
09:51
it’s you just need to do it and build
09:54
that relationship slowly as i mentioned
09:56
before because no one’s just going to
09:57
cut you a check i mean
09:59
again not probably not in alberta and
10:02
you know again it differs in other
10:03
markets but when when things are here it
10:06
is a relationship so starting that
10:08
relationship as you said your first date
10:10
you’re not getting married before you go
10:11
on your first date so you know go in
10:13
there start to get with them go for
10:15
coffee go for lunch and the best thing
10:17
about our ecosystem is it’s very
10:19
collaborative and that puts a big big
10:21
smile on my face and once you have
10:24
somebody that you know likes you
10:25
believes in you believes in your
10:27
business believes in your vision your
10:29
scalability and everything that comes
10:30
around with it chances are they’re going
10:32
to bring on other
10:33
um investors with them to to get you
10:36
more money to give you more of a runway
10:38
so whether it be thin air we’ll work
10:40
with the ticketing with mtac with tnt
10:42
and and
10:43
ark and the hunter family and you know
10:46
blue blue sky they all work together and
10:49
um and and that’s something that’s great
10:51
so if someone knows that you’ve done a
10:53
lot of the due diligence and you
10:54
understand it they each have their own
10:56
criteria but they your they will
10:59
introduce me open more doors for you and
11:01
when a when an angel opens you know when
11:03
a vc gentleman phones and says hey i
11:05
want to i have this guy we’re going to
11:07
invest do you want in on the deal well
11:10
he’s doing the work for you he’s your
11:11
champion so you know getting that
11:13
relationship started early and uh is
11:16
very very important
11:18
don’t be shy that’s what i can hear here
11:21
make sure you get out there and in fact
11:23
you’re the angels or the vcs they’re
11:25
trying to win too so they actually want
11:27
to meet you they want to know especially
11:29
if you’ve got your ducks in a row they
11:30
actually want to get out there as well
11:32
number five goes back to your point
11:34
about telling it like it is because you
11:37
want in the article you’re explaining to
11:39
entrepreneurs to say be ready for tough
11:42
questions
11:43
that’s an example of a tough question
11:45
that you would sort of bring forward
11:46
that you know an entrepreneur needs to
11:48
ask and why are tough questions like why
11:50
are being why why should they be ready
11:52
yeah i mean every every investor has
11:54
their own thesis so you know the tough
11:56
questions will differ for for someone
11:59
that’s really wants a tech orientated
12:01
company their tough questions are going
12:02
to be tech
12:04
and things along those lines my thesis i
12:07
i look at your your scalability your mrr
12:10
the founder and then kind of tech falls
12:11
down a little
12:13
if it is a tech company that is of
12:14
course uh but i mean i i want to see how
12:18
you handle problems i want to see how
12:20
you get out there so like talking about
12:22
your market opportunity talking about
12:24
who have you talked to who have you what
12:26
doors have you banged on those types of
12:28
things i don’t want to hear well i might
12:30
be calling on on you know company xyz or
12:33
you know i’ve got a list put together i
12:35
want to see if you have the initiative
12:37
to go out there i want to know how those
12:39
conversations went i want to know why
12:41
they’re saying no
12:43
so i can maybe we can help you
12:45
get those no’s into yeses
12:48
your competition i want to know what’s
12:49
out there i want to know what
12:50
differentiates you so knowing your
12:52
competition inside and out is something
12:55
that’s extremely important you know how
12:57
are you going to build up your team not
12:59
just well i’m going to hire a cfo i’m
13:00
going to hire this i want to know who
13:02
you want to hire why you want to hire
13:03
them what type of person do you want to
13:05
hire so i mean it gets into you know of
13:07
course then financials get into their
13:09
own hard questions and things along
13:11
those lines but
13:12
i mean they don’t seem like they’re hard
13:14
questions but once you
13:16
you know you’re kind of in front of the
13:18
investors and you’re talking about it
13:20
and those and those are just kind of
13:22
lead off questions so we’re all asking
13:24
and opening softball questions to see
13:26
how you answer it and then we’re going
13:28
to get dive into some of the you know
13:30
the harder questions when you answer
13:31
those questions so it is very important
13:33
to kind of you know to know your
13:35
like you can’t get by just winging it
13:38
you have to have that plan you have to
13:40
know it and you have to be able to
13:41
articulate it to people
13:43
i’m hearing bring the names and bring
13:46
the numbers that’s very different from i
13:49
hope it’s going to happen and that
13:50
really is you know as long if you can
13:52
get through this sort of gauntlet of
13:54
fire from these tough questions
13:57
what you’re going to need is what you’re
13:58
mentioning in number six in the article
13:59
which is you must as the entrepreneur
14:01
have the drive to succeed
14:03
when you you know you’ve experienced
14:04
this yourself you’ve demonstrated that
14:07
um when you’re talking to a startup and
14:10
they’re looking for funding and you say
14:12
you’ve got to have the drive to succeed
14:13
do you do you tell your own story how do
14:15
you encourage them to to sort of have
14:17
that you know muster up that courage
14:20
yeah i mean they’re investing in you
14:22
right i mean it’s it’s
14:23
you
14:24
when when people start a business you
14:26
know you are the brand and the brand is
14:28
you so if you can’t go out there and
14:31
articulate what you’re going to sell or
14:32
go out there and sell or be passionate
14:34
about it
14:36
and it doesn’t even have to be your
