Anyone who has started a business or is thinking of setting up one knows that at each stage of the business, new obstacles and learnings arise along the way. When it comes to raising funding and establishing successful relationships with investors, in particular with business angels, effectively raising finance is not easy.
In fact, there is very little training in the area of angel investing targeted at entrepreneurs. This gap creates an imbalance between angel investors and founders, sometimes even an unequal setting for negotiations and mutual understanding.
The relationship between angels and founders can become ineffective, and frustrating. Even power imbalances may arise, simply because there is a gap between founders and investors, and the language and terminology are used inconsistently between parties.
Our European project, Business Angels Knowledge for Entrepreneurs (BAKE), is a response to narrow down this gap between investors and founders with training and education about angel investing, targeted at entrepreneurs.
What can the BAKE project teach entrepreneurs?
The ideal result of BAKE will be to teach entrepreneurs and students real-life skills on how to effectively apply for funding and increase mutual understanding between different startup ecosystem stakeholders. In a nutshell, BAKE allows learning:
- How to effectively raise finance and establish successful relationships with business angels.
- Learn to build fair and balanced investor-founder relationships.
- Learn investor-founder vocabulary through training and case studies.
- Grow in your own sector and learn the ABC of fundraising.
Who is BAKE for?
- For entrepreneurs and people employed in startups and growth companies.
- Investors who want to improve their relationship with current or future founders.
About BAKE and EU 2020 Strategy
The BAKE project is an answer to the need to improve people’s entrepreneurial and innovative skills. These are highlighted in three of the flagship initiatives aligned with the EU 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth: “Innovation Union”, “Youth on the Move” and “An Agenda for new skills and jobs”.
BAKE comes from Business Angel Knowledge for Entrepreneurs, which is a European Union-funded project intended to help entrepreneurs and angel investors speak the same language – to build a better understanding between investors and founders, finances, and raising funding.
BAKE focuses on bridging the economic, relational, and skill gaps between different income groups and groups at risk of exclusion. The program offers high-quality funding training for entrepreneurs, entirely free of charge.
Stay tuned for the next steps – we’ll keep you posted about the program’s next steps.