Terri continues with her series on angel investing and goes into detail on what she looks for in a pitch from founders looking to her as a potential investor.
Show Highlights
- Terri looks at the following when she is listening to a pitch regardless of the length of the pitch:
- Problem being solved, how it is being solved, and why now is the time
- Market opportunity and target market
- Revenue and monetization strategy
- Go to market strategy and scalability
- How much the company will need to scale and exit? Is this a venture investable business?
- What barriers are in place to prevent someone else from doing the same thing?
- Competition
- Management team and why they are qualified to bring the product to market or scale the business
- How much are you raising? How long will it last? What are the plans for the use of funds?
- What is the bigger vision and long-term strategy?
- What is the exit strategy? How am I going to get my money back?
- Every investor is going to have different requirements in terms of their decision-making process for investing
- Terri uses the Q&A to get a general sense of the founder including how coachable they might be and how they react under pressure.
- Terri looks to make sure that the founder is not just technically competent but is able to lead the business.
- Terri invests in early stage companies which is heavily reliant on the team’s ability to execute so Terri generally invests in the ‘team’ and can make a decision to invest relatively quickly. Her level of due diligence after seeing the pitch depends on the size of the raise, the size of the check, and whether she is investing on her own or through a group or a syndicate.
- Terri gets frustrated with founders who are unable to put together a decent pitch given the resources available online.
References in the Podcast
- Terri’s Medium post on pitches: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead/pitching-to-angel-investors-or-at-least-to-me-30696345ebe6
- Niki Quinn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-quinn-a5435114/
- Guy Kawasaki: https://guykawasaki.com/how-to-create-an-enchanting-pitch-officeandguyk/
- YC pitching: https://blog.ycombinator.com/how-to-pitch-your-company/
- 500 Startups pitching: https://500.co/7-pitching-habits-for-founders/
Contact
You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.
Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.
To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.