“Think of your startup as a plant that needs water to survive and grow,” said Rexi Christopher, Venture Partner of Init-6, during a guest lecture session for the Entrepreneurial Finance course on Monday, November 7, 2022.
According to Rexi, startups need funding to grow. There are two options for obtaining funding, namely, debt and equity. For a startup to attract investors, a business “selling” strategy is needed that is attractive to investors.
The right time to apply for funding is when a startup already has an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), as evidenced by the attractiveness of early customers, and has a robust business model and plan.
Some of the pro tips for pitching to investors, according to Rexi, are understanding your own business, explaining yourself, prioritizing advice over money, reporting regularly and honestly, and being proactive and anticipatory toward the next steps. There are also basic rules when pitching to investors, namely: short and sweet, not wordy, easy to read, and easy to understand.
“If you can’t tell a company story in five minutes, then you’re either overthinking it, nor you have simplified it enough,” says Rexi. “If you can explain your startup in under 5 minutes concisely, concisely, and clearly, investors will be more interested in funding your startup.”
Rexi added that investors have expectations of the startups they want to fund. These expectations include four things: the quality of the team founder, the business itself, the attractiveness of the market, and the business environment.
The lecture session closed with material on how to calculate the valuation of a startup, accompanied by training on case analysis of a company.
