Is your business languishing? Since you’re still in business, it’s apparent that the business was doing well at one point. The good news is that you have learned a lot about marketing your products and customers. The bad news is that sales are slipping. The best news is that you recognize it’s time to do an about face and reinvent your business with the assistance of angel investors.

Though angel funding is viewed by many as primarily being start-up funding, the fact is there is total freedom to seek and structure financing in any way that meets the needs of the angel investors and your business. Using what you have learned in the past, including through mistakes made, you can reinvent your business as if it’s a new enterprise and come out stronger than ever.

It’s also a fact that businesses need to reinvent themselves periodically. The reinvention often comes on the heels of experience, though. People change, the economy changes, the marketplace changes, customer needs change – all good reasons to reinvent your business and rev up revenues once again. Experience can teach entrepreneurs that the business is solid but needs a new approach to penetrate the market, a new service or product to round out its offerings, or perhaps a new look or refined brand image that successfully appeals to the niche market.

It’s a pity that so many businesses with great potential end up going out of business simply because the owners refused to adapt. This became abundantly clear as the recession, and now the slow recovery, unfolded. The economy shifts periodically and the successful business is able to shift with it. Stubbornly refusing to change a brand that has become outdated is not a good business practice even if you have spent years building it. A brand won’t be useful if the business fails because you didn’t listen to the marketplace.

Marching Toward Innovation

Angel investors have proven to be an important source of funding in a sluggish economy. Fueling start-ups by supplying business funding, they also power business reinventions. It makes perfect sense too because angel investors are interested in innovation, new ideas and new approaches. Businesses decide every day to change course to better able meet customer needs or a changed marketplace. Some of the more well known reinventions like Apple computers, GE and HP, are textbook stories of success. Large companies can find business funding through banks and equity partners. Smaller companies can turn to angel investors.

It’s too bad that so many entrepreneurs refuse to about face when all the signposts point in the opposite direction. The benefits of changing course are overcome by the fear of failure, and yet that is exactly what happens in many cases – failure. Angel investors are willing to accept risk if you have a solid business for reinvention in a changing economy and marketplace. Angel investors appreciate innovation and new ideas in any area including:

· Technological innovation leading to new products or services

· Upscale redesign of brand

· Expansion of services or products or services to serve new customers

· Identification and servicing of new market niche

As an existing business, you have a track record that proves you can operate a business, identify a market and serve customers. You can approach an angel investor with proof of success and that is a powerful selling point.

Saluting Your Core Competences

The core competencies of your business serve as the starting point for reinvention. They represent business strengths on which new products and services can be developed. Angel investors can fund the innovation that breathes new life into your business whether you want to expand produce or service offerings, increase market share or re-brand. Show angel investors the value you have to offer customers and they will have lots of reasons to support your efforts with business funding.

Get more advice about business funding at Alliance Group Capital

I see it happen a lot lately in Jakarta. Startups with 4-5 founders who are pretty much equal shareholders will look for very early Angel funding, which (if they get it) brings another shareholder on board.

Now you’ve got a situation with 5-6 shareholders in a company that still has to land its first serious funding. This is in my opinion a situation far from desirable, for some obvious and some less obvious reasons.

In general, when a startup approaches an (angel) investor for a pitch and shares that the company has 4 or 5 shareholders with pretty much similar voting rights, my first question would be “Who wants to give up his or her shares?”. It’s just too early to have so many shareholders. Startups succeed for a large part because they can make decisions instantly, and react faster than competitors, who are often more “corporate”. With having 4 or 5 voting shareholders on board, chances are your company won’t be that flexible and dynamic anymore. Also, any investor would prefer to just talk to 1 or 2 persons, which for them is just more clear and manageable.

But let’s look ahead a bit. Let’s say your startup has 4 founders with equal shares and voting rights and you land an angel investment who “after-money-in” gets 20%. So now your startup has 5 shareholders and a capital to last a year. I’m making this assumption because I’m mostly talking about digital startups that will need a longer period to become bootstrapped and even when bootstrapped will require more (growth) capital in the future.

In my experience (and I was one of them as well), startup entrepreneurs tend to ignore looking into the future. This is often because startup entrepreneurs have a very positive outlook on life in general, and specifically on their business. But in most cases it’s clear as day that at some point you will need extra capital, whether it’s for compensating losses, solving cash-flow issues or growth capital. This is where investors will strike, a (most of the time) non-profitable company in need of quick cash is an easy target. The result is the existing investor or a new investor will take a large part of the shares resulting in the founders diluting to a questionable percentage while still very much in startup phase.

