1. What’s going on in your industry/market that’s SO transformational, that it becomes an hidden opportunity in itself?! Is the macro convincing, is there enough change in the market to justify the opportunity?
2. Talk to the right investors! Stick to your channel — the people who are already putting money into YOUR kind of deals TODAY.
3. When you’re early stage, and don’t have traction, make the MACRO picture SO BIG and SO COMPELLING that it gets all the attention in itself. It’s as if there’s a major fracture and mega flood coming, and the investors see you as a guy with the boat who’s ready to set sail.
— “the world of scientific research is undergoing a dramatic shift, that is also accelerating. And there’s a huge opportunity. We’re seeing a convergence of different disciplines, and AI is a big part of that, and we’re also seeing more breakthrough changes coming out one after another…..”
4. Come to a meeting EARLY. If you come on TIME, you’re already LATE!!! And respect their time.
5. A common mistake is to show a BAD MODEL of numbers/projections, which doesn’t make sense. Because if someone pokes out your numbers slide, you look like an idiot and it KILLS deals. A model that looks good to you might look weird to others. Show it to someone who looks at models for a living, and see what THEY think!!
6. If you give an example, anchor it with numbers. Use numbers and statistics to ILLUSTRATE every critical point/argument you make.
7. Your company is a FINANCIAL PRODUCT. It’s not a shop that makes widgets or products. You are selling a FINANCIAL product to FINANCIAL BUYERS. Most of these people (unless you’re a consumer company) will NEVER USE YOUR PRODUCT OR HAVE ANY EMPATHY FOR IT. Don’t have more than ONE slide for the product itself.
8. The channel you go after varies with the financial product.
Each channel’s folks need to check off certain boxes in order to write a check. If you don’t check those boxes, you won’t get the money no matter WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!!
For example, VCs today need a tech-driven business which will pay off their entire fund, and that needs a lot of money to get that 10X, 100X return. If that’s not your financial product, don’t pitch them!!!
Variables:
- 1. Growth rate
- 2. Margin of captail efficiency
- 3. What you’ll use money for
- 4. Exit
- 5. Ability to acquire customers
- 6. Management / team
- 7. Current stage
9. Timing is a big thing as well. With many investors, you want to stay in touch with ALL the time, in order to stay top of mind when they’re ready to write a check.
10. “Investors reframed as a commodity, a vending machine for money. When you think about it, this makes perfect sense because there are many places to source money, but there is only one you. Your deal is unique among al others. If you think of yourself and your deal in this way and build frames around this idea, you wil be pleased at how it wil change the social dynamics in your meetings with investors.”
11. If they show you a lack of interest, LABEL IT. Step into the tension. Be 100% prepared to walk away.
