Clarity
The first thing is: clarity is all.
Often you’ll sit through pitches in which the entrepreneurs completely fail to explain their idea and business, because they present way too many slides of generic background material.
If you cannot summarize your pitch on a single slide or in a thirty second elevator journey, then how can you possibly hope to sell it in a noisy marketplace? I’d advise founders to focus on describing the size of the opportunity in a solitary slide.
Traction
The second thing is always show that you have inspired other people with your idea – and had some initial traction.
One of the signs I look for, as an investor, is that a startup has convinced other people that their business will fly; it might be another entrepreneur, who joined as a co-founder, or a partner, who will provide distribution.
Or they might have a marquee customer on board or a rapidly rising customer count, because the product is a real hit solving a genuine ‘pain point’.
Selection
Third, I always want to understand what sort of an investor the entrepreneur wants.
Personally, I want to work with people who have asked themselves ‘How can my investor enhance what I’m doing, through advice and relationships? How can they help me build my company?’
Image: Petr Kratochvil