Venture summit 2018 has been a pretty surprising event. I feel my duty to write a few words about it. The event was organized by the xPORT Business Project Accelerator. xPort company supports projects founded by students from the University of Economy in Prague.
Fight of two Alpha Egos
Getting capital for your company or projects is always difficult. Even that I have heard from many businessmen that it was pretty easy to step. You know – It is easy to be wise after the event. The reality is often a fight of two Alpha’s – egos. The ego of the investor and ego of the entrepreneur.
Panelboard discussion of investors from Nextech Ventures, Credo Ventures, Startuprises was pretty valuable and show an interesting comparison and difference between decision factors of different investors. Discussion justified that there does not exist a universal formula on how to motivate investors to get into your project.
What Investor Searches
So, what are the main qualities that you need before coming to the investor? The full project documentation is a must., but there are many intangible factors that investor searches.
What are the important factors that investors expect?
- Have your Story and Justify it by numbers.
- Getting some measurable Targets KPIs.
What is doing the Valuation of the Company?
- How much are you building assets?
- How much you Automate processes?
What are the key intangible assets?
- No fear – are you fear-less enough?
- Self-reflection – are you able to listen to others?
- Team – are you able to build the team by your experience and contacts?
- Attitude – what’s the team mindset?
What are the most underestimated factors?
- Sales, sales, sales…
- Cost of customer acquisition
- Customer lifetime value
Advise at the End
In a healthy growing company, there is only one person who cares about the client – it is a Salesman! Do not underestimate this important role and do not loose 12-18 months to get it! And remember one rule: in the beginning, the business result is always 10% of the planned volume. So, if you want to earn $1,000,000 you must plan in the pipeline at least $10M.