Below we'll guide you through our step by step process.
The steps, in brief:
- Check company eligibility
- Create a company profile on Birchal
- Run an EOI campaign
- Prepare an offer document
- Prepare all other key documents
- Launch your offer privately
- Launch your offer publicly
- Close offer
Step 1: Check Company Eligibility
Time estimate: 2 minutes
You must first check to learn if your company is eligible to access Equity Crowdfunding in Australia. These are pre-requisites ASIC requires a company to meet prior to launching a raise on a licensed platform (ie Birchal). Click the link below or register on birchal.com OR start setting up a company and visit the "Check Eligibility" from your dashboard. Check out our quick Guide to Company Eligibility
And take the Eligibility Test below by clicking the Check Eligibility button below.
Leave your contact details if you'd like to discuss any of the questions (for clarification).
Step 2: Setup a Company Overview & Pitch
Time estimate: 1-2 Weeks
You can start creating your company pitch on Birchal straight away - there are 3 parts to the company setup and you can access each of these in your 'My Company' dashboard.
- Company Overview
- Pitch Deck & Pitch Video (not required)
- Team Setup
First Register on birchal.com and click the "Create Company" button on the header.
Image & Photo Specifications
http://help.birchal.com/raising-capital-with-birchal/image-specifications
Note: You can preview your company profile and pitch at all stage in the creation.
Recommendation: (Pitch Video)
You have the opportunity to add a pitch video to you Profile and we strongly encourage all companies to prepare a very short pitch video to introduce themselves and their company.
How can you best start preparing your video? Create an elevator pitch
Step 3: Run an Expression of Interest (EOI) Campaign
Before companies raise on birchal.com, we recommend that the founders runs a short Expressions of Interest campaign. This will help the company learn what interest there is in investment and also help inform the founders on setting the investment offer.
Our Pre-launch EOI checklist covers the following:
- Messaging and PR plan
- Creative, Visuals, Video and content
- User acquisition / Audiences
- Social profiles configured and paid advertising
- Investor rewards
- Roles and Responsibilities
Your EOI Birchal header image will look like this to potential investors:
View the EOI Checklists by setting up a Company Profile here
Step 4: Prepare an Offer Document
It is an ASIC requirement to have a compliant investment 'Offer Document' available to raise through Equity Crowdfunding. We recommend that a company start to prepare the Offer Document early - and engage someone to help prepare this document if you think it may delay your raise. (see Services Guide below).
This document can be made available early as a 'Draft Offer Document' for people making Expressions of Interests. Talk to the Birchal team about this.
Example:
ASIC Offer Document Template
Considerations:
- financial statements (if the company has been trading over 1 year)
- references to market research
- lawyer/advisor review & sign-off
- investor incentives (not necessary but encouraged)
Step 5: Prepare the other key documents
(i) Subscription Agreement
A share subscription agreement sets out the mechanics of the investment and will specify:
- how many shares the startup is issuing,
- the subscription price for those shares, and
- when the startup will issue the shares.
- any investor rewards (non-financial incentives) ie. % discounts
(ii) Company Constitution (and/or Shareholders Agreement)
We recommend that you consult your lawyer to help prepare these important company documents.
Step 6: Private Launch (Recommended)
Time: Typically 3-7 days
Although the investment offer must be made public on Birchal on a given day, we encourage our companies to provide their EOI's and early investors a time period to get their investment in early and have some traction before promoting the investment offer publicly.
We think this is great for 2 reasons:
- makes early investors feel special and be involved in the public launch
- allows the company to launch publicly with some early traction (hopefully)
Step 7: Public Launch
We execute the public launch plan for the investment offer.
And assuming we got early traction with the private launch, we will have seeded a great media story for the launch. If we have already reached the minimum target - we should tell the world and particularly the business press and news publications.
---------- USEFUL INFORMATION -------------
Offer Period
Time 3wks - 2mthsYou can open your investment offer for a maximum 3 months. However, we recommend a maximum 3-8 week campaign for a few reasons:
- focus the founder efforts into a shorter time frame
- investors tend to wait till the end to commit
- keep investors super engaged throughout the short period
- reduce the risk of requiring a replacement document / supplement due to company changes (good or bad)
Investor Reward Example (unique to birchal.com)
These are typically covered in the Offer Document & Subscription Agreement above - and below we show how your investors will view the rewards whilst investing.
Pricing & Other Services Guide
We have a very transparent fee structure that makes Equity Crowdfunding very accessible for any stage of company. See link below for our latest pricing guide and the option services provided.
Hosting Agreement
The document (the CSF Hosting Agreement†) sets out the terms and conditions on which companies engage Birchal (Birchal Financial Services/BFS) to host a CSF offer and publish the relevant CSF offer document on the Birchal platform.
This CSF Hosting Agreement applies to any:
- expression of interest ( EOI) campaign for an intended CSF Offer; and/or
- CSF offer you make, including the relevant CSF
To request our Hosting Agreement - please get in contact
Birchal Partners
We've a list of legal firms, lawyers and advisors lists below. These partners have all agreed to be up-to-date with the Equity Crowdfunding legislation and provide clients with a fixed fee proposal to complete these documents. Many provide template documents if you have not got them in place already.
Investor Outreach / Roadshow
It's strongly recommended that the company founders/directors are available throughout the EOI process to engage with investors and potential investors. We also encourage founders/directors to consider running info sessions (if applicable).
- investor info night(s)
- coffee catchups and one-on-one meetings
Your objectives from the EOI campaign & Investor Outreach is to:
- get early feedback on your investment offer
- secure larger investors
- know who your first investors will be
- get to know their frequently asked questions
- lock away your minimum from these individuals or funds
Our 9-12 Week Plan
We've provided below a summary and the key elements for each step in our 9-12 week process so you can get started right away.
3-Week Planning and Preparation
- Setup Company Profile and Pitch
- Prepare Pitch Video
- Prepare Marketing, Comms and PR strategy & budget
- Create a launch day plan
- Prepare the first draft of Offer Document
3- Week Expression of Interest Campaign
- Roll out Marketing, Comms and PR plan for EOI
- Experiment with digital channels
- Run webinar(s), pitch events and info sessions
- Engage with interested parties
- Add regular Activity Updates (ie traction updates and news) to your profile
- Finalise your Offer Document (and other legal documents)
- Plan the private launch for your Investment Offer
3-Week Investment Offer Campaign (with a private launch)
- Roll out the Comms plan for the private launch
- Roll out Marketing, Comms and PR plan for the public launch
- Promote through the effective channels from EOI
- Run webinar(s), pitch events and info sessions
- Engage with interested parties
- Plan for the final 72hrs.
Other Useful Links
Advertising Guide
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vkzPl1RkcxgFtZg3WDe5kxTNL0Pl4RoW585FsYbbBYE
ASIC Guide / Regulations (references for Legal & Accounting)
https://asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/find-a-document/regulatory-guides/rg-261-crowd-sourced-funding-guide-for-companies/
Financial Reporting Requirements
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oK_rXrDdPEL_uqT4XIc3x5RobxDLsI2AeEJQ9afnTJA/edit