Preparing for Pitching VC Investment Checklist
You have a great idea. Maybe you have a great business. You might think, "Why wouldn’t everyone want to invest in my company?" But the often untold secret of raising money is that it’s a lot like interviewing for a job. Use this set of questions for Founders/CEO's to have answers for when walking into VC Investment rounds.
How often should this be used?
In preparation for meeting with potential investors.
In preparation for meeting with potential investors.
Attribution:
Developed from this Aptible blog post by Chas Ballew.
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Preparing for Pitching VC Investment
Critical Questions
These are the most important questions. They are all different ways of determining if you make something people want.
What are you working on?
Who would use your product?
How do you know customers need what you're making? How do you know people want this?
How will you make money?
How much money could you make per year?
Why isn't someone already doing this?
Why will you succeed over others? What do you understand that others don't?
What have you learned so far from working on your product?
how much does customer acquisition cost?
How many users do you have?
Where do new users come from? How do users find out about you?
How are you meeting customers?
What is your distribution strategy? How will you grow?
What makes new users try you?
Why do the reluctant users hold back?
What is your growth like?
What is your user growth rate?
What's the conversion rate?
How many users are paying?
Who is going to be your first paying customer?
What resistance will users have to trying you and how will you overcome it?
How are you understanding customer needs?
What are the top things your users want?
What has surprised you about user behavior?
What's new about what you make?
What problems and hurdles are you anticipating? How will you overcome them?
Six months from now, what's going to be your biggest problem?
Important Questions
These questions concern narrative, team, and tactics. They are important, but only if you make something people want first
Why did you choose this idea? Why did you pick this idea to work on?
Where is the rocket science here?
How does your product work in more detail?
What do you understand about your users? What domain expertise do you have?
What are the key things about your field that outsiders don't understand?
What's an impressive thing you have done?
How did your team meet?
Why did your team get together?
Who in your team does what?
Who would you hire or how would you add to your team? Who would be your next hire?
What part of your project are you going to build first? What are you going to do next? What is the next step with the product evolution?
If your startup succeeds, what additional areas might you be able to expand into?
Who are your competitors?
Who might become competitors?
What competition do you fear most?
What is your burn rate?
How long can you go before funding?
Have you raised funding?
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