If everything goes well, what does your business look like at scale? Your investment pitch is part of a bigger story, which you need to get really good at telling.
Good enough is good enough.
Transcript:
Kia ora koutou, hello and welcome to Episode 12 of nzangels.com – a guide to raising angel investment in Aotearoa New Zealand. I’m Dave Moskovitz, one of New Zealand’s most experienced angel investors.
This is Episode 12 – What does “great” look like?
Content warning: This episode involves not much talking on my part, but quite a lot of work on your part. Sorry not sorry.
Imagine that your venture goes really well. Timing and luck seem to be with you. Customers love you, and sales are growing steadily. Your business is “default alive”. Board meetings and investor calls are a pleasure. You rediscover weekends, and even get an occasional holiday. You did it! Ka pai! Congratulations!
Back in Episode 6, you planned out your “so what”, your purpose for your business and yourself. You feel like you’re starting to deliver on both.
But what does your business look like at this scale?
Let’s get straight into the mahi.
Part 1 of your homework is to write a page or so describing what your business will look like when it’s successful – customers, products, channels, revenue, competition, locations, staff, supply chain, investors … include anything you’d like in here.
Don’t put too much time into this, as good enough is good enough, and it’s going to change each time you pivot. But you’ll notice that some things will stay constant with each pivot, and those are the things to pay attention to, and the things that you can describe to prospective investors when they ask you about your aspirations at scale.
Most founders start out with a grandiose vision, and bite off a small piece of it to start out with – your minimum viable product or MVP. Each successive bite is a step towards achieving that vision. As you achieve scale, are you still doing the same thing you were when you started? Or like an insect, will you have had to go through several stages of metamorphosis – egg, larva, pupa, adult – in order to get there?
Part 2 of your homework is to draw out a visual roadmap of how you get from where you are now, to the vision you wrote in Part 1. Again, don’t spend hours working this out, a rough sketch will do, and will surface some of the details that you’ll want to start looking into. And like the vision, your roadmap will change with each pivot, but there will be some constant things as well – and these are worth putting some research into, as when investors ask you “how are you going to do that,” you’ll have some answers ready.
Part 3 of your homework is to get out of the building and share your vision and roadmap with people you trust. Find at least one each of the following:
- customers or potential customers
- suppliers or potential suppliers
- co-founders, employees or potential employees
- investors or potential investors
- mentors or potential mentors
- other founders
If you don’t know any other founders, now is a great time to find some, perhaps through meetups, your Economic Development Agency, your university, local angel network, or Startup Aotearoa… If you’ve made it this far into this podcast series, you’re serious, and you’ll really appreciate the support of your peer founders as you get further into your founder journey. Your peers will appreciate your support too. You want to be able to confide in people on the same terrifying and exhilarating startup roller-coaster ride as you.
Keep notes on what they say. Pay attention, but not too much – always remember, it’s your company! Don’t get caught in advice whiplash, and stay focused on your purpose. Take every piece of advice you get with several grains of salt.
Do your vision and roadmap stack up with others? Which bits resonated the most with people? Which bits drew the most incredulous chuckles? How do you tell the story better? Your investment pitch is part of a bigger a story, and you need to start getting really good at telling it.
I’ll leave you with that – you have quite a lot of work to get through.
Today’s pithy quote is: Good enough is good enough.
Now, even with the help of your AI friends, you’re unlikely to be able to achieve your vision all by yourself. You’re going to need a team. Your team is probably the most significant thing an investor is going to look at when evaluating your investment opportunity.
And that’s the main subject of our next episode.
So until then, ka kite.
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