You’re ready to raise your startup funding. You want everything to be right, so you improve your chances of getting funded.
And you know that every investor meeting counts because you don’t know which investor will say yes. No one does.
I’ll share with you, based on my experience, a checklist of the nine things you should do to prepare to raise funding, why these nine things are important, and the steps you need to take to implement each item on the checklist. Let’s start with number one or list…
1. A rehearsed pitch and pitch deck
When I was entrepreneur in residence for a San Francisco based venture capital fund, one of my responsibilities was helping vet potential investments. I’ll never forget this one company that I met with. The CEO started his pitch by fumbling through his slide deck and then saying, “Here’s a slide that might be good.”
We were sincerely interested in investing in the CEOs company, but he had completely blown it with us because he was clearly unprepared. Here’s the deal. You never know when lightning will strike when you’re raising money.
The first investor you meet with might be the investor that funds your startup. However, you will not get the investment if you’re not prepared.