Needless to say that as a founder you won’t be too happy diluting to let’s say 10-15% after just 1-2 years. But also from investor point of view this is not really the ideal situation. Many shareholders who are all less incentivized doesn’t strike me as a perfect situation. The simple solution of buying out some of the shareholders often fails because there’s simply no value yet so why would they sell?

My tips to anyone planning to start a digital business would be:

1. 1. Start with just two founders;
   2. Don’t give people shares because you can’t pay salaries (!);
   3. Hold of any (angel) investment as long as possible, create as much value first. If needed borrow money from family or friends or find alternative income sources;
   4. Plan ahead! Talk to people who have been there and be realistic in your expectations. In any case avoid a situation in which you need money urgently, this will put you in an unnecessary weak position in any negotiations;

To anyone saying “That’s easy when you have money!” True, so be creative and work hard. Many digital startup entrepreneurs have alternative income sources. In the early days of Tokobagus we were selling e-commerce development services which allowed us to pay the bills and work on building Tokobagus.

Are you involved in a really early phase (digital) startup and considering to get (angel) funding to make life a bit easier? Wanna pay some of your key staff with shares instead of salary? Though money is both a problem as well as a necessity, you might want to read this first.

A small talk with a potential investor could lead to your dream investment. But how do you approach such a conversation? You are working day and night on your startup. You got a winning team and are doing your best to develop a great product. Now all you need is to find investors. You know that what separates you from your life’s dream is one phone call. Well, there are some good news and some bad news. Starting with the good – it’s possible! The bad news is that it’s going to take, apparently, a lot of time and effort to succeed. If it took Churchill one hour to write every minute of his speech, than writing yours, which presents your startup, generates impact and willingness to hear more, will be a much difficult task. By combining several tools and one simple solution, you too can transform the most complex product or service to be exciting, simple and valuable. Let’s get started:

Set a goal for your Pitch

Before you sit down to write your pitch, set your self a clear and defined goal. This goal should include a time frame, clarity and quantity.

What’s your end goal? Getting funded? Another meeting? Cooperation? Advice?

It needs to be even more focused. For example, you would like to get funded: how much cash do you need? When will you need it? In stages or all at once? You need to know exactly what you are going to ask for. If you don’t have a clear goal, the chance of reaching it becomes a product of luck.

After you are clear about the goal of your pitch, you can sit down to write it.

Teaser: stimulate the investor

So you got a great opportunity and you are a sitting alone in a room with your potential investor. That doesn’t necessarily mean his brain and attention is given solely to you. Your mission, right from the beginning, would be to capture his full attention and have him completely focused on you.

There are several ways to generate attention in a very short time. One of them, is to present a big fact that is relevant to your product or market. This will generates curiosity and the listener will likely try to understand what is it about. The teaser could also be a personal story, an interesting article from a newspaper, a breakthrough research, anything that will skyrocket his attention. Your teaser will work best if the value in it will be “flooded”.

“Value flooding”: what’s in it for him?

As a way to turn your product or service to fascinating, you have to ensure, that the person sitting in front of you, understands the value relevant for him. Once we can connect between the teaser and the value, we are creating a “mental shortcut” and the level of attention grows significantly.

For example, when we walk down the street and see a scratch card Ad saying “scratch now and win 1,000,000$” – the Ad both grabs our immediate attention and floods the value – we want to win those 1,000,000$.

So even if our chances of winning goes against all statistical and logical calculations, our attention was already caught because we were immediately presented (“flooded”) with the value, even before explaining the general idea or logic behind it.

Make it Simple

After we managed to grab attention, it is time to tell the story of our product or service. Here comes the real challenging part: can you really explain, sometimes in a single sentence, what does your company\product\service does? The true greatness of really good or complex products is the ability to make them simple and tangible.

Make sure not to use extremely high or too complex language, which usually creates opacity and covers the inability to generate a clear definition. If you managed to do so, in a minimized form, it will leave you with more time to invest in the other parts of your pitch.

Why you?

Towards the end of your pitch, it’s time to explain why you. Why you are the one who can turn this vision into reality. This is a critical point as you ask your potential investor for his trust (… and money).

Here is the point to emphasize your unique background in the field, winning team combination or previous successes. It is important to remember that most decisions we do are irrational, so it is imperative to use your attitude and presentation methods to strengthen your message, no less than the list of your titles or achievements.

