EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND, Oct. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND – The Startup Race, a growth hacking competition reinventing how investors find great startups to invest in, announced today that it will host three events in October 2022 with Vestd’s startup equity management expert Guy Kaufman of Vestd, a UK partner of The Startup Race Ltd. The events will each be held online via Zoom for free, so UK startup founders can avoid making disastrous mistakes.
“What we typically find is many entrepreneurs have great ideas, but don’t have any background in fundraising for their startup. Yes, they are great Entrepreneurs, they know their own subject matter, but need support when it comes to equity, and as a result they make mistakes,” said Guy Kaufman, Team Lead of ‘Launch’ at Vestd. “My hope is to help entrepreneurs make better decisions, and be prepared for advocating for themselves in equity agreement conversations and better outcomes down the line.”
The schedule is as follows:
Startup Equity: What you need to know in the UK!
October 13th, 2022 at 4pm
Sign Up: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/421372044127
Teaser interview - https://youtu.be/x_fcvu6K1SA
How to Get Your Startup Equity Agreements Right First Time!
October 20th, 2022 at 4pm
Sign Up: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/421403799107
Teaser interview - https://youtu.be/QcwY__J8pzE
Fundraising and Investment Secrets for UK Entrepreneurs
October 27th, 2022 at 4pm
Sign Up: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/421410519207
Teaser interview - https://youtu.be/8GrvQfeYpU4
Revealing common mistakes that negatively impact many UK Startup Founding Teams, prevent them from hiring talented employees and making raising investment from Angels and VC’s impossible, Mr. Kaufman will answer attendee questions and discussions. Both The Startup Race and Mr. Kaufman hope the series empowers Startup Founders to lay the right foundations from day-1 and thus make themselves attractive to Angel and VC Investors across the United Kingdom.
“UK Startup Founders can’t all afford lawyers to help them get funding and equity decisions perfect early on in their entrepreneurial journey, and as a result, they often make the disastrous mistake of copying American equity arrangements such as allocating equity up front or vesting over 4 years,” said James Shoemark, co-founder of The Startup Race. “This program will help inform many entrepreneurs who are both watching their bottomline, and growing in their trajectory as a founder.”
During the series of virtual events, Mr Kaufman will also reveal a 100% discount code so that UK Startup Founders can use the Vestd platform for free; which has full Companies House integration so they can remove the friction from company admin and get on the fast track to growth. Other topics discussed will include:
- Incorporate their business on Companies House,
- Create and manage their Cap table,
- Use Shareholder dashboards to visualise future value,
- Issue shares and share certificates,
- Make Stock transfers,
- Model share scenarios,
- Access to equity templates,
- Adopt Vestd standard articles of association,
- Appoint and remove directors,
- Manage PSCs,
- Submit confirmation statements.
The series of entrepreneur-focused events is sponsored by The Startup Race, which is currently running a Growth Hacking Competition which has a £10,000 cash prize. The Startup Race methodology capitalizes on the iconoclastic startup method, first developed by GodFather of the Lean Startup Movement - Steve Blank. In a 2013 blog post called It’s Time to Play Moneyball: The Investment Readiness Level, Blank recommended Investors ask teams to ”Prove their competence and validate their ideas by showing investors evidence that there’s a repeatable and scalable business model” instead of relying on the antiquated test as to whether they can produce great looking product demos, compelling PowerPoint slides, as a ‘world-class’ troupe of actors.
The £10,000 Startup Race also gives their ‘Racers’, access to the world’s best Lean Startup resources such as Vestd, in order to validate their thinking, develop their business model and personal profile in order to attract co-founders. Other free resources on Leanstack include the Foundations and Business Model Design Playbooks and Lean Canvas & Traction Roadmap tools. The Startup Race team helps entrepreneurs incorporate their UK company and open a UK business bank account to enable them to start generating sales as soon as the competition starts. Through The Startup Race process, a number of high net-worth individuals observe how the teams perform over the course of The Race and be introduced to companies that they may consider supporting at the end of the program.
“We want to help more entrepreneurs prove their success quickly and robustly over a specific period of time in order to prove to investors a need, should they indeed need that funding,” said Michael Clouser, co-founder of The Startup Race. “The Startup Race believes that this highly competitive ‘pedal-to-the-metal’ approach garners great value for both Entrepreneurs and Business Angel Investors, especially at a time when the World is changing economically.”
The first £10,000 Startup Race will continue to 24th December 2022, where a winner will be announced and awarded the £10,000 Cash Prize in January 2023. After this Startup Race has completed, they will be partnering with Scottish Investors to run a £300,000 Startup Race and then a £1,000,000 International Startup Race.
For more information on The Startup Race, please visit: www.TheStartupRace.com.
ABOUT THE STARTUP RACE
The Startup Race, was established in 2014 after a young entrepreneur asking Mr. James Shoemark, how the startup process could be gamified. He soon teamed up with Michael Clouser, a former Silicon Valley VC and other Edinburgh based Entrepreneurs and Investors to partner with him on this new venture in order to support Fast Growth startups in the UK and around the world. The first £10,000 Startup Race will continue though the fall of 2022, where a winner will be announced and awarded the £10,000 Cash Prize. More information about The Startup Race can be found: www.TheStartupRace.com
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