“Alejandro's The Art of Startup Fundraising is a must read for any entrepreneur. Clear and concise, he outlines in today’s startup community the steps to successfully fundraise. This is the golden era for entrepreneurs, any good idea with proof of concept can get access to money. Know your options!”

—Angelo J. Robles, Founder and CEO of Family Office Association

“One of the biggest crimes in the startup community is to watch good ideas and good teams to go unfunded because the fundraising process isn't friendly to first-time entrepreneurs. The Art of Startup Fundraising is Alejandro's contribution to the ecosystem that does a masterful job filling in knowledge gaps and giving entrepreneurs the best chances of raising the capital they need.”

—Frank Rotman, Founding Partner at QED Investors

“The Art of Startup Fundraising delivers a smooth ride on the bumpy road of raising capital and starting a business. Alejandro Cremades delivers up-to-date details and a clear vision—an important guide for any entrepreneur who seeks to build and scale a business today.”

—Jeanne M. Sullivan, Co-founder, StarVest Partners

“Fundraising can be an incredibly frustrating experience for startup founders because they are at a fundamental disadvantage: they know very little about the process, and investors know a lot. Luckily, Alejandro has taken the time to assemble a detailed blueprint of how it works behind the scenes that will help any founder level the playing field and navigate the process like a pro. If you are raising money for your startup, don't start without reading this book.”

—Pedro Torres-Picon, Founder and Managing Director at Quotidian Ventures

“The Art of Startup Fundraising translates art into science. By sharing proven formulas, strategies, and case studies that work, Alejandro Cremades provides a needed service to future entrepreneurs.”

—John Cohen, Managing Partner at City Light Capital

“This ought to be a reading requirement for all entrepreneurs when building a business and raising capital. This is a very well written and informative book, by a man who is a testament to dedication and creativity when confronted with the challenges of being an entrepreneur and raising capital.”

—Carter Caldwell, serial entrepreneur and Principal at Cross Atlantic Capital Partners

“Alejandro is on the bleeding edge of equity crowdfunding today. When he talks about fundraising, startups listen.”

—Andrew Ackerman, Managing Director at Dreamit Ventures

“Starting a company is full of ups and downs for an entrepreneur and foremost among them can be how to raise money for it. There is no magic bullet to make the process easy, but Cremades comes close in The Art of Startup Fundraising by at least making it intuitive and accessible.”

—Weston Gaddy, Principal at Bain Capital Ventures

“Raising capital can be tough. Alejandro provides a step-by-step guidebook to all entrepreneurs that rather spend their time thinking about changing the world instead of thinking of how to raise funds.”

—Tobias P. Schirmer, Managing Partner of JOIN Capital

“A superb book on fundraising. Alejandro's guidance should arm entrepreneurs with the necessary tools to close with success a meaningful round of financing.”

—Ellen Weber, Executive Director at Robin Hood Ventures

“Raising money is hard. But startup founders all over the world can make it exponentially easier by educating themselves on the process of raising equity capital before they dive into it. The practical, hands-on advice from Alejandro Cremades in this book provides a solid foundation in that self-education process. Delivered in an approachable format with a key lesson to take away every few pages, The Art of Startup Fundraising is essential reading for entrepreneurs everywhere.”

—Allen Taylor, Managing Director at Endeavor

“There are very few complete resources available to entrepreneurs today to help them navigate the world of fundraising. Alejandro Cremades does a great job of explaining and demystifying the fundraising process. The Art of Startup Fundraising will, without question, provide entrepreneurs with a great jump off point.”

—Sid Paquette, Managing Director, OMERS Ventures

My mom always said it was never a good time to have a baby, and she had 10. Whenever she told my dad, “Okay, Eddie, I'm pregnant,” he would run right out and buy another bed. When I started the Corcoran Group, I grew the company the way my mom did her family. We grew from 6 to 60 salespeople in our first five years, and from 60 to 1,000 salespeople over the next 20 years, because I knew the secret to growing a business fast is to never wait until you're ready.

Every great entrepreneur I know expands long before their business is ready. It's the only formula I know for aggressive growth. It forces you to think faster and move smarter because you're always overextended and you have to pay the rent. With growth, many times additional funding is required to support the operations.

I sit in a privileged seat as a shark/investor on the Emmy-winning reality show Shark Tank, and each season we hear hundreds of heartfelt pitches from passionate entrepreneurs who are looking for funding. We listen to pitches for everything from the ingenious to the ridiculous, and get to put our own hard-earned money behind the concepts we believe will be big winners. Once a deal is closed, the fun part begins when I get to work one-on-one with the entrepreneur with whom I'm investing. I shepherd them from dream to execution, past all the hurdles and hard times, and if we're all a little bit lucky, on to a genuine, breakout success!

