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MenuWhat is the best way to get connected to investors? Do I absolutely need a business plan?
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Vehemently disagree with Noam that you should spend anytime on a business plan. You should be spending *all* of your time getting your product to market. The likelihood of any investor investing at the pre-product level is low. While it does happen, it is almost always when investing in a proven entrepreneur or team that is very experienced.
Once your product is in market, you will craft a deck that outlines the usage data in the best possible light to tell the story of how your product can grow into a viable business. At the time you have your product in the market, you can talk to me or a number of great Clarity advisers on what a good deck looks like, but at the moment, you are best served by spending all your energy getting the product shipped and getting some early traction.
Any investor that wants to judge an internet business based on it's business plan is really not an investor an entrepreneur should want investing in their Company. It's a sign of significant inexperience.
Would you give your money to someone who doesn't have a written plan you can look through?
Nobody parts with their money unless they are convinced they will see a return (unless they're a good friend who does you a favor and doesn't care about seeing their money back).
There are more options for financing than Angels and VCs.
You need to first go back to the business modeling drawing board: a good business plan is flexible, short and shows potential investors you have thought about all potential problems and have taken into account all aspects of the business.
Schedule a call with me to get honest and experienced feedback on your funding potential, and start working on your business plan together to maximise your funding potential.
In the second phase, we will also work on your pitch and networking within the different investors communities.
Related Questions
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What is the generally agreed upon "good" DAU/MAU for mobile apps?
You are right that the range is wide. You need to figure what are good values to have for your category. Also, you can focus on the trend (is your DAU/MAU increasing vs decreasing after you make changes) even if benchmarking is tough. Unless your app is adding a huge number of users every day (which can skew DAU/MAU), you can trust the ratio as a good indication of how engaged your users are. For games, DAU/MAU of ~20-30% is considered to be pretty good. For social apps, like a messenger app, a successful one would have a DAU/MAU closer to 50%. In general most apps struggle to get to DAU/MAU of 20% or more. Make sure you have the right definition of who is an active user for your app, and get a good sense of what % of users are actually using your app every day. Happy to discuss what is a good benchmark for your specific app depending on what it does.SG
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What happens to a convertible note if the company fails?
Convertible notes are by no means "earned." They are often easier to raise for early-stage companies who don't want to or can't raise an equity round. Equity rounds almost always require a simultaneous close of either the whole round or a defined "first close" representing a significant share of the raised amount. Where there are many participants in the round comprised mostly of small seed funds and/or angel investors, shepherding everyone to a closing date can be very difficult. If a company raises money on a note and the company fails, the investors are creditors, getting money back prior to any shareholder and any creditor that doesn't have security or statutory preference. In almost every case, convertible note holders in these situations would be lucky to get pennies back on the dollar. It would be highly unusual of / unheard of for a convertible note to come with personal guarantees. Happy to talk to you about the particulars of your situation and explain more to you based on what you're wanting to know.TW
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How much equity is typically taken by investors in a seed round?
From my experience I would not advise you to go with Venture Capital when you're a start-up as in the end they will most likely end up screwing you. A much better source for funding would be angel investors or friends/family. The question of how much equity should I give away differs for every start-up. I remember with my first company I gave away 30% because I wanted to get it off the ground. This was the best decision I ever made. Don't over valuate your company as having 70% of something is big is a whole lot better than having 100% of something small. You have to decide your companies value based on Assets/I.P(Intellectual Property)/Projections. I assume you have some follow up questions and I would love to help you so if you need any help feel free to call me. Kind Regards, GiulianoGS
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What's the best visual format to display the size of the market when doing a pitch deck.
I like to take a rule from the Steve jobs playbook and use simple circles... one larger than the other but no more than 2. your most immediate target (realistic reachable) and one of the "enemy" competitor company. or overall untapped market cap. **for this to be effective you must provide as accurate projections as possible** no bar graphs and as little or no text as possible... remember that a deck is a companion to the speaker... avoid bullet points and use the deck to entertain rather than educate... is not a class is a pitch. :)HV
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Among platforms for startup funding, AngelList is the 800 pound gorilla. Does it make sense to use simultaneously other platforms like Gust, etc?
Short answer: Of course! Many angel groups require you to submit through Gust because it offers a consistency and makes reviewing applications easier. But not all use Gust same as not all use AngelList... I haven't met an angel who frowns upon using multiple platforms. I would encourage you to leverage your twitter and Facebook or Instagram to meet angels and get in their radar (don't hassle or stalk) just try to get exposed a bit to them by being part of the same meetup group, follow the same blog, membership... Subscribe to their own blog.. And when you submit funding request considerations do please send a follow up email or a call or basket of fruits if you have contact them before.HV
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