Fundraising for startups can be a daunting prospect and often the success or failure of your pitch comes down to your own personal performance and credibility as an entrepreneur.
If you’ve identified investors there are four key areas you need to know inside out in order to impress and really showcase your talent and ability; in short they are absolutely key to entrepreneurial performance. Let’s examine them.
Impetus
You have to be able to demonstrate that your venture has impetus. This could be in the form of pipelined sales, user numbers, existing business partners etc. Investors want to see traction; not the finished article, but enough potential to invest.
The Team
Your management team is key to securing any investment. Any investor is going to need to be personally impressed by you as an individual or your management team. If you have a team member whose talents lie in different areas to presentation or outward credibility, leave them at home! Harsh but true; think what’s best for your business.
Know your Market
You need to know your market inside out; where you fit currently, where the growth potential is, how you intend to get there, etc. Knowing the national spend in your field is not knowing your market; investors want to see that you are well-researched and fully immersed in your market. Metrics are important; use them and get them right.
Money
The vast majority of investors will want you to be able to demonstrate that you can put a large enough amount of money to work and will want a significant percentage of the business to justify their scrutiny. You need to be prepared for the fact that you are likely to be giving away somewhere in the region of 20 – 25% of your company as a minimum; 15% is a rarity and anyone looking to invest at 8% may not be serious or will be looking for a bigger cut further down the line.
Help is at Hand
At Brooks-Keret we have been developing and cultivating entrepreneurs for over five years. Our aim is to support aspiring entrepreneurs in gaining better exposure to investors and garner helpful feedback on their ventures and their approach to gaining investment.
Our specialist panels come together once every month where startup companies from all sectors can come to pitch their ideas and tap into our wealth of experience. We are interested to hear about what your startup’s goals are and you get the opportunity to convey these via a one hour presentation. Our expert panel will they have questions for you; questions that every entrepreneur looking for investment should know! The best thing is if you don’t know the answer, think of our panel as a dry run; you’ll be better prepared to wow potential investors next time.
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The writer is Gil Keret , CEO at Brooks- Keret Financial Management , www.brooks-keret.co.il .
