You've started your business. Perhaps you've built your product and maybe even have a few customers. It's time to hit the investor circuit and give your investor presentation.
You've made it through the screening process and in your mind the objective is clear: raise money. Agreed, but to raise money successfully (particularly from angels) it's critical to identify what your objective is for your presentation.
When I work with entrepreneurs I tell them their objective should be that an investor sitting in the audience should think to themselves "This is interesting enough to go to due diligence".
The nice thing about identifying that objective is that you now have a guide of sorts to what the content should be in your presentation. You know the investors are only going to remember a few things so if you want them to go to due diligence make sure they get that:
- There's a big problem
- You have a unique solution
- You are a team that can do it
This proves to be the cornerstone of a killer pitch because it allows you to throw out a lot of what doesn't belong (for example almost every technology stack or medical trial results slide ever created!).
If you stay objective oriented in your communication it's far more likely you will stay execution oriented in the financing process.
Hi Tim, I know this post is a few years old, so I hope you get this message.
I have a non-technical background, and I didn't go to a top notch school. I am currently the founder and CEO of a new company and looking to attract investors in the next few months. I have team members who did however go to Tier 1 schools, do I upsell them in the presentation? Would that diminish my value to the investors? How do I present my skill sets as unique?
Posted by: Mish Dev | October 24, 2014 at 12:44 PM