Finding an investor: Getting started

Okay now. You have made a bunch of research. You have written a thorough 16 pages business plan, and now you are ready to go pitch to investors – right? Wrong.

Granted, investors do wish to read a well written business plan, but it is a misconception that you should send them your complete business plan as the first thing. I have read several articles saying: “Write a good business plan – this is our template and 10 steps to write one – and then send it out to different investors. Make sure the executive summary is really nice, cause that’s the first thing they read – if not interesting, they won’t read the rest...” – My point is, they won’t read the executive summary to begin with.

To clarify again, you should always write a business plan, and at some point, an investor do indeed wish to read it, but there is one important step prior to all of that happening. You have to create a pitch deck (yes – that is the official term – look it up), which is like a brief, often visually appealing, teaser that is giving the reader a quick and easy to understand overview of the most essential parts of the business idea.

When the investor has had a look at this overview, it is much easier for them to make a decision on whether or how they find the idea interesting and worth their engagement, and hereafter they will reach out to you in order to get a more in-depth presentation. Considering that some investors probably receive thousands of proposals every year, the chance for them to look at your deck vs. a 16 pages long business plan is much higher. Another great benefit from this, is that even if the investor himself is not interested, he will be able to understand the idea much easier, and therefore be able to forward the proposal to a colleague working in a more similar field.