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'Meet the investor' workshop @ Startup Week 2011
1. Meet the Investor Workshop Part 1 Startup Week 2011 Oliver Holle, CEO
2. Challenges for CEE Start-Ups Great Talent, Great Products, Great Momentum in Vienna – but… Little entrepreneurial experience, network or international sales / BD skills Significant operational gaps in founding team Limited exit possibilites if you stay too local First time entrepreneurs face steep learning curve OUTCOME: Long learning cycles, lots of mistakes
9. On SpeedInvest Approach Leading Austrian internet/mobile entrepreneurs come together to form start-up ‘accelerator’ platform for Central Europe Full partnership approach: “hands on” work with cash investment Total funds of EUR 10m 3-5 investments per year, dealsize 250,000 - 500,000 EUR Focus Early stage internet/mobile startups Alps and Danube region, closeby CEE/SEE markets 4
22. Five Investor Myths that are plain wrong VC‘s are stupid You need a hockey stick It‘s all about the right pitch Avoid „dumb“ money Dilution is death
23. Find your Ballpark Idea, Businessplan First Subsidy, Prototype Beta (B2C) / 1st Client (B2B) Successful metrics Revenue Growth FF&F (Prof.) Angel Seed Fund Seed / VC VC
24. Stages of a Marriage 1st Meeting Follow Up Term- sheet 1st Contact 2nd Meeting Face to Face Social proof Be concise, polite & fast Chose your target carefully Everyone is important Flirt, don‘t chase
25. Stages of a Marriage 1st Meeting Follow Up Term- sheet 1st Contact 2nd Meeting Start from scratch Build trust: don‘t lie, don‘t oversell, explain yourself Focus is on product and you (your team) Don‘t bore us with tons of slides, numbers Sidenote: it may take a few 1st meetings…
26. Stages of a Marriage 1st Meeting Follow Up Term- sheet 1st Contact 2nd Meeting Bring your team Have good, concise answers to the hard questions If not, explain why but remain the expert Be numbers driven, be the expert Dont get annoyed: this is grilling time
27. Stages of a Marriage 1st Meeting Follow Up Term- sheet 1st Contact 2nd Meeting Continue to build relationships Deliver in high quality (this is a test) Make sure you have a „Plan B“ Be patient, it always takes longer Sort out any issues you have NOW
28. Stages of a Marriage 1st Meeting Follow Up Term- sheet 1st Contact 2nd Meeting This is not an ego battle, keep friendly and cooperate Have a (credible) plan B, and you have a negotiation Choose your (few) battles wisely Valuation is overvalued – understand the details Relax, they want you
29. Stages of a Marriage 1st Meeting Follow Up Term- sheet 1st Contact 2nd Meeting This is not an ego battle, keep friendly and cooperate Have a (credible) plan B, and you have a negotiation Choose your (few) battles wisely Valuation is overvalued – understand the details Relax, they want you $$$$$
30. Solution How do you address this need? Why is this better/cheaper/unique? What value for the user/client? Commercially relevant factors neglected Driven by feasibility, not need Prototype Scalability Route to market and its cost not considered How will you capture value? How do you monetize this value? Is this concept scaleable? Business Model Too much focus on technology Just because something works does not mean anyone needs it Data / prototype Patent list Full patent texts Why is it unique / different? How can you defend it? Does it work? Have you proof? Technology Not enough focus on it Not well enough thought through Not enough resources (€, HR…) devoted to execution Anything of relevance The more specific (i.e. closer to reality, action oriented), the better How will you sell it? What resources will you need? What drives buying decisions? Marketing & Sales Anatomy: Ten topics dissected Topic Questions to answer Common fallacies Supporting mat‘s Problem What’s the need you address? How big, significant, urgent? Mission-critical or nice-to-have? Insignificant problem Engineering driven (solution seeking problem) Market research Customer interviews - Source: GCP
31. Team Who will implement the plan? Can they do it? track record? Advisors? Recruitment needs? All R&D, no sales / commercial No assessment of future needs Full CVs Reference list Unrealistic/intransparent assumptions (both ways) No clearly identified milestones No linking of risk & return Unrealistic funding requirement (both ways – too lo/hi) Financial Plan, esp. monthly Cash-Flows Milestone Plan Funding requirement & use of proceeds What do you plan to achieve when? What are your assumptions? How do you measure progress? What resources do you need? What will you use them for? Projections, Milestones Anatomy: Ten topics dissected Topic Questions to answer Common fallacies Supporting mat‘s Competition Who else is in the game? Substitutes? Industry food chain? What’s your unfair advantage/USP? “Nobody offers this (yet)” Unknown competitors “Our widget can….” - Not action-oriented - Where are you now? What next? Status & Timeline Introduction rather than summary Written first, rather than last Too long - Give a complete and concise overview of the opportunity on no more than two pages ExecSum Source: GCP
