How to submit your own company
It is much easier to talk with the investor, if he understands what makes your company. As the founder of the company, you will have thousands of times to talk about it. To be effective, your presentation should be clear and concise.
In this article, I mixed process of creating a presentation to the answers to the seven questions. If you can answer briefly at seven, then coped well with the task of presenting the company.
Seven questions
- What are you doing?
Start with the name of your company and what it does. For example: «Socialcam is a mobile application that makes it easy to make a video and share it with friends and family." It is not necessary to state the problem, just go to the point.
Many people spend a lot of effort trying to make the idea seem impressive. Normally, when it looks easy. In fact, it is even more preferable. All you need to explain what you do to the maximum plain language. The material should be adapted accordingly. Your introduction to the essence of the investor should be the same as the contents of the packaging of baby food for the child.
If you are difficult to simple words to describe your product, it can be an effective description of the user's actions. For example: "Hello, we present Google. We want to do a site with a window in it. The user can type in this box any question, and we will show the sites, to answer this question. "
Description of communication with the user and his actions will help eliminate this sort of explanation: "Hello, we present Google. We organize the world's information, indexing network. " After this explanation, I, as an investor, is lost to you.
Your goal in answering this question must be in the wrong, that I understood all of your business, but rather to interest me and encourage to ask further questions.
- How big is the market?
There are two ways to estimate the size of the market. If you enter an existing domain (such as small business loans), you can examine it. If you create a new product or an area (eg, Slack), we can estimate the number of clients who would be interested in your product, as well as the ability to pay for it.
For example, the firm produces Bellabeat trackers activity for women. In the US, home to X women aged 14 to 45 years old. The service life of our activity tracker is two years. Thus, the possibility of expanding the limited value of Y market products.
To estimate the size of the market and your potential share it, there are two methods: top-down and bottom-up. When you define a top-down approach the full size of the market and evaluate your possible participation on it. If bottom-up approach, you see that sells similar products, what is the volume of sales and what% of this volume, you might assume. I prefer to use a bottom-up approach to help avoid common mistakes down approach - lack of customer specification. In the example above, this would mean the inclusion of women in all market volume - regardless of age or nationality.
- How fast you're running?
I as an investor trying to figure out how fast you are running. What did you do and how long you worked on it?
I want to feel inspired by how much you have done for the period of time that worked on the product. This applies both to the company, there is only one week, and to the company operating for decades.
I am also inclined to assess the first product development and customers, and other things such as fundraising or business development activities, are of secondary importance to me.
- What is your unique approach?
It seems the question "What is the problem you solve?", But the bar, after all, higher. I would like to hear from you what you know about this problem is, others do not know. Such knowledge is usually the result of extensive communication with customers, in-depth analysis of the existing products on the market and often personal experiences.
For example: Gmail. A unique approach was that the mailbox is considered as a personal database for communication and documentation. Is the user wants to remove anything in your personal database? Gmail gave people plenty of room, so that they never need to remove accumulated while communicating. The approach here is not that people have received e-mail. It already existed. And it is not that people needed a more high-quality e-mail. It's too vague. A unique approach is specific and has a simple language.
Between your market and your unique approach, you have two opportunities to teach me something. The unique approach of a startup often gives me more understanding in fact, than the explanation of the company's affairs.
It is important to mention that enthusiasm does not help here. If your not a good approach, the energetic weakens his statement, and does not improve your position. For example: "Bro, I stopudovo know, email is now awesome furychit bad."
- Your business model?
There are two types of start-ups: those who know they will make money and those who do not know this. By and large, if you are in the second category, then you are going to make money turning or after reaching a sufficient size, in advertising, or copying the prevailing business model in your field. A small part of the companies in the second category offers a new business model, the meaning of which is determined by the product - how it changes the market. Frimium (shareware product) is a good example here.
One mistake that I often did on Justin.tv, would offer a set of business models (virtual goods, hidden advertising, IM ads, contests, etc.). I'm embarrassed to say that Justin.tv generates income from advertising, while it was clear that it was the only answer. Use a simple business model.
- Who is your team?
I as an investor interested in a few things: how many of the founders? Is there a technical co-founder? How long have they known each other? Did any of them busy full-time? As equity is distributed among the founders (I hope, in equal shares, or close to it)?
If there are some qualities that are relevant to the subject under discussion, it would also like to see them. For example: you create raketostroitelnuyu company and were once an expert on missiles in the company SpaceX. Basically, if you focus on a rather complex and regulated area, it is important to have the experience of appropriate solutions to these problems.
Do not remember your grade point average in school or what you once worked at Google.
- What do you want?
Do not be shy to ask. If you need me to invest, then ask. If you have any questions - ask. For clarity: "What do you think?" - A bad question. "My idea is good?" - One more bad question.
Help me help you. I want to help you.
Work on your questions
If you have an answer to each of the seven questions, the answers to how to make more clear as possible. To do this, you must eliminate jargon, acronyms, slang and marketing any ambiguous words, such as, for example, the "platform". In principle, even if the answer is simpler than it should be, in your opinion.
Admission, which you can try, I call "email test". Explain in two sentences, what does your startup, and send the note to some savvy friend. Ask him to send his explanation, but written in other words. If friends while asking some pertinent questions, then your submission must be processed. It is important to do so via email to avoid explanations that could be in direct communication.
That's what we do during the cycle YC and that is not aware of most of the people - we help companies with representations composed literally of two sentences. The answer to the question: "What are you doing?". We work with the entire working day throughout the cycle. Such a response - a good pitch rod. When the matter is closed, writing a good presentation becomes an easy affair.
When you edit your responses should certainly keep in mind that they should not be "cool". They should be clear and understandable. Do not try to be aggressive. Do not seek to be intrusive.
conclusion
I'm much more interested in progress than in the brilliant ideas. Many good ideas at first did not seem so at first consideration, so your ability to show development and progress in your work and your intelligence, which manifests itself in how you respond to the above listed issues, is a very positive signal. Once I understand what you are working, this is sufficient reason to believe that it is likely you will be able to succeed.