Chosen by Asker

First, find out the best venture firms for your type of venture. A venture firm that does deal in your type of business (industry sector) and the stage (sounds like early/seed stage) is more likely to be interested in your ideas. Next, try to get a referral from someone. VCs are much more likely to take you seriously if you get referred from someone they know and respect. They get hundreds of business plans and calls and its tough to get their attention if they don't know you. When you get a meeting, be very prepared with a good Powerpoint type presentation and a solid understanding of your market and customer. By a good presentation, I mean well-thought with a logical flow and one that sticks to the key parameters they are interested in - market size, your technology, intellectual property, your busines model, managment team, etc. The number of slides is not really that important. Obviously, you cant accomplish all the goals with 3 or 4 slides and if you show up with 40, they'll get bored before you're done. You will have them hooked or not within the first few slides. Finally, understand that VCs primarily invest in great management teams and/or exceptional technologists. They are more interested in great people than they are with a technology or business model from someone that doesn't have the backgound and experience to see it through to success. So, if you don't have the background, I strongly recommend you get it before pitching your idea. If you don't want to wait until you acquire the knowledge yourself, you need to recruit it into your team. Good luck.

Source(s)

4 VC-backed startups

by In Science we trust

4 months ago

Asker's Rating: 

Either never look them in the eye, or stare them down... they hate everything in between. When they attack, you have to curl into a ball, but if they start to eat you, then you fight back. Never feed them after midnight and don't get them wet... oh, yeah, never expose them to sunlight - it can kill them. Venture capitalists are just human beings - busy human beings with more money than you. They also tend to be better informed than most folks. Brush up on your business fundamentals, and make sure that your business plan is sound. They want to know how much it's going to cost, and what the risk to the investment is. They want to know what you know about the market you are proposing to be in.

by Evil J- 4 months ago

Your PPT should be no more than 10 slides, take no more than 20 minutes. This info acquired straight from a VC.

by Joseph T- 4 months ago