14:37
full-time job it could be a side of the
14:38
desk thing to start so many start there
14:40
but you know what you’re like yeah well
14:42
i have to run it like this because i
14:44
have to pay my bills i have to feed my
14:45
kids i have to pay my mortgage
14:47
everybody understands that you just
14:48
can’t dive in and give up your entire
14:50
life some people do and you know it’s
14:53
it’s it’s a little risky but
14:55
no one was going to chagrin that you’re
14:56
doing something as a side desk but this
14:58
is my goal i want to be here i want to
14:59
get to this point so let’s see your
15:02
drive let’s see you know i’m spending
15:03
you know my eight hours at work spending
15:05
you know three hours with my family and
15:06
kids and things like that or whatever it
15:08
is and and then i’m spending x amount of
15:10
hours on my business but my goal is to
15:12
be here i’m making these calls i’m
15:14
sending out these emails i am there i’m
15:16
driven i i want to be there we got to
15:19
see the passion i want to see the fire
15:21
because there’s i mean there’s probably
15:23
700 startups in i’m just going to use
15:25
alberta right now pretty much all of
15:27
them are looking for funding so if
15:29
someone knocks on tnt’s doors or brian’s
15:31
doors or eat on doors
15:33
what’s going to differentiate what’s
15:34
going to get you in
15:36
it’s going to be you they have to
15:38
believe in you so that that is such a
15:41
big part of
15:43
of what people invest in
15:46
that is super super clear and i think
15:48
anybody that’s just sort of even again
15:50
taking that last minute out of what you
15:51
just said if they can take that alone to
15:54
go forward because really i love that
15:56
piece that you’re saying you are the
15:57
brand right there’s not you’re not known
15:59
to anybody really in these early days so
16:01
you know investors are investing in you
16:03
i mean these are great tips i know that
16:05
people are going to be able to go to the
16:06
ask a business expert you know com blog
16:09
catch this article you know by you as
16:11
well but people are also going to want
16:12
to be able to maybe just see this and
16:14
get directly in contact with you so if
16:15
they had to do that what’s the best way
16:17
to get in touch
16:18
oh man i’m everywhere
16:22
you know you can email me our email is
16:24
guidance at peerguidance.ca
16:26
our website is peerguidance.ca
16:29
you know linkedin obviously i’m all over
16:31
linkedin with some of the things that we
16:33
do
16:34
even founders coffee that if you want if
16:36
you want a face to face i’m a big
16:38
face-to-face guy we we go every tuesday
16:40
7 30 a.m at red’s diner in kensington
16:43
um startup tnt is thursday nights if you
16:45
again you want to meet me in person uh
16:48
at 6 00 pm on um
16:50
at briggs diner in in calgary here on
16:53
10th and again i’m open and i mean even
16:55
if it’s just a talk even if it’s
16:57
struggling um
16:59
and you’re spinning your tires or even
17:02
if your mental wellness isn’t there and
17:04
and things along those lines you know
17:05
please reach out we’re here to help
17:07
there’s so many people that can help you
17:09
even if i can’t help you on on the
17:11
business side or or the health side i
17:14
can guarantee you i know somebody that
17:16
will and that’s what we’re all about
17:17
we’re a collaborative ecosystem and we
17:20
you know i say it asking for help is not
17:22
a sign of weakness so please please
17:25
reach out at any given time and i will
17:28
be there and and hopefully introduce you
17:30
or help you myself jade your passion for
17:33
this startup space is so clear you’re
17:36
giving back in so many different ways i
17:38
know you’ve had your own success people
17:40
are going to get a lot out of this
17:41
interview thank you so much for being on
17:43
the show
17:44
i appreciate what you’re doing and
17:45
bringing awareness and helping other
17:46
startups i mean and we’re all in this
17:48
together gordon so thank you for
17:51
for putting this together and the ask
17:53
ask a business expert i think is going
17:54
to be a huge success and a huge resource
17:57
to many startups you know moving forward
18:00
you know i think one of my biggest
18:01
takeaways from that interview is this
18:03
concept of not trying to do it alone
18:06
i’ve been there myself and you end up in
18:08
sort of a bubble and
18:10
you’re not you know reaching out for
18:12
help but if you’re going to be an
18:13
entrepreneur and if you’re going to run
18:14
a business i mean absolutely there are
18:17
so many things to learn so many things
18:18
that you’re just never going to be you
18:20
know the right person for but if you
18:21
know who to ask if you know where to
18:23
reach out to get the help then that can
18:25
be very very valuable and in fact when
18:27
you’re reaching out to people like jade
18:29
you’re also helping them to win because
18:31
they’re mining for gold right they’re
18:33
looking for businesses that they can
18:35
actually get invested in and scale
18:38
themselves i mean just a a terrific
18:40
interview there and i really enjoyed all
18:42
the points that he went over and if you
18:43
want to read those points in more detail
18:45
please check out the article called how
18:47
do i get startup funding for my business
18:49
on the ask a businessexpert.com
18:52
website there’s also a download that
18:54
you’re going to find embedded in that
18:55
article as well just click there you can
18:57
take those sort of six points away that
18:59
you can use and put into action for
19:00
yourself
19:01
and if you have a question we would love
19:04
to hear from you we just really
19:06
appreciate it when you send them in and
19:07
we can actually then go and find the
19:09
expert to get the answer for the
19:11
business question that you have
19:13
ask a business expert dot com please get
19:15
in touch we look forward to hearing from
19:17
you