- The cover slide should offer complete contact info, and a tagline if you’ve got one.

- PowerPoint forces you to describe your business to your potential investor presentation in very few words.

Slide #2 Cover Slide Problem / Market Opportunity

- What problem is your company addressing?

– Explain the pain

- What is your market opportunity?

– How big is it?

Slide #3 Cover Slide Solution / Product

- What’s your solution to the problem?

- What is your product or service?

- How does it uniquely solve the problem compared to existing solutions?

- Do NOT get into a deep competitive analysis yet

Slide #4 Cover Slide Business Model

- How will your product be sold?

- Subscription, Up-Front Fees, Recurring

- What is required to become profitable?

Slide #5 Cover Slide Underlying Magic / Technology

- Provide more detail on the technology and/or process that you have developed to deliver your unique solution.

- If appropriate, discuss patent status.

VC 4 Africa Contributor: Victor Oluremi Adedoyin

– It doesn’t need to be “War and Peace”

– Include an Executive Summary

– Use a “Bottom-Up” analysis of the market opportunity

– Be realistic with your projections

Be Clear

– Use plain language and avoid jargon

– Discuss the market problem and explain how your solution addresses that problem

– Use examples and/or screenshots whenever possible

Address the Risks Head On

– Market Risk: Talk honestly about competition. Recognize that Market Adoption is always a factor.

– Technology Risk: It’s OK to sell vaporware and betaware, but don’t try to sell your investors that you’re further along than you really are.

– Financial Risk: Don’t be too greedy with your equity and don’t run out of cash.

– Execution Risk: Have a back up plan and expect bumps in the road.

– Management Risk: Talk about your experiences, your successes and your failures.

– Explain how they’re relevant to the current business. Be upfront about management team weaknesses. Every team has room to grow.

Questions Your B-Plan Should Address

Key Questions

– What problem do you solve?

– What is your product?

– Who is the customer?

– Who will sell it?

– How many people will buy it?

– How much will it cost?

– How much will you charge?

– When will you break even?

The Product

– Why would anyone buy your product?

– What will it look like?

– When will it ship?

– How different are you from the competition?

– What is the product’s name?

The Customer

– Do the customers think it is a good idea?

– Who is the real customer?

– What are your customers’ secrets?

– Should you do focus groups?

– How much will the customer pay?

The Competition

– Who is your competition?

– What are they doing?

– What is their value proposition?

– What are their secrets?

Market Research

– What do the experts say?

– What do the numbers say?

– What do the users say?

– What’s on the web?

– What do the media think?

– Can you predict the future?

The Marketing Strategy

– What is your strategic objective?

– What is your marketing objective?

– How will you sell and support the product?

– Who will generate demand?

– Will you need marketing or sales?

– What is the marketing plan?

– How do you become front page news?

VC 4 Africa Contributor: Victor Oluremi Adedoyin

Here’s a quick primer on those factors

VC 4 Africa Contributor: Victor Oluremi Adedoyin

Recruiting and Retention Secrets of Inc. 500 Alumni
Learn from the triumphs of former Inc. 500 companies — and their failures — in this Inc. 500 guide to recruiting and retention.

Executive Team

Rule #3: Leadership
Tom Peters, FastCompany Magazine
50 ways of being a leader during modern times.

Sam Walton’s 10 Rules for Success
Wal-Mart founder’s 10 rules for successful leadership.

Advisory Boards

Building a Great Board
Large collection of resources, assembled by Inc. Magazine, on how to build and run a board that you can count on.

How Experienced Advisors Can Make a Big Difference
Rivka Tadjer, Startup Journal
Wall Street Journal Center for Entrepreneurs article explains why the most important task an entrepreneur faces in the throes of a start-up is finding the right advisers.

Business 101: Building the Board
Jill Andresky Fraser, Inc. Magazine
A strong board of directors can make all the difference to a growth company. Here’s how to draft one.

Attracting and Retaining Employees

How to Hire an Employee
Entrepreneur Magazine’s comprehensive guide to hiring employees; includes information on finding and screening candidates, interviewing, benefits, and legal aspects of being an employer.

VC 4 Africa Contributor: Victor Oluremi Adedoyin

Inc. Magazine Marketing Resource Center
All of Inc. Magazine’s marketing articles organized by topic, along with resources, columns, forums, and an “ask the expert” feature.

Branding

What Great Brands Do
Alan Webber, Fast Company
Scott Bedbury knows brands. The man who gave the world ‘Just Do It’ and Frappuccino shares his eight-point program to turn anything — from sneakers to coffee to You — into a great brand.

Branding Your Business
Sheryl Nance-Nash, Fortune Small Business
Article discusses the issues worth considering when selecting a product or service name, as well as ways to test the name with consumers.

Big Brands (Small Companies)
Ellen Neuborne, BusinessWeek
How to build a big brand without the ad budget or the marketing muscle of a giant corporation.

