With the growing amount of available information and data and the increasing prominence of angel investor and private equity networks, early-stage investors are much more experienced and sophisticated than at any time in the past.
Startup entrepreneurs, therefore, also need to be at the top of their game when it comes to raising early-stage capital.
Nobody knows this better than Ed Quattlebaum, a biotechnology entrepreneur and consultant who has raised millions of dollars in startup capital for his and his clients’ businesses. His company, Polaris-Crux Group, is a strategic advisement firm based in the Washington, DC, area that focuses exclusively on helping emerging-technology companies and investors navigate the complexities of early-stage innovation, the raising of capital and commercial scaling.
Recently, Quattlebaum spoke at the Clemson Technology Village Conference, an annual meeting of the Clemson University-backed business and technology incubators around South Carolina. In speaking to his extensive experience in raising capital for young and promising technology companies, Quattlebaum set a few sobering expectations for startup entrepreneurs who all too often are under the mistaken impression that they are ready for early-stage funding.
Here are five of those observations about the current state of the early-stage investment environment:
