As an early-stage Startup Founder, you need to know how VCs decide whether to meet you or not.
Like you, VCs have a job to do, and they have a limited number of meetings they can take.
So once they get introduced to you, how do VCs decide whether to meet you… or not.
The following list of twelve (12) points is often reviewed by someone working for the decision maker, and depending on how strong the impression is, will likely form the basis of the decision to meet a Startup or pass.
➽ Team – How do we know your team is excellent?
➽ Company – Describe what your company does in one sentence
➽ Market – What is the market opportunity and why will it be big?
➽ Business model – How do you make money? Who pays? What are the margins?
➽ Geography – Where is the team based?
➽ Number of Employees – How big is your team?
➽ Timing – Why is now the right timing for your company?
➽ Traction – What are the traction metrics that show what you have achieved so far?
➽ Fundraising – How much do you want to raise?
➽ Fundraising History – Who have you raised from, how much, and when?
➽ Fit – What about this particular investor (or startup) makes you interested in meeting with them?
➽ Referrer – Who introduced you to the VC?
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About the author:
James Spurway is an Angel Investor, Mentor, Advisor, Speaker, former Commercial Pilot, and Author who specialises in raising debt and equity capital. He strives to model diversity, equity, and inclusion in the founders he agrees to invest and work with. He has paused his angel investing activity to focus on raising his first US$ 50M venture capital fund, which will invest in startups that can accelerate the achievement of net zero emissions. James spent the past 33 years living in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, the USA, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and Australia, his country of birth. In that time, he started 10 businesses, exited from seven, shut down two, and kept one. He has invested in a total of 50 startups since 2001 and had six successful exits.