However, before I put my time, my money, and my partner's money behind any entrepreneur, I want to know everything I can about them and make sure every business I choose is a real winner. Investing in startups is a very risky business. Most of them fail, some eventually prosper, but only a few make a 20-to-1 jackpot return.

First, I'm looking for an entrepreneur with street smarts. Most of the entrepreneurs I've met don't have street smarts, and too many of them have answers that are way too smooth for me to trust. I'm trying to single out the winners with good gut reactions who are also smart enough to trust those reactions. I'm looking for entrepreneurs who can size up people quickly and motivate them, and spot opportunities where others see only obstacles. This takes not the usual book smarts, but real live street smarts.

I want to invest in the risk takers. Every great entrepreneur I've succeeded with has an unusually high tolerance for uncertainty—in fact, they're turned on by risk. Too many would-be entrepreneurs have buttoned up business plans with lots of numbers, fancy projections, and reasonable deductions. Those aren't the ones for me.

I want to put my money on entrepreneurs who know how to get back up fast after they've been kicked in the gut. They get knocked down just like us, but unlike most of us they take very little time feeling sorry for themselves. I sometimes think to be a great entrepreneur you need to have a low enough IQ so once you're knocked down you're too stupid to lay low, and instead pop back up saying “Hit me again!” I don't think you can learn resilience; it's a built-in attitude.

To me, this is what can make or break a pitch. The best entrepreneurs have faced challenges and risen above them. That resilience is what I'm looking for when I hear new ideas on the show (and in life).

I need to invest in founders who know how to communicate. I've learned that a new business goes nowhere if it doesn't have a good salesman at the helm. Somebody's got to sell the new product or service and that's the job of the founder. At the end of every interview I find myself asking, “Would I buy from this guy? Is his sales pitch irresistible?” Based on the answer to that one question, I turn down 95 percent of the businesses that are presented to me.

I've learned that the number-one rule in sales is that everybody wants what everybody wants and nobody wants what nobody wants. When you tell someone they can't have something, they always want it more, but let that same person know there's plenty to go around and they'll always go home to think about it. If you don't have people clamoring for your venture, you've got to dream up a way to create the illusion that there is demand. This is why salesmanship is key in fundraising.

Good salesmanship is never anything more than emphasizing the positives and playing down the negatives. And if you can find a unique gimmick, you'll have a huge leg up when raising capital, and also over your competition while you are executing on your vision.

I first learned the power of using a good gimmick as a young waitress in a New Jersey diner, trying to compete with Gloria, a blond bombshell with attention-grabbing breasts. Following my mom's advice, I tied red ribbons to my blonde pigtails to look like the innocent virgin I was. My tips immediately doubled. When I started my real estate brokerage company, the Corcoran Group, I used lots of gimmicks to build my brand.

I'm always looking for someone who's a bit arrogant, as I've learned that aggressive entrepreneurs bring home the bacon. They make lousy employees, have issues with authority, and don't want to be told what to do. I like to put my money in the hands of an entrepreneur who thinks he or she knows more than me. They'll need that kind of confidence to jump over the huge obstacles that stand between them and the finish line.

What I like best about angel investing is that I get to use everything I've already learned on Shark Tank. How do you impress an angel? How do you win their confidence and get their investment? There are tons of new business ideas out there—good, bad, and crazy—and I've seen my fair share of them all. The difference between a good idea and one that makes money is simple: It's gotta make sense. The idea can either be a totally new invention lots of people will use or a much better way of doing something that's been done a hundred times before.

Another key ingredient that I look for when investing in a new company is work ethic. Before I invest in any business, I'm looking for a partner. A fancy website may get me in the door, but if you can't woo an angel, you won't woo your customers and build a huge success.

This book by Alejandro Cremades will help entrepreneurs in obtaining a clear understanding of how fundraising works and what it takes to be successful in the process in order to impress people who invest in the startup ecosystem, like myself.

Alejandro's experience as the founder of Onevest makes this book unique, as the fundraising game has been changing substantially over the past years with the implementation of new laws that were introduced with the JOBS Act. With the capital moving into the online world very quickly, this book should be a must-read for any entrepreneur who is beginning to raise capital to build their venture.

