20 ways to fund your startup other than VCs

Can you imagine a world where startup VCs don’t exist anymore? It’s easier to do if you aren’t in the Silicon Valley startup bubble, because for you that option may never have existed. At least, not in a capacity that supports early-stage ventures by the hundreds.

For most other startup ecosystems, from Denver to Dubai, it can be a challenge to find the right investors or to find investors at all. That’s why we’ve seen a great migration over the past two decades into Silicon Valley where entrepreneurs are hoping to fuel their dreams. Although that migration may now be turning into an exodus from San Francisco and we’ll be back where we started: Looking for startup funding options wherever one chooses to live.

This is why I’ve put this comprehensive list together. You see a lot of lists that include 9 or 10 best ways to fund your startup (great clickbait numbers, but limited scope), but there are so many more ways, including new models popping up more recently (spoiler: Indie.vc). My hope is that startup founders can use this knowledge to grow their businesses without putting all their eggs in one basket. I think what more and more entrepreneurs will find is that they have many options to fund their startups. Not just VCs. Not just giving up all their equity. Real ways that give them the option to sell for the right price, or not sell at all.