Raising investment is like selling anything: you need to have a single clear message, it needs to answer a pressing need for the listener, and there has to be some vision of the future that can be bought into.
What often surprises us is how poorly put together investment presentations can be, and how little thought is put into considering what information investors would need and what questions they would have. Where data is provided, it is often overblown and irrelevant.
Raising yourself above that should be the immediate goal, and a presentation covering the following points is a good start:
- Who are you? Is there a team of key players?
- What does your business do, for whom, on what pricing basis?
- Why is it special? Better mousetrap? Defensible IP?
- Who are your competitors? What does the scene in your industry look like?
- What is your track record? Any historic financials? Assets, awards or achievements?
- What do you want from investors and what are you going to do with it?
- How will that affect the future of your business – what is the return on investment?
This is not an exhaustive list, and some elements may not be relevant to your business. But in preparing your pitch, bear in mind that investors see a lot of businesses and read a lot of pitches. If yours takes longer than 10 minutes to read, then follow the wisdom of Mark Twain, who apologized for writing a long letter as he did not have time to write a short one.
