Swan - Startup pitch guidelines

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SWAN ANGEL NETWORK PITCH GUIDELINES Whether pitching to Swan, or any other Investor / VC, here are some basic guidelines to make sure your pitch is comprehensive, and can address most basic questions every investor will have. Making sure your Pitch includes all this information will keep the process fast and efficient for you and

Transcript of Swan - Startup pitch guidelines

Page 1: Swan - Startup pitch guidelines

SWAN ANGEL NETWORK

PITCH GUIDELINES Whether pitching to Swan, or any other Investor / VC, here are

some basic guidelines to make sure your pitch is comprehensive, and can address most basic questions every investor will have.Making sure your Pitch includes all this information will keep the

process fast and efficient for you and for Investors

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A. Executive Summary (Optional)

Provide an Executive Summary that covers all the key points of your Start-up. Summarize key messages from each of the following sections

What

Why It makes it easier for Investor to grasp the overall story, and follow the rest of the slides.More than the Investor, writing an Executive Summary will provide you a lot of clarity around your own story.Best deck-writers usually start with their story-line (in the form of an Exec Story) and build the remaining pitch from there

www.swanfinance.co.in [email protected]

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B. Market & Business ModelAddress the following common questions in terms of the market:Market Need & Solution1. What’s the current market structure? How do transactions /

activities happen today?2. What are the key pain-points of your target customer(s)?3. How are you planning to address the Problem? (Summary of

product / service)

What

Why Successful businesses are built around market needs. Having a clear understanding of market dynamics are an absolute necessity !

Business Model1. How will your company make money? Which areas of the value-chain would it

address? What would be the revenue model(s)?

Market Sizing2. What’s the current and future market size? Expected growth rate?

www.swanfinance.co.in [email protected]

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C. Product & Competitive AnalysisProduct / Service Features1. Key attributes of the Product / Service being offered by the Firm2. Product development roadmap, highlighting features or functions already live,

and those planned for development over the following 1-2 years

Competitive Analysis3. Map the competition – who else does what – which competes with the Firm’s

products / services4. What are the key differences between you and your competition5. How will your start-up build entry barrier to prevent competition from taking

over

What

Why Product is the core of the business. Without a sound product or service, a Start-up cannot succeed.

Lack of preparedness to face competition is perhaps the single biggest gap in the planning of most start-ups. You may be able to build a smalls successful business in a small location with no competition, but how will you scale to other cities where competition exists, or when others copy your idea or product?

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D. Founders and the TeamFounders1. Brief of each Founder: Name, Pic, Background, Role in the Start-up2. Important disclosures (e.g., if someone is part-time, or if family members are

Founders etc.)

Team3. Brief description of the rest of the team (names, roles & background if possible)

What

Why Products might evolve, Business Models might pivot, but ultimately it’s the Founders who do their magic to create value.Almost all Investors agree that their most important criteria for funding a company remains whether they can trust the intention and capability of the Founding team

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E. Traction, Financials and ForecastsTraction1. Growth in users, customers, transactions, revenues

etc. so far, and forecast for next 3 years

Financials2. Unit economics of the business model3. Financial forecast (revenues, costs, profit)

What

Why Everything finally converges to numbers. Quantification of key business metrics makes it very easy for an Investor to gauge whether the business can scale to its potential or not

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F. Fundraise – History and Current requirements

1. Clear representation of the funding history so far, including current shareholding pattern

2. Current fundraise with details of deployment of funds

What

Why It’s common for many Start-ups to leave the funding requirements to personal discussion instead of putting in a deck.However, making this information available upfront can help an Investor quickly gauge whether it is doable for him or not

www.swanfinance.co.in [email protected]