Ever wonder what investors are thinking when you make a presentation? Following are the questions to address. I grabbed this off a couple angel investor docs given to me over the years I think.. it was an old post on my other blog.
1) WHAT IS YOUR VISION? - What is your big vision? - What problem are you solving and for whom? - Where do you want to be in the future?
2) WHAT IS YOUR MARKET OPPORTUNITY AND HOW BIG IS IT? - How big is the market opportunity you are pursuing and how fast is it growing? - How established (or nascent) is the market? - Do you have a credible claim on being one of the top two or three players in the market?
3) DESCRIBE YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE - What is your product/service? - How does it solve your customer’s problem? - What is unique about your product/service?
4) WHO IS YOUR CUSTOMER? - Who are your existing customers? - Who is your target customer? - What defines an "ideal" customer prospect? - Who actually writes you the check? - Use specific customer examples where possible.
5) WHAT IS YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION? - What is your value proposition to the customer? - What kind of ROI can your customer expect by using buying your product/service? - What pain are you eliminating? - Are you selling vitamins, aspirin or antibiotics? (I.e. a luxury, a nice-to-have, or a need-to-have)
6) HOW ARE YOU SELLING? - What does the sales process look like and how long is the sales cycle? - How will you reach the target customer? What does it cost to "acquire" a customer? - What is your sales, marketing and distribution strategy? - What is the current sales pipeline?
7) HOW DO YOU ACQUIRE CUSTOMERS? - What is your cost to acquire a customer? - How will this acquisition cost change over time and why? - What is the lifetime value of a customer?
8) WHO IS YOUR MANAGEMENT TEAM? - Who is the management team? - What is their experience? - What pieces are missing and what is the plan for filling them?
9) WHAT IS YOUR REVENUE MODEL? - How do you make money? - What is your revenue model? - What is required to become profitable?
10) WHAT STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT ARE YOU AT? - What is your stage of development? Technology/product? Team? Financial metrics/revenue? - What has been the progress to date (make reality and future clear)? - What are your future milestones?
11) WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR FUND RAISING? - What funds have already been raised? - How much money are you raising and at what valuation? - How will the money be spent? - How long will it last and where will the company "be" on its milestones progress at that time? - How much additional funding do you anticipate raising & when?
12) WHO IS YOUR COMPETITION? - Who is your existing & likely competition? - Who is adjacent to you (in the market) that could enter your market (and compete) or could be a co-opted partner? - What are their strengths/weaknesses? - Why are you different?
13) WHAT PARTNERSHIPS DO YOU HAVE? - Who are your key distribution and technology partners (current & future)? - How dependent are you on these partners?
14) HOW DO YOU FIT WITH THE PROSPECTIVE INVESTOR? - How does this fit w/ the investor’s portfolio and expertise? - What synergies, competition exist with the investor’s existing portfolio?
15) OTHER - What assumptions are key to the success of the business? - What "gotchas" could change the business overnight? New technologies, new market entrants, change in standards or regulations? - What are your company’s weak links?
Here's a great ebook from Seth Godin on Really Bad Powerpoint (and how to avoid it)
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