Once you’ve found your investors, you think all the hard work is done and the money will be in the bank within hours. It ought to be like that, but reality is, however, that the fundraising process is often surprisingly lengthy and costly. The primary reason for this is that there is no standardised process for completing a funding round. Most funding rounds are done manually - with each lawyer or fundraising platform doing it differently. On Capdesk you won’t get any help finding the right investors for your round. But we strive to streamline all the boring paperwork, which really shouldn’t be costly.

This Founder Series post features Pyynikin, award-winning brewery, funding innovator and long-time Capdesk user. Based in the city of Tampere, Pyynikin is on a mission to bring Finnish craft beer to the World. To date, they have attracted more than 2000 investors to become part of the company. I spoke to co-founder Rauno Pere about their journey. Read and be inspired for alternative ways to finance your business.

For most startups, fundraising is a complicated and unpleasant task. The entrepreneur has to meet with investors, strangers, who are asking questions, criticizing and saying no all the way until a match is made with the right investor.

To me, equity crowdfunding is one of the most fascinating types of alternative finance to emerge. For those not yet familiar with the term, equity crowdfunding is when a company raise funds from many (“a crowd of”) small investors using an investment platform.

Crowdfunding is a new source of entrepreneurial finance allowing a wider audience to invest in startups for equity in the venture. While investment crowdfunding as a vehicle for financing early stage ventures is gaining momentum on a global basis it remains in its infancy. Our research on crowdfunding has been augmented by information gleaned from interviews of twenty different crowd investors from three different platforms including; Seedmatch, FundedByMe and Seedrs.