How do you get investors to read your startup business plan? Well, short of walking into their offices and holding a gun to their heads, there’s no guaranteed way to get them to read your pitch for the greatest thing since sliced bread.
There are, however, several ways to get them not to read your startup business plan, and they include:
- Send it to investors who don’t invest in your space – You’re a pre-revenue media entertainment startup located in Washington, DC, seeking seed funding, and you send the plan to a later-stage investor who doesn’t focus on media and entertainment. Wrong Stage. Wrong Geography. Wrong Investor.
- Blind Unsolicited – Send in an unsolicited blind plan. Why waste a stamp? If you’re sending in a blind, unsolicited business plan to an investor, save yourself a stamp. Just put it in an envelope, address the envelope, and place it in your recycle bin. Maybe you should shred it first so no one else will find out how stupid you are.
- Technology – Make it all about the tech. Tell them everything about the inner workings of your technology, and ignore why anyone would want it.
- Use lots and lots of big words – Forget graphics, bullets, and a narrative. Just write tons and tons of text.
- Angel List – Count on your Angel List listing to do the work for you.
If you blindly spray and pray business plan to every Tom, Dick, and Harry… if this is your idea of strategic execution… then how do you expect an investor to have confidence you can execute a go-to-market plan?
Want Investors To Read Your Startup Business Plan?
- Investor Targeting – Investors don’t invest indiscriminately. They tend to invest in companies based in defined locations, certain growth stages, and defined sectors. Use Crunchbase and Pitchbook to find investors that match your company.
- Whisper Campaign – Start a whisper campaign. Draw up a list of investors who are likely to invest in companies like yours. Then, figure out who you know who knows those investors. Get friends and family to whisper in potential investors’ ears. Have people tell target investors that they should check you out. Get a warm introduction.
- Pain, Solution, Market Size – Make your business plan a narrative that involves the pain your solution addresses, the difference it makes in the lives of your target users, and how many of those users there are (how big the market is). Tell a story.
- Visual – Make it easy to read and understand. Fewer words, more illustrations, and graphs.
- Proactive – Investors don’t knock on doors. Your angel list listing is a support mechanism, not a marketing and sales tool.
Do some work. Earn investor attention.
Want help developing and executing an investor marketing plan? Schedule a complimentary one-on-one consultation.
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