WEBVTT 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:17.080 Kia ora koutou. Hello and welcome to episode 12 of NZAngels.com, a guide to raising angel 00:00:17.080 --> 00:00:22.760 investment in Aotearoa, New Zealand. I'm Dave Moskovitz, one of New Zealand's most experienced 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:29.780 angel investors. And this is Episode 12: What does great look like? 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:35.380 CONTENT WARNING: This episode involves not much talking on my part and quite a lot of work 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:43.180 on your part. Sorry, not sorry. Imagine that your venture goes really well. 00:00:43.180 --> 00:00:49.460 Timing and luck seem to be with you. Customers love you and sales are growing steadily. Your 00:00:49.460 --> 00:00:55.960 business is "default alive". Board meetings and investor calls are a pleasure. You rediscover 00:00:55.960 --> 00:01:04.920 weekends and even get an occasional holiday. You did it! Ka pai! Congratulations! 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:10.520 Back in episode 6, you planned out your "so what", your purpose for your business and for 00:01:10.520 --> 00:01:17.280 yourself. You feel like you're starting to deliver on both. But what does your business 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:23.600 look like at this scale? Let's get straight into the mahi. Part one 00:01:23.600 --> 00:01:27.080 of your homework is to write a page or so describing what your business will look like 00:01:27.080 --> 00:01:34.240 when it's successful. Customers, products, channels, revenue, competition, locations, 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:41.479 staff, supply chain, investors, include anything you like in here. Don't put too much time 00:01:41.479 --> 00:01:48.520 into this as "good enough is good enough" and it's going to change each time you pivot. 00:01:48.520 --> 00:01:53.080 But you'll notice that some things stay constant with each pivot and those are the things to 00:01:53.080 --> 00:01:58.039 pay attention to, and the things that you can describe to prospective investors when 00:01:58.039 --> 00:02:05.800 they ask you about your aspirations at scale. Most founders start out with a grandiose vision 00:02:05.800 --> 00:02:11.800 and bite off a small piece of it to start out with, your minimum viable product or MVP. 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:17.440 Each successive bite is a step toward achieving that vision. As you achieve scale, are you 00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:22.480 still doing the same thing you were when you started? Or like an insect, will you have 00:02:22.480 --> 00:02:33.200 had to go through several stages of metamorphosis, egg, larva, pupa, adult, in order to get there? 00:02:33.200 --> 00:02:37.880 Part two of your homework is to draw out a visual roadmap of how you get from where you 00:02:37.880 --> 00:02:43.839 are now to the vision you wrote in part one. Again, don't spend hours working this out. 00:02:43.839 --> 00:02:48.519 A rough sketch will do and will surface some of the details that you'll want to start looking 00:02:48.520 --> 00:02:54.280 into. And like the vision, your roadmap will change with each pivot, but there will be 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:59.560 some constant things as well. And these are worth putting some research into. And when 00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:06.880 investors ask you, "how are you going to do that"? You'll have some answers ready. 00:03:06.880 --> 00:03:10.000 Part three of your homework is to get out of the building and share your vision and 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:17.240 roadmap with people you trust. Find at least one each of the following: Customers, or potential customers, 00:03:17.240 --> 00:03:25.960 suppliers, suppliers or potential suppliers, co-founders, employees or potential ones, 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:33.680 investors or potential investors, mentors or potential mentors and other founders. 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:38.360 If you don't know any other founders, now is a great time to find some, perhaps through 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:47.000 meetups, your local economic development agency, your university, local angel network, Startup Aotearoa... 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:52.200 If you've made it this far into this podcast series, you're serious and you'll really appreciate 00:03:52.200 --> 00:03:57.720 the support of your peer founders as you get further into your founder journey. Your peers 00:03:57.720 --> 00:04:02.720 will appreciate your support too. You want to be able to confide in people on the same 00:04:02.720 --> 00:04:08.560 terrifying and exhilarating startup roller coaster ride as you're on. 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:14.520 Keep notes on what they say. Pay attention, but not too much. And always remember it's 00:04:14.520 --> 00:04:20.680 your company. Don't get caught in advice whiplash and stay focused on your purpose. 00:04:20.680 --> 00:04:27.240 Take every piece of advice that you get with several grains of salt. 00:04:27.240 --> 00:04:33.160 Do your vision and roadmap stack up with other people? Which bits resonated the most? Which 00:04:33.160 --> 00:04:39.760 bits drew the most incredulous chuckles? How do you tell the story better? Your investment 00:04:39.760 --> 00:04:45.039 pitch is part of a bigger story and you need to start getting really good at telling it. 00:04:45.039 --> 00:04:51.719 Well, I'm going to leave you with that. You have quite a lot of work to get through. Today's 00:04:51.719 --> 00:05:00.719 pithy quote is, "good enough is good enough". Now, even with the help of your AI friends, 00:05:00.719 --> 00:05:05.400 you're unlikely to be able to achieve your vision all by yourself. You're going to need 00:05:05.400 --> 00:05:11.520 a team. Your team is probably the most significant thing an investor is going to look at when 00:05:11.520 --> 00:05:19.599 evaluating your investment opportunity, especially at seed stage. And that is the main subject 00:05:19.599 --> 00:05:24.599 of our next episode. So until then, ka kite.