Posted by Drew on July 23, 2008 at 09:23:28:
In Reply to: Re: Venture capitalists posted by IB (NJ) on July 20, 2008 at 08:56:11:
The executive summary and the management sections are the first two a VC will read. Management contains your resume and credentials, and will often get read first, even before the exec sum so the VC knows who is presenting this plan. VCs are investing 25% in an idea, which must be credible, and 75% in execution which means YOU. You must also be credible.
I once pitched a VC firm where the ONLY thing they had read was my resume. They had no idea what my business proposal was; I got the meeting with them because I had been referred by the CEO of another investment they had made. They expected me to be able to describe the business and the financial parameters of the proposed investment (including exit and upside potential) in under two minutes. Then we spent the next hour in a grueling Q&A session. These were all operationally focused--investment negotiations, such as pre-money valuation (the most important one) occur at subsequent meetings.
I am talking here about actual VCs, meaning those professionals affiliated with a firm. Angels are a whole different thing; they operate by their own criteria, so there are far fewer rules of thumb.
- Re: Not quite... IB (NJ) 20:25:49 07/23/08 (0)