When joining Dealum, business angel groups face a choice — to use our customer success team’s expertise for onboarding support or do it on their own. Let’s take a closer look at self-onboarding, what it means, and what are the presumptions to do it successfully.
First and foremost — similarly to all goals that require learning something new, the key element is self-discipline. If you are the main person responsible for the onboarding process and feel that persistence is your strength, you are up to a good start. Onboarding to Dealum comes with a bit of a learning curve, as does any new system with many functionalities and opportunities. The learning is mostly about setting up the group’s deal room in a way that makes sense to the group members and it brings along great responsibility.
Doing it well means taking the time to learn what is possible, mapping your processes and thinking through what you want to achieve which in the end makes life much easier for everyone in the group. On the opposite side of the spectrum, if you choose to just wing your way through the setup process with minimum effort, you can end up with a deal room that doesn’t use all the potential there is, and your group members will not get the full benefit.
As you start with self-onboarding, our support team sends you all the information you need for smooth sailing. Here are the first steps we recommend taking.
- First, get familiar with the PDF guide you received on how to set up and customize your deal room.
- As there are many ways to configure your deal room, we recommend taking time to review the video tutorials that are sent alongside the PDF guide. This way, you can be sure that you are aware of the possibilities.
- Look around at the Dealum help center for more information on specific topics and features. Investing some time in reading through the articles will help your setup and you will know better where to look for assistance in the future.
- You will also receive an automated email sequence that will assist you with getting all baseline functionalities set up for the deal room.
- Sign up for our open admin training webinars. These take place 3-4 times a year and give you deeper insights into how to use Dealum and how to make the most out of it.
- After you have set up and customized your deal room, it is time to invite your investor group members to join. You can invite members in three different ways: (a) import your members list and send invitations directly from Dealum; (b) share the application link via email or website; or (c) enter all members' contacts manually. For more details, please read this help center article.
- Now you are ready to start collecting company applications, evaluating companies, collecting funding interests, creating events, and sharing updates and news with your members!
How to setup and customize your deal room
A deal room can effectively streamline the investment process. However, to fully leverage the benefits of a Dealum deal room, it's essential to customize it to your group's specific needs.
- Funnel steps (the deal flow management process)
A deal room can be used to manage the investment process from start to finish. Setting up a clear and well-defined deal flow management process can help streamline the process and ensure that all parties are on the same page.
- Company application form
The application form is an essential component of any investment flow allowing your members to learn more about the startup and provide relevant information to help assess its suitability for investment. Customize your group’s application form to ensure it captures all the relevant information your team or members need, such as the startup's business model, financials, and team. Remember — the application questions can be set up in multiple stages which makes the process less daunting for the startup and evaluation faster for your investors.
- Member access groups
The deal room often contains sensitive information, so it's essential to control access to data and ensure that only the right people have access to the specific information. You can create different member access groups, each with varying levels of access to data in the deal room.
- General settings
Customizing the general settings of your deal room can help you tailor the platform to your specific needs. For example, you can customize notifications to ensure that your members receive alerts for the most urgent news. You can also set up funding interest visibility/anonymity to control how much information is visible to other investors.
- Create email templates for general communications
Communicating effectively with startups and your group members is crucial to the success of any investment flow. Customized email templates can help you streamline communications and ensure that all parties receive timely and relevant information. You can create templates for various stages of the investment process, such as introductions, updates, and follow-ups.
Customizing your deal room can help you make the most of the value Dealum provides. Focusing on these key items allows you to tailor the platform to your specific needs and as a result, make informed investment decisions.
Self-onboarding vs. Dealum-assisted onboarding
While self-onboarding (the Basic package) is free, our assisted onboarding packages are an add-on service. You can choose between Standard, Premium, and Custom packages. The more advanced package you choose, the more support you can get, from basic setup support to customizing the backend of your deal room.
For comparison, the Standard package provides a training session on admin features and one kick-off call with your dedicated account manager. The Premium package includes weekly calls for two months as well as backend customizations, such as custom deal flow or member filters, or additional export fields. The biggest difference is that when self-onboarding, you need to learn and customize everything yourself, which means you can be as fast or as slow with the process as you prefer.
When choosing self-onboarding, the information you can import is limited — you can only upload .xlxs files with basic information about members to Dealum. It is suitable for groups who are looking to upload only their members' list and do not require the more advanced options available in the other packages. If you need to import data and files from other sites (e.g., Gust, Seraf) or upload company applications and portfolio information from Excel, you need to choose another onboarding package. If at any point you feel the onboarding you chose is not actually working for you, you can always upgrade your package.
As a general guideline, the Premium package offers a comprehensive data migration to the Dealum platform — company applications, application documents such as pitch decks and similar, portfolio import, more detailed members information, and up to 100 general deal room documents. The Standard package may be a better option for those with limited data to import or who simply feel they are not tech-savvy enough to set up the whole process themselves and need some assistance to get things up and running.
We also offer a Custom package that can be tailored to your group and offers all the support you need.
Self-onboarding to Dealum is a great option for groups that are confident in their ability to learn and customize a new system, but it requires a bit of self-discipline and attention to detail. Using the help resources and materials available, self-onboarded groups can fully utilize Dealum's features and capabilities. However, if you need more support and guidance, the assisted onboarding packages provide more comprehensive support, depending on your group's specific needs.
Ultimately, it's up to you to decide which onboarding option is best for your group and to take advantage of the tools and resources that Dealum provides to help make your investment process more efficient and effective.
