作者：Tim Merel

众所周知，手机网络颠覆了技术市场；根据McKinsey咨询公司所述，手机应用产业将在十年内创造万亿美元的经济价值。Gartner咨询公司预测，在2016年手机应用的收益将从2012年的150亿美元上涨到700亿美元。所以，“这真是一座金山”。

这是一个巨大的机遇，也是一个严峻的挑战。在当今的市场（特别是手机游戏，它们现在创造的收益占手机应用总收益的75%），甚至下载量为百万级的手机应用公司也可能很难筹到资金。天使投资、加速工厂、孵化器和众筹都提供了很好的起点，但并不能解决“困难的”第二阶段—–A轮融资。经常被谈论的“A轮考验”意味着，现在未能获得融资的早期公司是2008年的5倍以上，这甚至使热门市场也面临恶劣局势。

fundraising(from guelphsynchroswim)

那么，早期的手机公司应该如何克服“A轮考验”？

在Digi-Capital，我们每年从欧美和中日韩收到的资金申请项目大约是1000笔。其中有许多来自早期阶段的手机应用、手机游戏和手机技术公司，所以我们坚信，我们对这个市场有敏锐的眼光。根据经验，我们认为手机公司要迅速获得融资需要考虑到以下7点：

1、产品元设计：除了漂亮的图像和强大的功能/玩法，你还必须展示什么？投资商要考虑的因素有很多，包括UI/体验、进程/转换、用户分类和应用平衡性、社交互动、智能手机/平板专属功能、后续内容更新、促销活动、测试（用户测试、黑白盒测试）、分析学、快速低成本开发周期、敏捷开发、商业模式（包括免费vs付费）、赢利平衡性、应用发现、推广（当地和全球）、本地化、社区管理、病毒性/自然用户开发、跨平台、技术分化（难以快速复杂），等等。

2、产品组合/路线图：你是专注于一款产品（大部分钱用于一款产品的开发）的公司（比如Rovio）吗？你是开发多款产品（每款产品分摊到的资金较低）的公司（比如Supercell）吗？你的方法是否能产生比专注于单一产品的更大的成功？你的方法是否最适合你的目标投资商（游戏邦注：风投通常偏爱平台/多产品的公司、行业投资商可能更喜欢在自己熟悉的一种产品上投注）？你如何说服投资商相信可能的奖励值得他们冒险？

3、手机领域/类型发展动态：你的目标是正在成长或萎缩的领域/类型吗？你是否开拓了新市场或扑进资本比你更雄厚的竞争对手的血盆大口中？你是否专注于iOS、Android或二者兼有？或者KakaoTalk、Line和WeChat等社交应用？

4、团队成就和动态：你是否有过成功？是否失败过但幸存下来（这是可以加分的）？你的团队是否集合了成功所需的所有人才？除了设计师和程序员，你的钱还花在哪些人身上？你的团队中谁最了解如何自然开发用户？你的团队中谁负责预测领域/类型发展（可以是内部团队的人，也可以是外部顾问）？

5、赢利指标/分析学：什么指标可以让你的公司进入那最赚钱的1%俱乐部？Digi-Capital对应用评级的指标是DAU（日活跃用户）、MAU（月活跃用户）、终身价值、7天留存率、ARPDAU（日活跃用户平均收益）、每天上线次数、3天留存率、ARPDPU（每用户开发平均收益）、前30天付费转化率、前7天上线次数、前90天付费转化率、第二次上线转化率、前7天付费转化率、每周上线次数、平均在线时长（分钟）和自然付费用户比例。你在哪条指标上表现最好？

6、公司上升潜力和下行保护：什么是你的公司有潜力且投资者能帮助的方面（游戏邦注：比如，发展潜力、合作关系、团队建设、分析学、顾问、外包）？你的公司的投资者的下行保护（保本投资）是什么（比如标的资产、团队、原创版权、用户基础、品牌、市场份额、转换成本、商业关系、可预测收益）？

7、筹资和退出关系：现在有哪些人是专注于手机应用的风投和行业投资商？他们投资什么类型的手机应用？在这些类型中你有什么优势和劣势？你凭什么让他们投资（或不投资）你？你凭什么让他们来找你而不是你找他们（大大加分）？你如何表现得像行业专家而不是新手？你成功后谁可能收购你的公司？你如何与那些人建立关系（风投需要退出出口，首次公开募股是极少的，行业投资商想收购买你）？

要考虑的事情有很多，但愿本文能让你更清楚如何为你的早期手机公司增加获得A轮融资的机会。做得好的话，你的公司就可能成功；做不好的话，你的公司可能会消失。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Mobile Fundraisers

by Tim Merel

It’s no secret that mobile Internet is disrupting technology markets, and according to McKinsey it could drive $trillions of economic value within a decade. Gartner forecasts that mobile apps revenue will grow 5x from $15B in 2012 to >$70B in 2016. So “thar’s gold in them thar hills.”

