Sunday, February 1, 2009

IRAP VC Panel Presentation

Presenting on crutches - that sure was a conversation starter.

It actually moved one of the common questions to #2 - "were you on Dragons' Den?"

We were first up Friday morning to present to a VC panel, consisting of investors from Yaletown Venture Partners, Discovery Capital, BDC Venture Capital, WUTIF, Telus Ventures, Growthworks Capital, BC Renaissance Fund and ProActiveStrat.

Presenting in front of a real investor panel is always rewarding in that you get the tough questions from people who are considering putting money into your team and business.

it's a reality check. Have you considered your business from the perspective of an investor? What have you done to mitigate the risk factors and to show them that the business is commercializable and profitable?

A lot of times the business concept can appear game-changing for an industry, but what investors actually look for is whether your team is able to execute on the concept to exploit the opportunity in the market.

When you are pitching, you should definitely have the answer to this question:

WHY WILL PEOPLE BUY?

The answer to this question better be convincing - ie. YOU have to believe that it will work. Common questions that we face in a meeting is "How are you going to exchange $100M in your exchange on a monthly basis?"

I think the more important question would be how are we going to lock-in our customers to provide consistent revenues for our system.


I am sure that a lot of other entrepreneurs, much like us, project that we will have millions upon millions of dollars in revenue - but the plan to get there is constantly revised - it has to be believable, executable and able to provide the results we project.

That is no easy task. So get to work on it because that is always a question on any investor's list.

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