What VCs Want to See

VCs Want to See the Following:

• A very concise deck (7 to 10 slides max)
• Who is on the team, and what are their abilities and experiences?
• 20K foot view of the technology
• How many patents filed? Status? Any other I.P.?
• A detailed 3 to 4 month milestone timeline tied to funding
• Explanation in detail how monies will be spent
• Proof of concept, prototype, production plan
• Required Infrastructure to scale?
• Remaining cash that will be available when go out for next round?
• Realistic plan to protect investor investment, and opportunity for next round?
• Pro-forma financial plan (match to mid-stream spending plan/milestones)
• Plan to manage the monies
• Tools required to get to each milestone?
• Initial costs, recurring costs, OH, R&D, S&M, etc.?
• Size of market, market share expectations, # of years to reach?
• Advantage and time to market versus others?
• Killer solution to get to market fast
• What is being used to solve the problems now, what competition is developing
• Follow up plans for when problem changes
• Type of corporate entity
• Current valuation of the company? Back up valuation with IP, IO, etc.
• Client customer letter of intent, P.O., or Insertion Order I.O.
• Terms of equity? Typical seed round investments are investor 30 to 40 percent, founders 70 to 60 percent
• Milestone dates and spending plan executed perfectly

Exit Plan

Exit plan (M&A, IPO, other?)

• Investors invest to get a return
• Returns occurs typically either through M&A or IPO
• Plan to return principle and expected 20x ROI to investors