Tip: we tend to associate self-confidence – and hence trust – when the shoulders are straight up. So straighten up!

Combining these ingredients, which builds a winning pitch, will require your time and efforts in order to sharpen your messaging. Sometime, using external consultants as well as using new technologies could upgrade your performance.

Note: apart from using the old PowerPoint, I can highly recommend Prezi and Bunkr.

Each year there are hundreds of new startups being founded, and with them grows the competition for investors. The first impression and effect you project at the beginning could be that critical point that would separate you from the rest, and will cause the investor to invest in you, over the other sea of startups.

Sometimes, this small conversation could make your life dream come true – don’t let it slip away.

Venture capital firms are different from private investors in that they have raised capital from a number of high net worth individuals with the intent to make investments on their behalf into promising start up companies and expanding businesses so that they can ultimately take the business public via an IPO or sell the business for a substantial earnings multiple. There is not a single business that does not face any type of specific business risk that should be addressed within your business plan. You should showcase, within your business plan, how you’ll deal with an economic recession as it relates to remaining profitable and cash flow positive. The primary difference between private investors and venture capital firms is that these individuals tend to live in areas where there are a number of other high net worth individuals. In some instances, you may be able to finance your business through credit card receivables if you’re already in operation as an alternative to expensive equity capital financing.

Angel investors usually have a net worth of $500,000 to $1,000,000 although this number may be higher in selected metropolitan areas. It should be noted that venture capital firms will typically take 30 days to 60 days to make a decision as it relates to the capital that you need. Most angel investors are prepared to make their investment decision within two weeks of receiving your proposal. In any document that is specific for a angel investor or venture capital firm should have appropriate disclosures as it relates to the risks associated with business which should be drafted by an attorney. When you’re developing your business plan for an angel investor or venture capital firm, it is extremely important that you dismiss your emotions in the product or services that you is that you sell.

We recommend that you have your attorney present during your first meeting in order to make sure that the individual is a legitimate investor or venture capital firm that is willing to make a significant investment into your business. It should also be noted that there are firms out there that can introduce you to angel investors or syndicated individual investment groups when you are seeking private equity capital.

The primary difference between an individual investor and a venture capital firm is the amount of capital that they are willing to provide you with as it relates to making an equity investment into your firm. As such, if you are seeking less than $5,000,000 then it may be in your better interest to work with an angel investor rather than a large scale investment firm.

Matthew Deutsch is a prominent business plan writer. His work has been included in nine books pertaining to this subject. Additionally, Mr. Deutsch has written extensively on subjects regarding entrepreneurship, small business lending, angel investing, and other related topics.

Getting your startup funded is not a small challenge. It’s even harder when your startup is at an early stage when there is no “field” proof that could indicate the chances of its success, like a working product, happy customers, steady income etc. in the early stage of a startup, founders need to prove investors that the company doesn’t only have a great product with a clear market fit, but they need to show as well they are capable of leading the company through the next stages and ultimately to success. As a preparation for the meetings with potential investors, it is not sufficient to only master the business plan and intimately understand the business model, but to also work hard and prepare for the conversation itself with the investors. What does it mean? First, you need to know and understand the potential questions that investors could ask, and be prepared to answer them thoroughly, to the point and impressively. Those will include personal questions on your resume, as well as technology, business and financing questions. Most likely it would be around 20 questions; here are some examples:

1. How complicated is your technology? How is it protected? Is it easy to copy it?

Especially in a technology venture, protection from theft and copy is very important and provides security with investors, who can ensure that this is significant technological innovation. In case the specified product requires heavy quality assurance tests, software validations, licensing authorization or regulatory approvals, it is recommended to start those at the very early stage of the project, since it is likely they will require time due their nature. Any kind of such an approval will increase the value and prestige of the company to the investors.

2. How many months are required for each stage of the development process?

Some of the ideas and projects have a short window of opportunity for market penetration. In such cases, in it important to show the startup can complete the development stages in a rather short amount of time (months), without contradicting that though the development is fairly quick, it will still be relatively difficult to copy the product.

3. Who are the competitors?

When the need/market size for a certain product exists, chances are there are already a few companies trying to fulfill it. Therefore, it is important to show that there is actuall competition out there, and do not try to avoid or hide this subject.

Show your advantages and unique value proposition compared to your competitors. Don’t claim your product is perfect – it is highly unlikely.

