Funding for Startups: Alternatives to Venture Capital

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“Venture capital should come with a warning label. In our experience, VC kills more startups than slow customer adoption, technical debt, and co-founder infighting — combined.” - Eric Paley, Managing Partner at Founder Collective

In 2018, nearly 8,400 venture-backed companies raised more than $130 billion in financing, ($47B more than 2017). With the pool of venture money increasing, venture capital seems to have become the default path for startups.

But many investors and founders advise you should build your business without venture capital if you can. They warn that the VC path intensifies both success and failures, accelerating you into an outcome of acquisition/IPO (in rare cases) or bust (more typical).

So what other options are there for entrepreneurs seeking capital? In recent years we’ve seen a rise in crowdfunding, financing firms that provide capital based on cash-flow, accelerator programs, and grant initiatives - showing that there are many options outside of venture capital.

We’re highlighting founders that have found alternatives to venture capital (or avoided it entirely) to discuss

• Alternatives they found to venture capital
• Their experience fundraising
• Advice for entrepreneurs considering venture capital, and for those avoiding it
• How they developed their product and grew their company

About the panelists

• Frank Denbow, Startup Advocate at Microsoft, Founder of Inflection - Frank Denbow is currently a Startup Advocate at Microsoft, helping support the startup community in NYC. He is also the founder of INK’A, a platform for producing top quality custom apparel for companies and influencers. Frank has bootstrapped INK’A into millions in revenue and enjoys supporting other entrepreneurs in the startup ecosystem. Frank has held leadership positions in community organizations such as Startup Weekend, Startup Digest, & Coalition for Queens / Pursuit, helping connect entrepreneurs with the resources they need. Out of this desire, he created INFLECTION, a community for profitable companies.

-Beth Goldberg, District Director of the New York District Office for the Small Business Association- Goldberg joined SBA after more than 30 years as an accomplished entrepreneur and an executive leader with invaluable experience in both the private and government sectors. In her role as District Director, Ms. Goldberg oversees the delivery and efficiency of SBA’s programs and services to 1.6 million small businesses employing 5 million people with an annual payroll of $330 billion—this is the largest of all SBA’s 68 geographically-distributed District Offices across the country. In FY 2017, for the first time ever, Ms. Goldberg guided the New York District past $1 billion in SBA lending.

• Kenny Rosenblatt is the Co-founder and President of Arkadium, a technology company which provides innovative interactive content to more than 500 of the world’s leading publishers, including CNN, Washington Post, MSN, and Gannett. Since 2001, Arkadium has developed a range of media technologies from innovative, in-article editorial products to hundreds of online games—including Microsoft Solitaire Collection, one of the most played games of all time. In 2019 Arkadium was named “Best Place to Work” by Inc. magazine and awarded the “Small Giant Award” by Forbes magazine in May 2019.

• John Fiorentino is the creator of Gravity Blanket and Moon Pod. He has raised over 6 million dollars on Kickstarter for his ventures and continues to create and launch new products and brands.