—Barbara Corcoran
Investor on ABC‘s Shark Tank
Founder of the Corcoran Group

This book would have not been possible without the patience of my wife, Tanya Prive. At the time of writing this book she was pregnant with our first daughter. Tanya is the love of my life and without her by my side I highly doubt I would have been able to make it this far. I still remember the day I called her and said I wanted to give up my legal career to change the world. She did not hesitate for even a second about jumping on board with me on this crazy journey. We have experienced many ups and downs together. She is my better half and cannot wait for what the future holds for us.

Thank you as well to my parents, Bernardo Cremades and Leticia Roman. They have been my unconditional supporters and are always there for me when I need them the most. My father has been a great inspiration to me, as he also started his own business away from home when he was young. My mother has been concerned for me during the hard times and has always picked up the phone at 1 A.M. when I needed to talk to someone.

My brother, Bernardo Cremades Jr., has been a great sounding board as well as being my best friend. He is the godfather of my daughter. In fact he was the first investor of Onevest, before we even had PowerPoint slides. When we were young he took care of me and always looked after me, making sure that I would make the right decisions at school and outside of school. When I told him that I wanted to give up my law career and start an entrepreneurial journey, he was incredibly supportive. My sister-in-law, Beatriz Larrea, has also been amazing and understanding at all times.

Furthermore, I would like to thank my father-in-law and mother-in-law, Robert Shereck and Gisele Prive, not only for their generous support but also because they have been a very valuable asset with the work that they have kindly given our team in order to transform inside and outside the way we are, the way we think, and the way we execute via the services of their company, Legacy Transformational Consulting.

I could not forget my two brothers-in-law, Evan and Zack Prive. Evan has shown me how to get out of my comfort zone by target shooting in the deserts of Nevada. Zack interned with us over the course of 2014 and was very helpful.

Carmen Posadas has given me great advice through the process of putting together this book. Her wealth of knowledge and experience as a successful author has provided a wonderful guidance in this journey. I still remember the dinner at a restaurant in Madrid in which Carmen encouraged me to move forward with writing this book, and for that I am very thankful.

Moreover, I would like to thank all the people who have been involved with Onevest since its inception, including employees, advisors, and investors. They have been always there to provide great feedback and I am very proud of everything that we have been able to build together as a team since we started this journey back in 2011.

I would like to especially thank the Onevest team and our former colleagues: Carol Lee, Carles Capell, Shahab Kaviani, Nathaniel Cotanch, May Sun, Drew Butler, Erica Duignan, Sonny Tulyaganov, Cristian Gonzalez, Jacobo Tarragon, Ben Center, Dasha Sukovatitsyn, Jeffrey Fidelman, Brooks Swinnerton, Kasia Whiteis, Israel Villanueva, Tiffany Tam, Mike Hughes, Cena Crane, Lisa Lovallo, Jonathan Block, Greg Kuwaye, Michael Whitehouse, Tim Houghten, Kammy Wood, and Culin Tate.

Thank you Barry Shereck, for being a rockstar CFO and for spending countless hours and weekends figuring out “where the bacon is” from a business perspective. You have been truly a gift and a great addition to the board and the team. I will forever treasure those long weekends that we spent at your house figuring things out.

Last but not least, I would like to acknowledge Onevest's board members: Ted Vucurevich, Javier Santiso, and Benjamin Coppel; and our advisors: Sangeet Choudhary, Anyndya Ghoose, and Barbara Corcoran. They have played a critical role in making Onevest what it is today.

Thank you all. I am very privileged and lucky to have you in my life.

With the encouragement of my PARENTS, Bernardo Cremades and Leticia Roman, I moved to the United States from Spain with my brother Bernardo on August 13, 2008, after obtaining my law degree in Spain.

My brother is without a doubt my very best friend. On that day, after picking up our luggage and getting into a taxi, we were both completely wowed as we gazed through the windows on our way to Manhattan from the airport, while the driver, Luigi, told us his life story with a thick Italian accent.

Initially, the plan was for me to earn my masters in International Business and Trade Law at Fordham Law School and then practice law as an attorney. I had a great time at Fordham, even though some of my classmates were old enough to be my parents. They all called me Junior.

Three months before my graduation from Fordham, I received a great offer from the respected law firm King & Spalding. The partner who hired me was Edward Kehoe. Our first meeting was over breakfast at the Metropolitan Club. Ed is now a good friend, and he attended my wedding.

I still remember my first day at the firm. It was like a Hollywood movie. At only 23 years old, I had my own secretary and my name on the entrance to my own office. It was completely surreal.

