Companies that are seeking promising investment opportunities are looking for a few key elements that help influence their decisionmaking. While presenting a professional, accurate and detailed business plan is vital to gaining attention, there are 5 other key factors that you might not have considered that can help to secure your opportunity.
- Engage with prospective customers.
An initial customer win is the best validation a young company can have. Be clear on your value proposition how you solve your customer problems.
Many investors are seeking game-changing solutions, not small tweaks to a product or service that already exists, while for others, this is exactly what they want. You need to research what your potential investors are looking for and use prospective customer validation to back up your proposition.
- Establish a network of advisors and advocates.
Establish a network of advisors and advocates and be sure to listen to what they have to say. By involving your business in networking, pitching and selling, you’ll meet professional advisers, people from the industry and experienced entrepreneurs that have developed successful businesses.
Having a sound network allows you to learn from others’ experience, demonstrate to investors that you have experienced people around you that can help to guide your business decisions and offers access to greater opportunities.
- Wait to approach your top choice investors.
Your strategy for fundraising needs to be coherent and well planned. After making initial approaches, making a review of your strategy to include important feedback could see you reposition aspects of your business (for example, key risks).
Take the time to look at each angel syndicate’s and VC’s investment criteria and whether you’re a good potential fit. If you approach the investors that you would most like to work with later in the process you can better position your business to the investors that you would most like to work with based on constructive criticism and knowledgeable adjustments.
- Accept a ‘no’ as an opportunity to listen.
When fundraising, not everyone you speak with will like your idea or think that it’s a good fit for them. Investing is inherently subjective. Different investors have different priorities and experience, so your offer might honestly not be what they are looking for, and that is okay.
However, many of these same people will offer you feedback that might make your offer more attractive to them, or even just open you to more networking opportunities. ‘No’ is not a criticism of you or your offer, it is a learning opportunity.
- Work with the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Many places in the world host competitions and pitching events that are fantastic for fundraising, partnership opportunities, networking and even forecasting. These are opportunities to speak to a wide audience and to attract early investment which would move your business towards the next step.
These events are a way for your business to develop a network, see the ecosystem in action and become better known in your industry. Developing relationships is vital to the overall success of your business venture, and attending events is a great way of showing potential investors that you are serious about expansion efforts.
