Convince investors and Pitch

How to convince investors – Paul Graham

Here’s the recipe for impressing investors when you’re not already good at seeming formidable:

1. Make something worth investing in.
2. Understand why it’s worth investing in.
3. Explain that clearly to investors

Formidable:

• A formidable person is one who seems like they’ll get what they want, regardless of whatever obstacles are in the way.
• Should not try to imitate the swagger of more experienced founders.

Truth:

• Truly evaluate whether your startup is worth investing in.
• You don’t have to be a smooth presenter if you understand something well and tell the truth about it.
• Know everything about your market.
• The time to raise money is not when you need it, or when you reach some artificial deadline like a Demo Day. It’s when you can convince investors.
• To convince yourself that your startup is worth investing in, you’ll have to figure out why it’s worth investing in.

Market:

• In addition to formidable founders, you need a plausible path to owning a big piece of a big market.
• Make a convincing case for becoming huge, you have to identify some specific trend you’ll benefit from. Usually, you can find this by asking “why now?”

Rejection:

• If you know you’re on the right track, then you also know why investors were wrong to reject you.
• Talk with your new investors candidly about what scared investors about you, you’ll seem more confident, which they like, and you’ll probably also do a better job of presenting that aspect of your startup.

From: http://paulgraham.com/convince.html

How to pitch – Michael Seibel

30seconds pitch

• What does your company do?
• How big is the market?
• How much traction do you have?

2 mins pitch

• clear 30secs pitch
• Unique insight
• How you make money
• Team
  • your founder, your employees
• The big Ask $$$
  • how much do you want to raise
  • every plan for using this money