32. How to do it right? Focus on your product Save time – choose your targets wisely Build social capital Build up multiple routes (competition) Don‘t be greedy to early
33. How to get a 5M USD Sequoia A Round! By Erik Bovee, Founder SpeedInvest 18
34. We just won ‘Go Silicon Valley’/AWS pre-seed/grandma died, and our CEO is moving to Sunnyvale for 12 weeks to get US funding! Outcome -12 weeks without a rudder, product delays, you spend all the money, everyone moves back in with parents 19
35. What Happens in Silicon Valley? The Scene on the Ground is different than what you read in TechCrunch ‚You have a local/social/mobile shopping app? Cool! That was my MSc thesis at Stanford in 2007. We got funded, but went bankrupt in 2009...I‘m doing a Jedi robot start-up this year.‘ –annoying guy at the YCombinator party 20
36. More Bad News.... Wirtschafts...what? I went to Stanford -Famous Austrian Engineer Fritz Pfleumer – yes, I had to look him up. 13 Facebook ‚Likes! 21
37. …The End You will not get funding on Sand Hill Road Thanks for coming, and have a great Startup Week! 22
40. Head of Product Management VeriSign (Fortune 500) Enterprise Messaging Services
41. VP Business Development Wikitude – RIM, Sony, VerizonMost important – about 1,000,000 unsuccessful VC pitches 23
42. Seriously...What Does it Take? Careful planning, traction, friends on the ground, being ‚American‘ As a foreign company, your idea won‘t sell on its own – VC perceive high risk You need help building relationships – warm intros are essential You need someone on the ground for you in SV year round You need a solid US operational story Your pitch should be 10 slides, and it should be absolutely perfect – (not European ‚perfect‘...Silicon Valley perfect) – get local advice and practice 24
43. When Should We Go? Go when you have the following: Working product + growth (NOT research showing ‚hockey stick‘ in 2014...seriously, if you have that slide, throw it out) Pitch that you have worked over 500+ times with US help Credible US operational plan – CEO (and founders, sales, marketing) have to move to Palo Alto. Not optional. US Customer or user base (or solid pipeline at least) Carefully selected VC shortlist that you have been courting for 6 months – ask for advice early, soft pitch. A founding team that interacts and presents well together (...spend time coaching the CTO on how to talk to human beings) US-style ‚Passion‘ – ability to express energy and confidence (and you can‘t laugh when you do it) Create media buzz – the appearance of growth, health and energy is essential - TC articles, conferences, etc., etc. 25
44. How Do US VCs Think? – TOP SECRET It really has nothing to do with your idea... They think your pitch is great and want to keep talking... Time is on the VC‘s side They want to see how teams react under pressure They get interested when someone else is interested Do you have a track record in The Valley? They love pre-funding milestones...you will go bankrupt reaching their milestones... You will get a really loooooong ‚NO‘ 26
47. Short window of opportunityGet warm intros through us – soft pitch to friends first Create buzz – put massive energy into PR, networking, pitching Be a little arrogant – ‚We‘re raising 2.5M USD by end of Q2. Let us know by February 15 if you are in.‘ Set your own milestone agenda ‚When you ask for money, you get advice. When you ask for advice you get money.‘ Let people know you are shopping, and broadcast success (discreetly) – ‚I hear those guys are already negotiating a term sheet with SVAngel!‘ (PS – This stuff won‘t work on SpeedInvest) 27
48. Do you Really Need US Money? US VCs are great if there is a reason to be in the US Can you differentiate against US market/competition – ‚Me, too!‘ products can find solid exits in Europe (and you might not even know your product is ‚Me, too!‘ until you spend 12 weeks in SV) European VCs don‘t play by the same hard rules – closer to home is often a low risk option for seed/series A Risks and costs of US market penetration have to be weighed carefully – even a 12 week CEO trip can be expensive (...and not just in terms of money) 28
49. Thank You! Oliver – oliver.holle@speedinvest.com mobile - +4369913205532 Daniel – daniel@speedinvest.com mobile Erik – erik.bovee@speedinvest.com mobile - +1 831 239 0061