How many presentations do you have to make until you find an investor?

1000. We’re talking here about the seed investment (the first money in the company).

Whenever I had to raise an investment, to find investors for my ideas, I was amazed by the inability of those I talked to, to understand the huge opportunity I, in my greatness and benevolence, brought to their attention. I always tried to tell them what fools – they, the investors – were because they didn’t want to put their money in my idea and to gain from what seemed to me to be the business of a lifetime.

Now, looking from the other side of the table, I noticed a few mistakes I used to make in my assumptions:

• Many investors listen to you with interest, but they don’t have money. So your opportunity may be however interesting, they will not invest. But they shouldn’t be ignored – you never know when, for an upcoming project, you’ll meet them again and they’ll have money. If they understood you’re good, they will want to invest;
• Others have a very well defined investment strategy: for instance, I only invest in software, SaaS, online, ecommerce. If you come to me with a brewery that is really profitable (otherwise an excellent opportunity), it’s not of interest to me;
• Some are looking to invest a certain amount of money, others want to have a certain percentage of the company;
• There are investors who prefer a certain type of people to work with;
• And there are investors who are only interested in a certain stage of a company’s existence (seed / A Round / B Round / Growth);
• From those interested, with some you’ll get along at your assessment, with others you won’t get along when it comes to the contract;
• And the person you get along with is not always the one you would’ve liked to invest in you.

So many filters between those you talk to and the one who’ll eventually invest! To imagine that you’ll come across *the one* at the first try is simply utopian. Statistics is at work here too and you must speak to 1000 people before one of them invests.

It would be great to be able to study each investor from these perspectives before starting to make presentations and go only to those you can assume are interested, have money and are compatible with you. In reality, this doesn’t really happen, especially in Romania, where investors aren’t used to formally defining their investment strategy and let alone communicating it to the public. On the other hand, it’s very useful to present to as many people as possible, because every presentation is a lesson for you. Basically, you’ll have the opportunity to talk to smart people and every remark they make is potential (free) added value to your business. What’s more, this is how you build your network and the network of your new company. One of them might become a client in the future, another one might invest in a future round and a third one might mention you to someone else.

Going back to my initial question: how many presentations do you need to make? A lot of them. And I mean a lot. I would say 1000. You must present your company to all of those who want to listen to you and you must be prepared for some of them to tell you it’s not their field of expertise, or they don’t have money, or that they’ll listen to you some other time etc. None of these presentations will have been made in vain, and at some point you’ll find the right investor (or an acceptable compromise).

I would also like to comment a bit on ways of making a presentation. I get emails, exclusively verbal presentations, word documents. I get technical descriptions for future products or an idea in one sentence. My suggestion is making a powerpoint presentation (let’s call it an investment deck), built following a specific template I found with the help of our friend, Google. I use this one. Making such a powerpoint presentation has some advantages:

• It makes you think about all the important problems you need to solve;
• It structures your way of thinking and also the way you actually present to someone who knows nothing about you and your project;
• It gives that person a well-structured document for future reference – some investors have an “opportunity tracking” system.

So – good luck with your presentations! 🙂

(English version by Teodora Popescu)