The Brand Called You
Alison Seiffer, Fast Company
Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Here’s what it takes to be the CEO of Me Inc.

Come Up with a Name That Sells
Kathy Kobliski, Entrepreneur Magazine
Q&A explores how to build a brand, from increasing the public’s awareness of your business name and logo to building a strong company “essence” that inspires loyalty and trust in customers.

Brand New Branding
Sari Kalin, Darwin Magazine
Forget what you knew about branding. The Web changes everything. Four experts explain how and why.

Public Relations

Publicity FAQ
Practical guide to getting PR explains what you need to get reporters to cover your company, as well as how to reach them.

The Press Release Primer
Teri Lammers, Inc. Magazine
Excellent set of guidelines for putting together successful press-releases.

Writing a Press Release
Kimberly McCall, Inc. Magazine
This short guide to writing a press release will enable you to get the word out to the media in an effective, professional way.

VC 4 Africa Contributor: Victor Oluremi Adedoyin

Find out what VCs and Angel Investors are really looking for in a business investment.

VC 4 Africa Contributor: Victor Oluremi Adedoyin

Research: It is worth spending as much time as possible on research. Entrepreneurs should go onto the internet, and talk to as many people as possible about the idea. One need not spend an enormous amount of money on research, and people are usually happy to give their opinion. The more research that is done in early stages the more stable the later stages of a business will be. One can never test the market too well, and this process is also important to affirm that an idea is solid. Long advises not to go for too much funding to soon, just what is required to get the business through the next few months. This stage of the business typically costs in the thousands or tens of thousands of rands and is often funded by friends or family.

Taking the idea to the next level: This stage usually requires a little money to build a prototype, patent an idea, develop the business concept further, and grow a team of competent people to take the idea forward. For this stage, one would typically look at what is called an angel investor – someone with excess cash – or alternatively this may be the time to bring some partners on board. Partners should be able to add value, by contributing skills that are complementary to those of the entrepreneur. Investment at this stage may not only be in the form of money – perhaps a skilled friend can help with a patent, or contribute IT or accounting skills. The trick is not to try and do it all alone. Typically, the amount of investment at this stage can be in the hundred thousands and possibly a million or two.

Venture capital: By this stage, a little red tape has developed, and the value of the idea needs to be quantifiable, supported with structures, and include some formal reporting on activity in order to approach companies for further investment. While there need not be any revenue or profits yet, an investor of this amount of money would need to do some due diligence on the business and would expect some type of prototype and sometimes initial revenue. This is often the venture capital market or loan funding stage, with investment being from millions to generally in the lower tens of millions.

Later stage investment: Once a business starts to have profits, the options change. An entrepreneur at this stage could get financing from the bank, so debt becomes a viable option versus equity. And then later if more than around R50 million is required, private equity could be a good option – whether through acquisition, management buyout or a private equity deal. For this later stage investment, a business would certainly need a sustained revenue stream and have a track record of profitability.

Angel investors have been major engines of the booming New Economy. Angel investors generate new ideas, contribute innovative technologies to the marketplace, and inject much-needed vitality into complacent industries. new Ventures occasionally grow into major corporations, such as Microsoft, Dell, America Online, Netscape, and others.

We cannot underestimate how astute many of these investors are. They are self-made millionaires. Over and above their homes and cars, they typically have net worth of $1 million to $10 million, having been extremely successful investors in the public as well as the private market. In most cases, they bank on their own judgment to once again select venture like the one that made them wealthy.

To minimize the confusion about which capital sources are angel investors, I’m going to define some other sources of funds for private companies:

* Institutional investor: A corporation, financial institution, or other organization (e.g., venture capital firm) that uses money raised from another party to provide capital to a private business owned and operated by someone else.
* Friends and family investor: An individual who uses his own money to provide capital to a private business owned and operated by a family member, work colleague, friend or neighbor.
* Informal investor: An individual (not an institution) who uses his own money to provide capital to a private business owned and operated by someone else.

Venture capital itself has been defined as the search for significantly above average long-term investment returns accomplished primarily through equity ownership of or involvement in risky start-up or emerging companies, companies typically managed by experienced executives. Such companies tend to focus on rapidly growing markets and to provide innovative products, technology or services.

Venture investment can range from riskier seed, R&D, and start-up funding at the earlier stages through bridge, acquisition, merger, and turnaround investments at later stages in the development of the venture. Obviously, ventures at the riskier end of the spectrum offer potentially higher returns if they meet their projections.

Typically, seed defines a company in the idea stage, when its process are being organized. R&D is typical of the financing of product development for early-stage but more developed companies, start-up designates a venture completing its product development and initial marketing. At the less-risky end, bridge designates a venture requiring short-term capital to reach stability. Acquisition and merger refer to a company’s need for capital to finance an acquisition. Turnaround denotes a venture that needs capital to change from an unprofitable to a more profitable circumstance.

VC 4 Africa Contributor: Victor Oluremi Adedoyin