#4 from 10 – The FREE course for raising capital from VC firms and angel investors

The presentation

The investors will make a decision based on the presentation you will give in a special meeting. This presentation will be the basis of your speech and you can create it in one of the numerous software available from which you may be familiar with Apple Keynote and Microsoft PowerPoint. The slide should be a little more detailed than the executive summary but not too long or written in small fonts. It needs to be short and to the point.

Include information about the market analysis about your differentiation from the competition and state your milestones and your plan to execute them. This is a good time to explain how the money you will receive will be used and what will be the effect of the funding. Use real number and do not falsify any data. If it is required, hire an analyst to get all the numbers or statistics right.

The presentation should be around 10 slides and remember not to use fonts smaller than 30. Design it in a professional way and make sure it does not last more than half an hour.

Some angel investor or venture capitalist will let you finish your presentation and then ask questions and other will interrupt you. It depends on their personality. Take the time to answer the questions in a clear and to the point way. Prepare for this kind of questions and answer them confidently otherwise, they will think you are not experienced.

The presentation should answer some important questions like:

• what does your company do
• what is the status or history of the company
• what differentiates your company from the competition
• what kind of need it fulfills, what is the market you are competing in
• how will you generate revenues
• who is your competition and how you can surpass them
• who is in you management team, why are they valuable
• how much capital you think would help you grow your business.

Delivering a presentation is not easy especially when you know the future of your company may depend on your answers. Venture capitalists have a way of letting you know in time if they like your presentation or not. You will basically be able to see it on their face and will realize it by their questions.

Avoid making a valuation of your company during the presentation. It is best to concentrate on what the venture company is after and that is, making money. Focus on how you can make money with your company by presenting realistic steps you can take in that direction. Be sure you know exactly how much money you need and that you can explain exactly what you are going to do with them and don’t get trapped in questions about your exit strategy. You should avid to opinate about the right exit strategy and turn back the discussion on how you will grow the company.

We have learned how to attract attention and how to make them interested in investing. In tomorrow’s newsletter, we will learn how to contact our future investor.