Angel Investment:
Meeting an Investor and presenting your Investment summary

"People don't buy products, they buy people...

Investors don't invest in businesses, they invest in People."

If you are seeking to raise angel investment for your business ask yourself the question now; when you finally do find an angel investor interested in discussing your proposal further with you, are you going to be willing to pitch your idea and stand-up to the scrutiny from an angel investor?

Nerve racking stuff even for the most experienced entrepreneur but not so nerve racking if you have prepared for the investor meeting in the right way.

The first skill of being an entrepreneur is the ability to instil confidence in others by being able to clearly communicate your thoughts, ideas and vision and there is little or no point in using a service like Venture Giant to find you angel investors if you are NOT prepared to speak, package, present and be willing to sell your business as an angel investment opportunity.

Always remember, angel investors are highly successful business people that get approached daily by entrepreneurs, and when you meet an investor for the first time no matter how eloquent you are, there will be little to no value in just talking to him/her no matter how good your proposition is. Contraversial advice but the best way to stand out from the crowd is to always say less and prepare the rest in writing to let the facts of your proposal speak for themselves. Think how many times you will press the delete key and realise when you talk you will not get a second chance and this is the main reason why an investor will be hot one minute and then cold on another. One single incorrect sentence can turn an investor cold and it is important for entrepreneurs to realise how unforgiving investors really can be.

When meeting an investor for the first time instead of just talking, have a well written investment summary to hand for an investor to review at his/her own time.

A well written investment summary prepared especially for an Angel Investor that he/she can peruse at his/her own leisure will make a much bigger impact than an entrepreneur ever could and the reason behind this is because business angels think very differently from entrepreneurs. Business Angels are not used to getting up and talking like entrepreneurs are used to do doing every day, and it is important for entrepreneurs to learn how to articulate themselves in ways that business angel investors feel comfortable with, and be very patient throughout the whole process, as angel investment will never happen overnight. In fact it is not uncommon for deal structure to take a period of six months to iron out all of the details before receiving the angel investment and entrepreneurs must always work towards a bigger picture by taking it slowly, saying less and writing more.

Let the facts speak for themselves; Entrepreneurs should say less & write more.

To sell your product to a customer you will design a pamphlet, create some graphical literature and perhaps even create a website that speaks your customer’s language in a way that they understand. Even the most amazing product or service will require some form of presentation before a customer is willing to part with his cash and that is the minimum expected by the consumer today. 

Much in the same way, when you pitch for angel investment, an entrepreneur has to click a switch and sell the entire business proposition to an angel investor in a format that they understand by speaking their language. It is astonishing that some entrepreneurs really believe that they do not need to pitch or create a graphical presentation to investors because they believe that they have a great product or idea and that should just speak for itself.

Writing a business plan is a key skill and the number 1 mistake entrepreneurs often make when looking to raise angel investment is assuming that an investor will not require a full, well written, well researched business plan with financials before investing.

Pearl: The only time you should be approaching angel investors is when you have completed the following steps:

1) You have completed a full Business Plan with Financial Projections

2) Completed an Investment Summary. (It is important for you to draft your investment summary ONLY after you have completed a full business plan - more on this below).

... And when invited to make a pitch on your business

3) When invited to make an official pitch to an Angel Investor it is important to have some form of a powerpoint/graphical presentation prepared with key bullet points highlighted which structures out your whole pitch.

It is always recommended to leave a one-page investment summary with all investors that sells your proposition to an investor at the end of the pitch with lots of details on 'what's in it for an investor'.


Full Business Plan with Financial Projections

A well written, well researched business plan will not only improve an Angel Investor's confidence in you, it will also increase your own confidence level as it will fully prepare you to answer all of the questions a Business Angel is going to ask you.  And, yes, you will need a business plan even if your business is already running or even if you have already invested some of your own capital into your own business!

Not having a business plan in place, communicates the following to an investor:

(a) that you are not really serious about your business, or worse

(b) that you are not really serious about raising angel investment.

Also, do not be surprised, if after having written a full business plan that you are suddenly less passionate about your Start-up. Simply put, a Business Plan will force you to look at your own Start-up in ways that you never thought you should and it can be a shattering experience if you have created one thoroughly as you will have to confront all sorts of negatives of your business and its operations, understandably something you would rather not dwell on.

Writing a full and comprehensive business plan will force you to play Devil’s Advocate with yourself and your idea and will ensure that you address most areas of weakness before approaching an Angel Investor for Funding.

Creating an Investment Summary

Create a perfect Investment Pitch / Investment Summary

Your investment summary is NOT your executive summary and it must tell the entire story of your business plan in one page. The perfect investment summary will have a framework similar to a sonata; Exposition, Development and Recapitulation and will summarise your entire business plan in one page.

Your investment summary must touch on your product or service and the problems that it solves, but should never JUST concentrate on what your product or service does in its entirety. Remember you are not trying to make an Angel investor buy your product or service, you are trying to make him buy a piece of your business, so your investment summary should focus on the industry you are in and the money that can be made from it.

Clicking on the link above will send you to an article that shows you how to craft and create the perfect investment summary. We created the article after reviewing over 2500 angel investment proposals on Venture Giant and eHow.com and many other sources have referenced it.

Pearl: No matter how great the temptation, NEVER create an Investment summary BEFORE you have fully completed your business plan and try where possible to craft the investment summary to each individual investor that you are going to give it to.

We hope these tips help – and wish you all the best in attracting future angel investment on Venture Giant or otherwise.

NB: if you are angel investment ready, and have a fully completed investment summary, we can get it sent out to hundreds of investors today in three simple steps.

Not only does Venture Giant solve the problem on how your investment summary should be presented to an angel investor, we also send it out to our exclusive network of Angel investors that are looking to invest in uk Businesses and Start-ups. Best of all, is that we will only charge you a one off low cost listing fee, only if we are able to find you an interested investor. 

Structuring and pitching a deal with the investor will come down to you which is why we can keep our fees so low and we never charge commision on any successful deals done on Venture Giant. All investor contacts are covered by our gurantee, which ensures that any investor contacts received through Venture Giant are genuine. To submit your proposal or to find out more about Venture Giant please follow the links below.

 

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