This video provides a step-by-step guide to creating an effective investor outreach strategy, focusing on identifying the right investors and optimizing the fundraising timeline. It emphasizes the importance of knowing who to approach and how to secure the necessary funding for your company.
What this video covers
Today we’re going to be talking about how to put together an investor outreach strategy.
Getting out there and getting in front of the right people that are going to invest in your company and be excited about the opportunity of even potentially investing in your business that have the right type of investment theses and that they’ve been looking to invest in companies like yours is essential. You want to optimize your time—the time that it takes from getting out there to getting the money in the bank.
In today’s video, we’re going to be breaking it down for you and giving you a step-by-step guide so that you can really get that strategy so that you know who you want to get out there and how you’re going to be closing the money that your company needs. So without further ado, let’s get into it!
Then, also, keep in mind, as well, where you’re at in terms of the financing cycle because that strategy is not going to be the same if you are at a Seed Stage, which is the first round of financing, going after individuals mainly. Or if it’s a Series A Round, where you’re going, for the first time, after institutional investors like venture capital firms. So, again, put your strategy together as the first step in this process.
Before you actually put the investor strategy or the outreach together, you want to make sure that you have the right team in place. Ultimately, especially if you’re in the early stages of your business, the investors are going to be investing in you. They’re going to be investing in helping you in building this company, but they’re going to do so if they see that the right people are seated in the right seats.
Then, you want to know the market. You want to know: who are the players? Who are your competitors? Are they directly there against you or the indirect competitors? You want to know, as well, how big this market is. Who are the potential investors that make sense? Then, what is getting them excited, and what are some of the potential concerns that are out there at this moment in time?
The next thing is to craft the message. You want to put together the message, for example, on your emails, whether that is the opening paragraph, the next paragraph that is going to be your background, or the last paragraph that is going to be that call to action for the request of the meeting. Ultimately, you want to put together an email that makes sense.
Then, of course, is the pitch deck. Again, the pitch deck is critical. Don’t start from scratch. You can use the template below that founders are using all over the world. It’s for free.
Now, it’s time to unleash the investor outreach. Start getting those meetings. Start thinking about this as a sales process where there are different phases on that cell cycle.
Then over the course of time, they’re going to see how you execute and how you’re delivering on your promise. So your intention is not to get the money on that first meeting. Your intention is to get to the next meeting because the more meetings that you get, the more concerns that you’re able to address.
Then you want to track and measure your performance. How many of your emails are being opened? How many of your emails are being responded to? How many meetings are you able to schedule? How many follow-up meetings are you getting? Think about this as a funnel and see where you’re dropping the ball. Where could you optimize? Where could you do better things?
