No Story, No Money

In our experience working with non-traditional funders (angel investors, venture capitalists, community funders and similar individuals or groups), we’ve learned a few things. The most important is this: No Story, No Money.

We’ve watching thousands of entrepreneurs pitch their product or service. We’ve seen hundreds of them secure funding. Those that do always have a great story.

If you want to secure non-traditional funding, your story needs to have these three elements:

1. It must create a deep understanding of what you are doing, the purpose for the money needed, the length of time for which you need the money, and your intention for utilizing the funds for what is called Milestones.

2. It must establish that you want funding in order to be in business rather than that you need funding to be in business.

3. The story has to make sense of what has happened, what is happening now, and what is going to happen with your business and the market, your numbers, what you have been doing, what you need to be doing, and where are you going.

While these questions may seem elementary at the moment, when you sit down with pen/paper or a laptop/spreadsheet, you will realize immediately that they are complex and need to be thought through with absolute clarity. They might involve other people or organizations such as architects, lawyers, CPAs, merchandising, or marketing companies.

We’ve said before that for every one minute of a pitch, you probably need eight hours of practice. Before that eight hours of practice, you’re bound to have 40 to 60 hours of collecting and analyzing data to make that 1-minute pitch and then practice so you can present with substance, not fluff.

BEFORE YOU GO

We see our blogs as opportunities for dialogue. Please share your thoughts as comments.

1. What homework have you done about your biz before you pitch?

2. What homework have you don about the funders and what they fund before you pitch?

3. What other tools have you utilized to make your funding possibilities happen?

#BusinessPitch, #Entrepreneurship, #Funding, #FarisAlami