Kaylan Pepin

Discussing bank loans backed by personal guarantees is a conversation I’ve had many times with founders and financial partners since personal guarantees are a very common form of security used in non-dilutive debt financing for early-stage companies by banks in Canada.

In this post, I’ll go over some of the basic terms in a debt term sheet that you likely won’t see on an equity term sheet.

Knowing that definitions change and words evolve helps to understand some of the confusion that exists today around the definition of “Venture Debt”.

When you look at a company from a traditional financing lens you end up with the following thought process: Revenues are growing: Check. Profitable: Check! Collateral: Consumer inventory… Oh.

Why does timing matter? The answer is actually quite simple. There is a type of risk that should be financed with Venture Capital funds and less risky spending that can be financed with debt.

This is a list of the first five books that I recommend to anyone interested in learning about Financing Technology Startups.

There is a right time and place for each method of financing. They can even be leveraged together or in various combinations throughout the lifecycle of a venture.