“Don’t forget…investors are always watching.”

Investment Materials To Create

The hard part of the investment process is not only proving your model, but also somehow managing to effectively run the business. By having standard tools that you create once, and a standard process that leverages these tools, you minimize the ad hoc work you have to do and can focus on the important job of communicating your value to investors. The goal is to develop the following set of materials that you build once and use over and over regardless of the investor. While you may not need all of these tools, and may supplement them over time, these tools should care for virtually all of your investment opportunities:

Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement

Two-Page Executive Summary

One-Pager

Pitch Presentation(s): You need two key presentations to make your investment process efficient:

• • General Presentation :12-slide PowerPoint presentation that is the primary presentation you distribute when first interacting with a potential investor. It should be written in a font no smaller than 14-point. It includes the following slides:
    • Cover Slide (Logo, presenters and date)
    • Company Overview (Overview of company, What you do, highlight key wins, customers, successes, key points in history (founding date, key events, investments to date)
    • Elevator Pitch Slide
    • Market Opportunity (Size and importance of the market; Market problem and current solutions)
    • Your Solution (Product/service overview)
    • Competitive Advantage/Unique Value Proposition (Why your product or service is unique)
    • Team (Current team with backgrounds and roles • Include board, advisors and other assets)
    • Market Traction (call “customers” if you have them) • (Key customers, Other evidence of market traction)
    • Business Model (How you price your product or service, How you make money, Key revenue streams)
    • Competition
    • Financial Projection (Financial projections – summary • Financial metrics with investment (e.g., EBITDA, date of positive cash flow)
  • Detail Presentation: 21-slide PowerPoint presentation that expands on Presentation 1 and adds details on the various areas of the company.
    • Sales Strategy (Strategy for selling your product/service)
    • Pipeline (Pipeline of current sales opportunities)
    • Product Strategy (Strategy for differentiating your product/service)
    • Client Management (How you manage clients?)
    • Marketing (How you market your product/service?)
    • Technology (What technologies power your solution?)
    • Operations (What operations support your product/service?)
    • Finance (How is financial management being handled?)
    • Raise Details/Use of Proceeds (Structure of investment, Use of proceeds)

FAQ Document: Investors ask lots of questions and at times it seems that in the investment process you are responding to the different questions of different investors. In reality, 90 percent of the questions are the same. This FAQ document should be extensive and cover the major questions for each part of the business. When an interested investor says, “We will have follow-up questions” wouldn’t it be great to say “We have a document that addresses a lot of these questions for you.”

Training: A structured and organized process, with set tools, meetings and agendas, and clear messages, shows the type of discipline that investors value. When an investment process seems ad hoc, with days going by between asks and a scramble to put materials together, investors notice the lack of structure and discipline of the business.