How to Get Investors’ Attention

 

For over a decade I worked in business financial services with a focus on helping companies find funding. In that time, I worked with various small businesses from big manufacturers to solo entrepreneurs with great new products. What I was actually doing was a form of marketing: developing a strategy for “selling” the company to the right investor partner. While I continued to work with hundreds of companies and business owners, I kept hearing the same things. Over time, as these issues kept coming up, I was able to pinpoint 3 key must-haves that investors need to see from new products and startups that signal they are ready for funding.

The first became a hard rule for my strategies and recommendations, and that rule stands to this day. If you want someone to invest in you and your business, you had better be ready to put some skin in the game yourself and invest in a solid marketing strategy and brand. Without it, you may be a great company or product—but perception is real, and you have to “look the part.”

Skin in the Game. 

You mean other than my hard work day in and day out? YES. 

One of the first questions every single potential investor asks is, “How much have you invested in this idea?” And no matter how you slice it, what you believe your time is worth and the calculation you came up with for how much time you have spent thus far—is NOT the answer they want. They want to hear a dollar amount you have personally put into this and what happened to it and why you need more. You need to have concise, real (verifiable) answers here. 

Brand.  

It turns out that a hand-drawn logo on a napkin that your next-door neighbor made isn’t enough to convince anyone that you have a real brand. The perception of you, your company and your products or services is predicated on what emotions your brand evokes in your audience and what they think about you as a result. Here are some often heard examples:

  • Hand Drawn logo: This person doesn’t know what they are doing and they don’t have a real business
  • Rudimentary logo by a “friend:” There’s no money behind this project and it’s just a hobby
  • Outdated logo: This logo looks like it has been recycled from something else and feels like they aren’t in touch with current trends
  • Complicated logo design or explanation: Trying to be clever or having a full 3-page story about your logo turns off investors. They want to see a clean, easy-to-understand brand. Not something that is overly complicated or has a detailed backstory that only means something to you. 

Secondly, you need to get out of your own way. There comes a point in every entrepreneur’s life where they must realize that even though they built this company or product to solve a problem they themselves were experiencing, they are not their own target audience. 

Target Audience.  

As the owner of the company, your target audience may be patterned after you. They are probably very much like you in many ways. They likely have similar problems to yours, have a similar occupation and experience many of the same issues you are trying to solve. However, they are not you. Your personal taste in design or content or color does not necessarily appeal to everyone you are targeting. That is why it is important to remember who your audience is and appeal to them, not yourself. 

Does this typically mean that you will end up with a brand that is broader than you originally thought? Yes. Does it work better? Also yes. Working to find something that appeals to the larger audience will not only work in the long run for your brand, but it will also help you get the positive attention of the investors that you want—because you are demonstrating your solid understanding that your company/service/product is not for YOU. 

Go Get Funded.

Once you have some skin in the game, a real, thoughtfully developed brand and some insight on your target audience, your investors will start to look at your offering more seriously. If they are going to bet on you, they want to know that their chances at success (meaning yours) are good. Making sure these elements are integral to your pitch shows potential investors that you’re committed to your idea, you know there’s an audience out there that wants to buy your product and that you know how you’re going to sell it to them.

Need some help putting the pieces together? Let’s get in touch.