Fundraise Kit
Founders live and breathe the problem everyday. VCs look at 100s of decks in a month, which most often results in a communication gap and an articulation problem. Building a small checklist to exercise will help founders better articulate their answers.
Hari Pragdish
Co founder, SaaS Insider
Concept Note
This is a good way to showcase your idea for a first meeting. Minimal information, just about the problem you are trying to solve.
How long should it be?
2 pages. Concept notes should be precise and talk about the problem and outcome of what you are building.
When should we use it?
Use it when you are sharing your idea to an investor when asking for the first meeting, along with your pitch deck.
10 Page Deck
More suitable for investors with high volume of applications. Keep it short and simple.
Example
Go through this template by Guy Kawasaki and always follow the 10/20/30 rule
When should we use it?
Use this for you initial pitch meetings, or while asking for a meeting. Should be readable in 90 sec.
Investment Memo
You know the problem better than anyone. Build a very detailed document discussing your problem, current market scenario and your solution.
Example
When should we use it?
Share the memo post initial meeting. The document will be read only if they are interested to further evaluate your pitch.
Questionnaire / FAQ
People like to invest in founders with quick, share and clear answers. This comes only if you have penned down all scenarios.
The first version is always crappy, so build a questionnaire, iterate and optimize your answers.
Questioners to answer
A good place to start is by answering and documenting all questions from Y combinator, South Park Commons and Accel atoms.
How will it help?
This provides clarity and confidence in your conversations.
Improve as you go by documenting all the good questions from your pitch meetings and re-iterate your answers regularly.
Videos & demos
You don't want to send a product demo 2 days after a meeting.
Record one vide each for pitch, demo and use cases.
Examples
Checkout Mercury's product demo and Clueso's home page. You can build a basic guided demo with a Storylane free account
How does it help
This helps showcase the outcomes. Give them a feel of the product, a small experience goes a long way.
Market Research
Geek out on your target accounts, market size, customer persona, buyer persona, decision journey, buying committee map and value proposition etc
Example
We are working on a sample template, to be release with our fundraising kit.
How does this help
This show clarity, discipline and prep. Your idea could get you the meeting, but it is the numbers that turn the meeting into an investment.
Projections & KPIs
Build a clear document on usage of funds, projected revenue and user milestones.
It is okay if the first draft is not accurate. Get help from fellow founders and investor friends to streamline your projections.
Example
We are working on a sample template, to be release with our fundraising kit.
How does this help?
It provides confidence for investors and accountability for founders.
$1M & $100M plan
Clarity in the $1M plan will help you attain PMF faster.
We all know its too far to plan for $100M revenue. But it shows how your predict the evolution of your product, market and GTM.
Example
We are working on a sample template, to be release with our fundraising kit.
How does this help?
All VCs want a $1B company, which means minimum $100M ARR. This exercise will show you if it is possible