After three years at King & Spalding representing major corporations in high-profile, billion-dollar investment arbitration cases, I discovered my true calling. It all started when I attended my first New York Tech Meetup with my good friend Luis Jose Scull. At the time, Luis was working for a hedge fund and sourcing tech startups as investors.

One thing really surprised me as I immersed myself in the New York tech scene, and that was how difficult it was for entrepreneurs to access capital. When I researched cases like Pandora (rejected over 300 times before securing their first significant round of financing), I knew there was a big gap in the market. There was something missing and I wanted to find out what it was and fill that gap.

At the time of this discovery phase, I was dating the woman who is now my wife, Tanya Prive. Choosing her as my life partner is the best decision I have ever made. We talked about what I wanted to do to help others looking for capital, and I convinced her to invest all our savings in Onevest and launch a platform that would connect entrepreneurs with investors, and from that point on, the rest was history.

Everything started at Tanya's apartment on 27th Street and 6th Avenue in New York City. We had a little studio where we would invite at least five interns a day to join us in building the product, and they worked with a team of engineers that we had assembled in Belarus (Eastern Europe). After four months of interns claiming they were our cousins, the building management figured out that something was up and invited us to leave.

We then rented an office space, raised a seed round, and started to hire top talent. After one year of development, we were able to launch the platform to the public on November 23, 2011. A few months later, the platform was mentioned by TIME as one of the best crowdfunding platforms in the world. It was listed as one of the top-10 digital tools for entrepreneurs by Forbes, and we were named one of the hottest startups to watch by Business Insider. I also had the honor of being ranked number one on Vanity Fair's list of “30 under 30” for 2014, and I was included on the “Top 30 under 30” list in Entrepreneur Magazine (Spanish version).

The press attention was crazy to me, but what kept me moving was the opportunity to make a real difference. Cutting the noise is one of the hardest things that entrepreneurs have to master in order to focus on what really counts, which is the execution of business strategy.

In the early days it was not easy. We had to fight to provide financing. The JOBS Act (which we will discuss later on in this book) was still not in the picture, and the word crowdfunding had not yet been coined. At one point in the process we visited the White House and testified before the U.S. House of Representatives regarding the importance of financing small businesses in the United States.

Everything started to happen at the same time. To our surprise, we were suddenly riding an amazing wave, forming with the passing of the JOBS Act in April of 2012. For the first time in history startups would be allowed to advertise the fact that they were raising money; before the JOBS Act this kind of promotion was completely forbidden. (Prior to that legislation, it was labeled as general solicitation.) Previously, the search for funds was more a word-of-mouth kind of activity. If you did not know anyone in Silicon Valley, it was a real struggle to find capital.

At the end of 2013, a company called CoFoundersLab.com came to raise financing on Onevest, and lit up a light bulb in my mind. I realized that a fundraising platform like the one that Onevest was operating at that moment was really playing a small game. The bigger game was to build an ecosystem around Onevest, where we would empower entrepreneurs and investors, from formation to financing.

As a result of that realization, the conversations began with Shahab Kaviani, the cofounder of CoFoundersLab.com, and we ended up announcing an M&A transaction to bring CoFoundersLab under Onevest in July 2014.

Currently, CoFoundersLab is the largest matchmaking service for entrepreneurs. It's a way for entrepreneurs to meet their cofounders and advisors. We are partners with some of the major startup hubs in America, and we are onboarding thousands of entrepreneur registrations on a monthly basis.

Other products under the umbrella of Onevest include, most recently, 1000 Angels, which is the first digital, invitation-only network for a select group of angel investors. It is a curated community of ultra high-net-worth individuals that come together to invest in startup companies.

After seeing hundreds of businesses formed and financed through the ecosystem of Onevest, I felt it was time to share what I'd learned and help entrepreneurs on their journeys in fundraising—especially after our most recent round of financing, in which we'd increased our total amount raised to over $5 million. We self-crowdfunded our Series A in a matter of weeks and established a record. I literally did not move from my desk. The result was a huge surprise, as these types of rounds would have normally meant spending at least eight months out of the office, attending conferences and meetings to gather investor interest.

Unfortunately the company announcements of successfully closed rounds of financing that you see and hear about are not the reality. They come from only a few companies out of the many, many ventures that launch each year. Raising capital is an art. Every single ingredient needs to be perfectly balanced in the process in order to secure capital successfully. This book aims to be the guide that will help you get there in a process that, many times, can be a rollercoaster ride, full of emotions.

Fasten your seat belt and embrace the process. Be optimistic and have fun with it. Remember, you will never fail—you will either succeed or learn.