Are you REALLY ready to pitch?
Are you really ready to pitch to investors? 🤔 👇
Working with hundreds of early stage founders, we have heard many times that founders “don’t know what we don’t know.” Every startup and founder is different so it’s hard to assess when you are truly investor ready. By that we mean that you have strong business foundations, compelling communication materials, clarity of potential deal terms and sufficient market evidence to convince investors to consider investing in your startup.
Most investors will look at 4 areas to assess if you are investor ready:
✅ Market potential: Do you have a good analysis of the market, including primary research with potential customers? Is this market big enough to offer an interesting return on my investment? Does the startup have a credible GTM roadmap/resources?
✅ Team: This is about communicating your team’s unique experience, expertise and commitment to the vision for your company. Investors will be asking themselves if you have the diversity of skills and team chemistry to succeed. What makes your team special? Who are you as a founder and why will you lead this business to success better than anyone else?
✅ Business model, strategy & financials: This area looks at your vision and strategy, where investors will want to see whether your company’s goals are sufficiently ambitious. It is also about assessing your financial forecasts and the assumptions that underpin these, plus evaluating your valuation/deal terms
✅ Execution potential: Can this team execute on your ambition? Investors will dig into how the business really works and your roadmap for growth, including the resources you will need
Tips & tricks:
Get lots of feedback: Some founders don’t share their ideas and plans, for fear of someone copying it. Don’t do this. Think of the passion and effort you put into your idea; most people you talk to: (a) don’t have the same passion and have plenty of other things to put effort into. But they do have insights, different perspectives and useful contacts to help you identify how you can strengthen your business
Address potential concerns upfront: The further out your financial forecasts go, the more uncertainties they contain. Don’t be scared to admit this to investors. Rather, address potential concerns and show that you have thought about internal and external issues that will impact how your roadmap develops
Show you have thought about options: You need to have mechanisms in your product and go-to market to both learn and iterate your plans as you start to gain traction and see how customers use and value your products
Take our FREE assessment to discover if your company is investor ready – and if not where are the key areas you need to do more work on. It will take a few minutes to find out if you're ready and you will get a detailed feedback report!
Click on the link to take the FREE assessment and find out if you are really ready for investors👇
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