How to Get Funding For Your Startup That’s *Not* Venture Capital

Gefen Skolnick
All Raise
Published in
5 min readJul 8, 2020

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By: Gefen Skolnick and Miki Reynolds

The Grid110 Team: Elisabeth Tuttass (Community Coordinator), Miki Reynolds (Executive Director), and Carolyn Jones (Program Lead).

Miki Reynolds is currently the Executive Director of Grid110, an early-stage startup accelerator and community development non-profit in Los Angeles. Grid110 partners with the Office of Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti, in order to support early-stage entrepreneurs by providing access to critical resources such as mentors, office space and community through free accelerator programs. Grid110 companies have raised $20M+ in funding and have gone on to participate in accelerators like Y Combinator, Techstars, XRC Labs, and more.

Miki has over 15 years of experience working in the tech industry wearing all the hats you can think of — leading digital projects at MGM Studios and Fox Atomic, being a community manager, launching new locations at General Assembly, and finally co-founding Grid110 in 2015.

Everyone in the L.A. tech scene knows Miki Reynolds, and it’s clear why — she creates connection among people, fosters an entrepreneurship culture in L.A. outside of the normally inaccessible Westside, and her work impacts underrepresented individuals who are often overlooked by traditional entrepreneurial ecosystems.

If you’re an LA-based entrepreneur building a business between the idea and seed stages, Grid110 has an open call for their Fall 2020 programs. Visit grid110.org for upcoming info sessions and program details. Applications are due by July 31st!.

Miki recognizes that it’s tough to raise venture capital as an underrepresented founder (and that venture is not even the route most companies should pursue) so together we compiled a quick guide to fundraising alternatives to venture capital:

Crowdfunding

There are two methods to think about when it comes to crowdfunding: equity investing platforms like Republic and StartEngine and rewards-based crowdfunding like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. Here’s a helpful primer on the difference between the two. You will need to do extensive research and prep if you decide to go this route to raise capital, as you are expected to source a percentage of the investors/donors from our own community and/or marketing initiatives. But the upside is exposure (customers, investors) and raising…

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Gefen Skolnick
All Raise

Writing @AllRaise. Venture Partner @ContraryCapital, Founder of @CoupletCoffee, and @BunchofFounders. Linguistics & Computer Science @UCLA.