It is important to show the founders know how to take advantage of their product or service unique values over the competitor’s one, and take it to the right market – the market where the value of the product is higher and the disadvantages are less noticeable.

4. What is the addressable market size (AMS)? How did you reach those numbers?

Established researchers from leading companies such as IDC, Gartner etc. costs thousands of dollars. Usually, a new startup does not have the resources to invest in such market research.

It is recommended to invest a good amount of hours on search engines to find other researches, presentation slides, and other data that will help calculate the relevant market size for your startup. Even if the information you dug up does not match precisely to your target market, you can roughly evaluate your addressable market size.

There are many more questions, such: how do you plan to penetrate the market? What is the business model? What is the basis for it? What is the business model of your competition? How much cash do you need until operation balance? What are the ownership rates you are willing to give for the investment? And more.

Knowing these questions and being prepared for them significantly improves the impact you might leave on the investors and their ability to properly evaluate the chances of the founders to lead the company towards success.

Additionally, most founders come from a technological background (engineers, developers) and lack the business and financial understanding needed to build and scale a company. Terms such as operating profit, cash flow, fixed and variable costs, equity, and many more and rarely known and will make it hard to lead and steer the discussion in front of the investors. Such a thing could harm the investors’ enthusiasm and willingness to invest – even if the product is great, with no competition and a great market. After all, even the greatest ideas could fail without the proper business, marketing and strategic leadership.

Venture capital firms are different from private investors in that they have raised capital from a number of high net worth individuals with the intent to make investments on their behalf into promising start up companies and expanding businesses so that they can ultimately take the business public via an IPO or sell the business for a substantial earnings multiple. There is not a single business that does not face any type of specific business risk that should be addressed within your business plan. You should showcase, within your business plan, how you’ll deal with an economic recession as it relates to remaining profitable and cash flow positive. The primary difference between private investors and venture capital firms is that these individuals tend to live in areas where there are a number of other high net worth individuals. In some instances, you may be able to finance your business through credit card receivables if you’re already in operation as an alternative to expensive equity capital financing.

Angel investors usually have a net worth of $500,000 to $1,000,000 although this number may be higher in selected metropolitan areas. It should be noted that venture capital firms will typically take 30 days to 60 days to make a decision as it relates to the capital that you need. Most angel investors are prepared to make their investment decision within two weeks of receiving your proposal. In any document that is specific for a angel investor or venture capital firm should have appropriate disclosures as it relates to the risks associated with business which should be drafted by an attorney. When you’re developing your business plan for an angel investor or venture capital firm, it is extremely important that you dismiss your emotions in the product or services that you is that you sell.

We recommend that you have your attorney present during your first meeting in order to make sure that the individual is a legitimate investor or venture capital firm that is willing to make a significant investment into your business. It should also be noted that there are firms out there that can introduce you to angel investors or syndicated individual investment groups when you are seeking private equity capital.

The primary difference between an individual investor and a venture capital firm is the amount of capital that they are willing to provide you with as it relates to making an equity investment into your firm. As such, if you are seeking less than $5,000,000 then it may be in your better interest to work with an angel investor rather than a large scale investment firm.

A small talk with a potential investor could lead to your dream investment. But how do you approach such a conversation? You are working day and night on your startup. You got a winning team and are doing your best to develop a great product. Now all you need is to find investors. You know that what separates you from your life’s dream is one phone call. Well, there are some good news and some bad news. Starting with the good – it’s possible! The bad news is that it’s going to take, apparently, a lot of time and effort to succeed. If it took Churchill one hour to write every minute of his speech, than writing yours, which presents your startup, generates impact and willingness to hear more, will be a much difficult task. By combining several tools and one simple solution, you too can transform the most complex product or service to be exciting, simple and valuable. Let’s get started:

Set a goal for your Pitch

Before you sit down to write your pitch, set your self a clear and defined goal. This goal should include a timeframe, clarity and quantity.

What’s your end goal? Getting funded? Another meeting? Cooperation? Advice?

It needs to be even more focused. For example, you would like to get funded: how much cash do you need? When will you need it? In stages or all at once? You need to know exactly what you are going to ask for. If you don’t have a clear goal, the chance of reaching it becomes a product of luck.

After you are clear about the goal of your pitch, you can sit down to write it.

Teaser: stimulate the investor

So you got a great opportunity and you are a sitting alone in a room with your potential investor. That doesn’t necessarily mean his brain and attention is given solely to you. Your mission, right from the beginning, would be to capture his full attention and have him completely focused on you.

