Articles

I want to hit four of these most common mistakes so you can simply skip them! I promise you, I’ve made them all and there’s really no reason to go back there. Most importantly, once you get your foot in the door for an investor meeting, you want to keep it going. The four common mistakes I’m going to address are assumptions, making promises you won’t keep, talking too much and looking desp…Read More

I want to hit four of these most common mistakes so you can simply skip them! I promise you, I’ve made them all and there’s really no reason to go back there. Most importantly, once you get your foot in the door for an investor meeting, you want to keep it going. The four common mistakes I’m going to address are assumptions, making promises you won’t keep, talking too much and looking desp…Read More

I want to hit four of these most common mistakes so you can simply skip them! I promise you, I’ve made them all and there’s really no reason to go back there. Most importantly, once you get your foot in the door for an investor meeting, you want to keep it going. The four common mistakes I’m going to address are assumptions, making promises you won’t keep, talking too much and looking desp…Read More

I want to hit four of these most common mistakes so you can simply skip them! I promise you, I’ve made them all and there’s really no reason to go back there. Most importantly, once you get your foot in the door for an investor meeting, you want to keep it going. The four common mistakes I’m going to address are assumptions, making promises you won’t keep, talking too much and looking desp…Read More

Pros Easy to access You already have relationships You already have connections Cons It can really screw up those relationships and connections in a big way. Most businesses have ups and downs. The downs get pretty tough to talk about with friends, particularly if their money is on the line. It’s a lot easier to talk about the downs when you're just out to lunch with a friend. But, if their mone…Read More

The sky is the limit, as long as it’s legal. I’ve seen some really creative investment structures and have come up with some curious and interesting ones myself. If it’s legal and there’s nothing in the state or federal law that prohibits you from partnering with somebody or putting a business together, then dream up a deal and agree on paper. What a deal may look like Your agreement may s…Read More

Having an investor presentation is very important and you want to have it right. The initial investor pitch probably should not be on an iPad or on a computer. I’m not a big fan of handing an investor 50 pages all bound up so they can read everything about your company – they don’t have time to read all of that. Get in there and be relational. It’s about that connection again. Be relationa…Read More

More than you think is the answer. Typically, when somebody walks in my office and says, “Here’s my business and product. I’ve calculated it all out - this is what I’ll need to get this thing running and to be self-sustaining,” I typically double or triple whatever they tell me in my mind. They come in and say “Look, this is going to cost me $80,000,” then I’m instantly going to $1…Read More

Answer: It all comes down to how much cash is it going to generate or how much market share is it going to own. To explain further… If it’s not a cash machine, if it’s like an iPhone app or a product that just attracts attention and gets a lot of people looking at it, then it can be worth cash to an advertiser because they want to put their ads there. Figure out the cash value look at what i…Read More

That depends. It always comes down to the deal. Ultimately, the investor is going to share the risk with you. Think about it this way… You’ve got some time, expertise, a lot of dreaming, a lot of work, a lot of sweat equity, maybe a lot of your own money at this point that’s been put into this deal. The more you’ve put into it, the more valuable the investment is potentially worth and the …Read More

Answer: Weigh your capacity Holding out means you have a bigger piece of the pie, right? If you can do this on your own, go for it! If you have the resources, time, energy, connections, etc., then keep 100%. But, if you’re already looking for investors, I have a feeling you’re missing something. There’s a little (or big) something you need that would be helpful to have. You just need to deci…Read More

A: It’s relationships, relationships, relationships. It’s really hard to get introduced to investors if you just jump on LinkedIn and start saying, “Hi! I’m Chris. I’m three relationships removed from you and I would like to talk to you about this exciting opportunity I have.” I would delete, delete, delete if I saw that in my LinkedIn inbox. On the other hand, if somebody says to me, …Read More

The overly simplified differences: Investors Investors give you resources and you get to go do your thing. You get to go run your business, build a product, grow your team or whatever you need to do. Some investors want to be more involved than others, but in general, an investor is, and in many cases should be, a little removed from the day in, day out workings of the business. The investor's job…Read More