This is a huge opportunity, but it’s also a huge challenge. Even mobile app companies with millions of downloads can struggle to raise money in the current market (particularly mobile games, which currently generate ~3/4 of all mobile app revenues). Angels, accelerators, incubators and crowdfunding are great to get you started, but aren’t the solution for the “difficult” second album – Series A funding. The much talked about “Series A Crunch” (unfortunately not a breakfast cereal) means that there are >5x the number of unfunded early stage companies across industries today compared to 2008, and those make for tough odds even in a hot market.

So how do early stage mobile companies escape the Series A Crunch?

At Digi-Capital our deal flow is ~1,000 deals annually across America, Asia (China, Japan, South Korea) and Europe. Much of that comes from early stage mobile apps, mobile games and mobile technology companies, so we like to think we have a feel for the market. Our experience and pattern matching have guided us to focus on the 7 habits of highly effective mobile fundraisers:

1. Product meta-design: what do you need to demonstrate beyond beautiful graphics and great functionality/gameplay? Investors can look at a range of factors, including user interface/experience, user progression/conversion, user segmentation and app balancing, social co-operation, smartphone/tablet specific functionality, post-release content updates, sales events tied to content promotion, testing (user, black/white box), analytics, rapid low-cost development cycles, agile development, business model (including free vs paid), monetization balancing, app discovery, distribution (both local and global), localization, community management, virality/organic user acquisition, cross-platform approach, tech differentiation (hard to copy quickly) etc.

2. Product portfolio approach/roadmap: are you a single product company, with a big investment in one product (i.e., more like Rovio)? Are you a platform developing multiple products, with low capital intensity per product launched (i.e., more like Supercell)? Is there something in your approach which can produce more than a single product success? Is your approach best for the types of investors you are targeting (VCs often prefer platforms/portfolios, industry investors can be more comfortable with one-way bets on products they deeply understand)? How can you persuade investors that the risk they might take on you is worth the potential reward?

3. Mobile sector/genre growth dynamics: Are you aiming at a sector/genre within the market that is growing or shrinking? Are you opening a new part of the market, or flying into the teeth of bigger, better funded competitors? Are you focused on iOS, Android or both? What about OTT (KakaoTalk, Line, WeChat)?

4. Team track record and dynamics: Have you succeeded before? Have you failed before and survived? (Spoiler alert: that’s a good thing) Do you have everyone you need on the team to succeed? Beyond designers and engineers, who is your money person? Who in your team knows how to acquire users organically? Who on your team knows the snakes and ladders for your sector/genre (could be in the core team, or a mentor)?

5. Mobile money metrics/analytics: What are the mobile money metrics that could take you into the top 1% of mobile app companies by revenue? Digi-Capital ranks apps using its proprietary data set in terms of DAU, MAU, lifetime value, 7 day retention rate, ARPDAU, sessions per day, 3 day retention rate, ARPDPU, % of paid conversion in first 30 days, sessions in first 7 days/following 7 days, % of paid conversion in first 90 days, second session conversion rate, % of paid conversion in first 7 Days, sessions per week, average session length (minutes), and % of organic to paid users. Where do you rank against the best?

6. Company upside potential and downside protection: What is your company’s upside potential where investors could help (e.g., realize growth potential, partnerships, team augmentation, analytics, mentoring, outsourcing)? Where is the downside protection for investors in your company (e.g., underlying asset value, team, IP, user base, brand, marketshare, switching costs, commercial relationships, predictable revenue)?

7. Fundraising and exit relationships: Who are the VCs and industry investors investing in mobile apps today? Which mobile app categories are they investing in? What advantages and challenges do you face with each of them? Why could they want to invest (or not want to invest) in you? How do you get them to come to you, rather than you going to them? (Spoiler alert: that’s a really good thing). If they won’t come to you, how do you get to them? How do you pitch like an expert, not a newbie? Who might buy your company after you’re a hit, and how are you building relationships with them (VCs want an exit, IPOs are rare, industry investors want to own you)?

A lot to think about, but hopefully this might give you a better idea of how to increase your chances of raising Series A funding for your early stage mobile company. Get it right and you could do well, get it wrong and you risk being disrupted out of existence.(source:gamasutra)