A guide to investor’s heart (and yes, you’re welcome to test it on us)
So you’ve got your startup on track, your offer is unique and you are perfectly aware of its market potential. You’ve done your first steps and now you feel an investor could give your business the kick. Well done. This is exactly when you should arrange a meeting with Black Pearls VC. Do you think you can make us believe in you?
We’re looking forward to hear about your idea for a business. But a unique product or service is not all that matters. Equally important is your attitude towards the undertaking and the effort you can put into polishing it up and setting it in the market reality. Your time, just like ours, is money, and the first impression can be made only once. This is why we would like to give you a chance to prepare well for the meeting and for the talk about Black Pearls VC’s support of your startup. We’ve compiled this mini-guide to help us understand our mutual needs and expectations, and perhaps to clear the path to future cooperation.
- Define the problem you want to solve or the need you wish to satisfy. Tell us about the objective methods you’ve used so far to verify them.
- Accurately specify the target group of your product or service. This will be decisive in your undertaking’s marketing potential, so precision is key. For instance, if you’re developing a smartphone app, you should be able to define the age of your prospective users, where they come from and what type of devices they use.
- Tell us what you would need the investment money for, how much you would like to get and how the money is going to be spent. What stage of project development are you hoping to achieve with our support?
- Show us how determined and success-oriented you are, whatever the results of our meeting. Have you got plan B and C? Would you be able to attain your goals without Black Pearls VC as the investor, only in longer time? If you were, it would be an advantage. This shows us you know how to get down to business yourself, but could succeed faster with our support. You should still be able to do quite well without us to get your back.
- Present your team. No large business can be done alone. Who are your partners, what key competencies did you manage to pool, what specialists can support you in ad hoc situations?
- When giving presentations, you don’t have to play it safe. We realize that in the startup world, pitching is the generally acknowledged as the only effective way to show yourself and your product. But rather than watch another “well-structured” presentation, we’d like to talk with you about the project, feel what you feel. If you have a well-thought-out vision of your development, if you know whose demands you want to cater for and what you yourself need, we will get the gist regardless of the formula chosen. All in all, we have been supporting startups for years. Remember, what matters for us is you and your project, not the form of presentation.
- Be yourself, show us your personality. Facts and figures may be a basic thing, but if we are to work with each other, we must meet up and check if there’s chemistry between us.
- Do your best to sell us your project. We appreciate good sellers! But spare us the bells and whistles. Don’t stretch the truth. Don’t come up with imaginary partners, don’t claim the experience or contacts you don’t actually have. Keep in mind that our business relationship is built on trust – something that is nurtured right from the first sight.
