How to get investors to fund your start-up if you have no track record

As an investor in early-stage companies at Cocoon Capital, we meet a lot of first-time entrepreneurs who have little work experience.

The main thing we look at is the strength of the founding team. But since most of these startups haven’t generated any revenues yet, we don’t necessarily expect to find a perfect management team. We also look for founders who are passionate about what they do, confident but not arrogant, and can hustle for business and learn. We look for the ability to attract talent and build a strong team.

If you are a new founder looking to raise funds, here are some of our top tips at Cocoon Capital that will help you get your investor conversation right.

The first contact
 

The best approach for first contact is getting a common acquaintance to make an introduction. LinkedIn is an excellent platform to find common contacts.
 

The other approach is to send a cold email. If you can’t find someone who can make an introduction, make sure to personalize the email by saying, “Looking at your website, I know you have invested in X and I think that you will be interested in what I am doing.”

The first meeting
 

The most obvious advice is: Turn up on time and be prepared for the meeting. 

Following up
 

We try to make sure that we respond to all funding requests, but sometimes we miss some or it might take me a while to respond. It is amazing, though, how often founders do not follow up.

Due diligence
 

If we’re interested, we usually ask for further information on financial forecasts, sales pipeline, product roadmap, team, and intellectual property (IP). It makes us happy when the founder responds along the lines of “I can give you access to my data room where you’ll find all this information.” It shows preparedness and professionalism.

Even if you lack a track record, your actions and words can make up for that when meeting potential investors and making them believe in you.

This is an excerpt from the article published on TechInAsia. You can read the full article here