Startup Professionals Musings: Investor Presentation – 10 Slides is Just Right

Twitter is truly amazing – the opportunity to find GEMS on the internet from a simple connection request is AMAZING – so for all those startups seeking to present how investors like to be pitched to below is one guys thoughts which look pretty good to APLINK…

An alternative approach, which I prefer, is to build the investor presentation first, by iterating on the bullets with your team, and then fleshing out the points into a full-blown text-based business plan document. Here are the ten slides you need:

1. Market Need and Solution. Define the problem or the market need, and outline your solution. Give the “elevator pitch” for your startup.

2. Company & Business Model. Name of the company and organization, product or services, how you will make money, who pays you, and gross margin.

3. Product & Technology. Define the technology behind your product or services (past, present, and future development phases). Make sure to communicate the relevance of your product / services to market needs. Describe your technology patents and “secret sauce”.

4. Industry & Market Sizing. Define the characteristics of the overall industry, market forces, market dynamics, and customer landscape. The investor needs to understand the industry of your company. Use data from third parties like Forrester or Gartner.

5. Marketing, Sales, and Partners. Describe marketing strategy, sales plan, pricing, and partnership plans. Here is also a good place for a rollout timeline with key milestones.

6. Competition and Competitive Advantage. List and describe your competition. Describe some of your company’s competitive advantages.

7. Management Team. Qualifications and roles of the top three executives and top three on your Board of Advisors.

8. Funding Requirements and Use of Funds. How much money (if any) has management put into the venture? What is the level of capital funding sought during this stage? What is the company willing to give in return for the investment?

9. Financial Forecast and Metrics. Project both revenues and expense totals for next three years, and past three years. What is the current valuation of the company? Show breakeven and growth assumptions.

10. Exit Strategy. What is the timeframe of return on investment? What is the planned exit strategy (IPO, merger, sale, etc…)? What is the timeframe for the exit? What is the rate of return expected for the investor?

via Startup Professionals Musings: Investor Presentation – 10 Slides is Just Right.