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Concept Stage:
Attention Span of Investors: Count on 10 minutes. Maximum. Always.

By Gerald Youngblood and Dave Mackie
Managing Partners, seedstage.com

Investors decide NOT to invest during the first 10 minutes of your presentation. This means you have no more than that amount of time to get them interested. The investors should be able to "get it" within the first 10 minutes, and they should see the opportunity within the first five.

Why It's Important
You may not have a second chance to tell your story. First impressions with investors become set in stone. In addition, investors talk to each other, so if one investor doesn't buy your story, the others will soon know.

How It Works
Your goal is to make an investor want to meet with you again, and to give him the tools to be able to tell someone else why he wants to do so.

Here are the guidelines for your presentation:
First, assume the investor knows nothing about your industry. This means absolutely no jargon, no acronyms, no insider terms.

Second, use a big-picture approach (forget about sharing the details on which programming language you prefer). Tell your story with five slides:

1) your market,
2) your team,
3) your competition,
4) your business model and how you're going to attack your market,
5) how you're going to make money and the return on investment for the investor.


DO:  
  • Tell as much of your story as possible, in easy-to-understand pictures and diagrams.
  • Know your investor - they have different interests and backgrounds.
  • Understand what the investors have invested in before, and what their track record has been.
  • Understand your investor's business model -- they invest different amounts of money and will have different levels of involvement.
DON'T:  
  • Talk for more than 15 minutes. Ever.
  • Assume your investor knows your industry.
  • Forget the big picture - your product and technology alone are meaningless.
   

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