About to close an angel round after 3 weeks of heavy-duty pitching. Garnered sufficient resources, now onto step 2 💪
Some notes on the experience (as an early stage founder) 👇:
1) Dream Big: The world is changing veryy fast. There's limited capital for venture investments and if you aren't hitting a big market, you will struggle to raise VC/Angel capital.
2) Guesstimates are important: Yes, its very hard to estimate market for most new products. But there's a finite amount of attention, capital and time in the world.
If you can't clearly see the opportunity you're attacking, you're likely to fail.
3) What's your pain point >>> Who's your customer:
A bit controversial but in my experience, if you solve a genuine problem, customers will find you.
4) Never pitch alone: Always have a co-founder/advisor joining you on the investor presentation. They will probably be able to pickup clues you miss.
5) Talk less, answer more: If you've shared your pitch deck with the VC, assume they've understood your hypothesis. They're coming on the call to put some very specific questions.
Ask and answer those questions. Avoid selling.
6) Beware time-wasters: There are VC firms who will engage with you to "learn the business", "understand your idea", "know your metrics".
Get some refchecks before doing your pitch. Will save you weeks of distracted effort
7) 6-month strategy and 5 year vision BOTH are important.
You must have a grand vision but you must also have the ability to break it down & achieve it.
You're raising money to achieve business outcomes. Be specific about both short-term goals & how they tie into long-term vision
8) You always get another chance: Don't treat investor pitches as one-time opportunities. Home Buyers will inspect a potential flat 100 times before purchasing. When someone's coming to buy your company equity, they're effectively trying to make a similar bet.
Give them time
Might add more points later.
/fin