Funding is the life blood of startups. Entrepreneurs are eager to secure it, but not always sure how to navigate this world. Propel Venture Partners has pulled together a panel of investors who will layout the basics, demystify the process, and provide guidance on how to best approach VCs. Bring your co-founders and your questions.

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Becoming a startup is easy. In fact, anyone can start a startup. Sometimes I think everyone is starting one as there are so many. Resources are easily available, too. With the cloud, you don't even need to invest a lot of money in software or hardware to run your business.

In the fintech and payment industry, however, it is important to know that you’re starting on the right track. There are additional constraints because of the heavy regulation of the industry. You can always bootstrap your idea with hard work and sweat equity but at some point, you may need to show that you are here to stay. Getting funded and knowing how to get the right resources are at that point crucial things to consider before taking the startup to the next level.

I remember a remark from Sasha Orloff, the CEO of Lendup who shared his thoughts in one of our Fireside Chats. He had worked at Citi Ventures and went through the YCombinator accelerator program. The remark stuck with me as I didn't realize the difference before. There is a big difference between a small business and a startup. You can raise money for a startup but not for a small business. One may ask, "So how do we know if your startup is really a startup or just a small business?". And it is just one in many questions associated with raising money for a startup.

When you don't have the answers to important questions, it is nice to have a large network to get the answers from. So I went to people smarter than me and very knowledgeable on the topic. VCs. I met with Ryan Gilbert and David Mort at Propel Venture Partners and we decided that it would be great to organize a discussion around early stage fundraising in 2019 between entrepreneurs and VCs. As you know by now, one of BayPay’s missions is to bridge the gap between startups and large companies by creating events that would gather them in one room to share ideas, learn from each other, and build the industry together.

I want to thank the team here at Propel Venture Partners to help us in our mission. Instead of the traditional what were the trends in 2018 and what to expect in 2019, we wanted to do something different, something useful to entrepreneurs. We wanted to give them information that they can use and not general concepts. We wanted also to give them the opportunity to ask questions directly in a very interactive session like we do often.

On February 6, 2019, we will be having this special event which aims to help entrepreneurs understand the importance of preparing how to raise money and know the Do's and Don'ts of this important phase in the history of their company. To make it more interesting also, we will have Courtney Guertin, the CEO of EaseCentral to do the moderation. It is always good to have someone who went through the process already. We want also to give ample time for network for entrepreneurs to meet with VCs and other founders, to share experiences to learn from, and hopefully build strong business relationships.

We understand that we’re living in different time zones so we will be live streaming the event from San Francisco right through where you are. An edited video will also be available soon after the event. We are charging a small amount to cover our production and operation costs, and to allow us to continue producing valuable contents such as this in the future.

If, as an entrepreneur, you are cash tight and are unable to pay the fee, no worry, just ask us in the chat on our website at baypayforum.com, we are here to help. We don't want this little detail to be a barrier to learn. We will try to organize more events to help startups this year and if you want to help or get involved, let us know. We can always use additional resources.

Daniel Chatelain, Managing Director, BayPay Forum.

If you're a startup, entrepreneur, or an executive who wants to start a career in business, this event is made just for you.

We hope you can make it to this event and feel free to spread the word.

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