Keeping Your Slice while growing the Pie: Stage-Gate and Non-Dilutive Funding Lessons

This session will focus on Stage-Gate and Non-Dilutive financing in the seed and start-up phase and why it can be critical for startup survival. Many founders flounder early by taking on highly dilutive venture money, losing the agility needed to adapt. Drawing on HeiQ’s journey—20 years and $150M raised since inception, with two founders still holding 20% of the shares—we will discuss how keeping control allows entrepreneurs to correct course as the market inevitably forces thousands of adjustments.