"How to Raise Money For Your First Start Up" Most first time founders of product companies take years to get their startup pitches to be effective at raising money. John goes over a checklist of items, tasks and strategies for every first time fundraiser.

1. 7
ITEM
Checklist for
Pitching to
Professional
Investors
Copyright John Sung Kim 2018

2. Step 1
Get a list together of targeted investors
- Investor is not general investor! Professionals are targeted at
markets/models.
- Avoid investors who have invested in competitive companies.
- Research Angelist, Crunchbase and VentureBeat.
- Have at least 100 targets on your list.
- Have a “Hot 20” list from within the 100 that mode fit your IIP (Ideal Investor Profile).
- Make sure all targets are in your category (AI, B2B, Hardware, etc.)

3. Step 2
Research the general partner at each firm in your “Hot 20” list.
- Go to their LinkedIn
- Google “Name + Medium”
- Go find them on twitter and follow them and retweet.
- FInd them on Quora
- Stalk them on Facebook (see what their personality is like. Do NOT
message them).
- Comment comment comment.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
- Do NOT kiss their ass.
- Check your spelling and grammar!
- REPEAT AND WAIT
Copyright John Sung Kim 2018

4. Step 3
- Research the general partner at each firm.
- Go to their LinkedIn
- Google “Name + Medium”
- Go find them on twitter
- FInd them on Quora
- Stalk them on Facebook (see what their personality is like. Do NOT message them).
- Comment comment comment.
- Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
- Do NOT kiss their ass.
- Check your spelling and grammar!
Copyright John Sung Kim 2018

5. Step 4
- Don’t be a selfish idiot.
- Offer value first.
- Don’t expect people to open
attachments.
- Be personal.
- Don’t be a salesman.
- Be a butler first, salesman second.
Copyright John Sung Kim 2018

6. Step 5: Work on 3 pitch types
1) Tagline Pitch: Twitter for Sales Teams (Should be seven words or less).
2) Elevator Pitch: We’re a customer mass messaging tool that allows sales
teams to quickly be aware of, and share relevant news to their customer pipeline
to engage prospects and keep our customers brands top of mind.
3) Full Pitch: The world of B2B sales has changed. Customers no longer open
emails (open rates dropped from 17% in 2004 to 4% in 2017) and the most
popular emails opened by prospects involve industry news, but this is a time
consuming process for sales teams. Our StartUp makes it incredibly fast and
simple for sales teams to get relevant news from their CRM data, our software
figures out the ICP’s most timely and useful news, and automatically emails them
to the sales rep’s prospects keeping the pipeline 55% more engaged than normal.

7. Step 6 (Study Samples) Offering value
Quick elevator pitch and how it relates to the
value we are offering.
Problem we’re solving for you
Contact info
Call to action disguised as friendly meeting
where I offer more value.
Fundraise Info snuck in here along with current
company traction

8. Step 7
Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up.
- Don’t insult the investors. They speak to each other!
- It does not mean NO until they say NO.
- If they say NO, always say “Thank you, what KPIs would our startup need to
hit to have you interested? If you tell me I promise you will be the first firm I
come to when we get more traction. Thank you again for your precious time.
It is valued by our team greatly.”

9. Special Secret Gift for ITEM Attendees
When you send an email to an investor, and you insert a link to a news site, a powerpoint
presentation or a link, there is a way for you to show those investors your ads on Facebook,
Instagram and Google after you message them so they never forget about your company.
Sign up at jetbridge.com - install our extension and in April
5th we will show you how you can do this!