Raising capital for your business

Most founders who talk to me about raising capital have already been through the standard list. Their bank has proposed an SMB credit line that doesn't fit. An investor has put down a term sheet where the numbers hold but the structure doesn't. A broker has paraded three parties past with the same generic pitch. Somewhere in that process it's become clear this isn't the solution, just the most familiar product.

I work the other way. First, look at what your business actually carries and what it needs. Only then design the shape financing has to take to support it. Sometimes that's asset-backed. Sometimes equity on different terms. Sometimes stacked, loans plus grants plus subsidies. Sometimes the answer is: don't raise right now.