There are several ways to generate attention in a very short time. One of them, is to present a big fact that is relevant to your product or market. This will generates curiosity and the listener will likely try to understand what is it about. The teaser could also be a personal story, an interesting article from a newspaper, a breakthrough research, anything that will skyrocket his attention. Your teaser will work best if the value in it will be “flooded”.

“Value flooding”: what’s in it for him?

As a way to turn your product or service to fascinating, you have to ensure, that the person sitting in front of you, understands the value relevant for him. Once we can connect between the teaser and the value, we are creating a “mental shortcut” and the level of attention grows significantly.

For example, when we walk down the street and see a scratch card Ad saying “scratch now and win 1,000,000$” – the Ad both grabs our immediate attention and floods the value – we want to win those 1,000,000$.

So even if our chances of winning goes against all statistical and logical calculations, our attention was already caught because we were immediately presented (“flooded”) with the value, even before explaining the general idea or logic behind it.

Make it Simple

After we managed to grab attention, it is time to tell the story of our product or service. Here comes the real challenging part: can you really explain, sometimes in a single sentence, what does your company\product\service does? The true greatness of really good or complex products is the ability to make them simple and tangible.

Make sure not to use extremely high or too complex language, which usually creates opacity and covers the inability to generate a clear definition. If you managed to do so, in a minimized form, it will leave you with more time to invest in the other parts of your pitch.

Why you?

Towards the end of your pitch, it’s time to explain why you. Why you are the one who can turn this vision into reality. This is a critical point as you ask your potential investor for his trust (… and money).

Here is the point to emphasize your unique background in the field, winning team combination or previous successes. It is important to remember that most decisions we do are irrational, so it is imperative to use your attitude and presentation methods to strengthen your message, no less than the list of your titles or achievements.

Tip: we tend to associate self-confidence – and hence trust – when the shoulders are straight up. So straighten up!

Combining these ingredients, which builds a winning pitch, will require your time and efforts in order to sharpen your messaging. Sometime, using external consultants as well as using new technologies could upgrade your performance.

Note: apart from using the old PowerPoint, I can highly recommend Prezi and Bunkr.

Each year there are hundreds of new startups being founded, and with them grows the competition for investors. The first impression and effect you project at the beginning could be that critical point that would separate you from the rest, and will cause the investor to invest in you, over the other sea of startups.

Sometimes, this small conversation could make your life dream come true – don’t let it slip away.

For More Information On Start-Up Funding Click Here!

Entrepreneurs who want to raise finance for their business will have to begin with an outstanding business idea in order to convince their investors to raise finance for them.

You should not focus on one aspect only. Entrepreneurs need to understand what the investors really want, especially if you are into venture capitalism. Here is a T.I.P. for you: You need to have a TEAM, an IDEA, and a Business PLAN.

For More Information On Our VC Services Contact!

1. Your TEAM.

The best business ideas come from a team that can execute the plan and actualize the goals. You can have greater convincing power if you have a talented, experienced, and team instead of being a lonely entrepreneur.

You should also consider your team members to have some form of financial commitment. In other words, you should consider family and friends as your first investment pitch. Investors simply want to know that when the hot, steamy stuff hits the fan, each of the team members have more to lose than just their time spent and energy.

2. The IDEA.

Investors in Venture Capitalism are looking for a sure return on their investment that is substantial enough to compensate for the many other losing ventures they will back. Venture Capitalism involves high risk of failure especially for start ups, and they want to hear a business idea that shouts significant growth potential.

You may want to ask yourself, is your business idea big enough? Can your idea be turned into a franchise? Or, Can your idea last long enough to be a license, Can you find ancillary products or strategic partnerships for your new product idea?

3. Your Business PLAN.

Entrepreneurs should be able to give a detailed and smooth presentation of how the IDEA will become a business opportunity that is worthy of investment. Lay out a clear strategy of how you and your TEAM will actualise your current strategy. Make sure to demonstrate your knowledge and capabilities in the market.

Always remember that you don’t have to be alone in venture capitalism. You can start by contacting the investor directly and inquiring what they want to see. They can give you priceless recommendations during your initial meeting.

You also have your friends, family, fellow entrepreneurs, and mentors who would be willing to listen to you, advise you, and give feedback as you gather your TEAM, develop IDEA and formulate PLAN.

These people and the T.I.P. can help you decide whether to push or pass on the investment. You will get the chance to refine your approach and be ready to finally deliver your pitch.

For More Information On Our VC Services Contact!