Invest In Me! Grabbing The VC’s Attention

Posted on November 15, 2007
Filed Under Business tutorials, Startups

by Jeff Turk 

If you are an entrepreneur in pursue of VC funding, here are a few insightful tips to get them looking in your direction:

• Utilize College Professors: Speaking from personal experience, this is the quickest way to get on the horn with a VC. Get networked in through a university professor. More often than not, they will have a yellow book of connections, a highly respected voice, and a wealth of experience in their field. All it takes is a simple email or phone call giving a recommendation.

• Communicate Results: Regardless of if your leaving a voicemail or sending an email to a VC, make sure you show success. Qualify by quantifying. Let them know that two months ago, in your free time (for fun), you and your partner developed a “PHP” scripted website that is now experiencing over 80,000 hits a day, and 5,000 unique visitor page views a week. These statements radiate concrete value to the VC. It personifies that…

• you are ambitious, innovative, and driven by passion.

• the website is growing and users find value in it.

• you can take a low costing operation and run far with it.

• The Blind Email: If you are going to submit a general email to a VC firm, make it short and sweet. The length should never be more than 4 paragraphs and only contain the following:

• What your company does.

• The problem you are going to solve.

• What’s so great about your company? What makes your business valuable and unique; your marketing, technology, etc.

• Who you are.

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