What i often see is that we (investors) are bombarded with tons of pitches/proposals:
1. Most of the pitches, messages, emails, proposals are from the Startup Aspirants or Early stage starups who either don't know how to pitch or simply sending the emails & pitches for no reason.
2. More than 90% pitches are worthless & are immediately thrown into SPAM folder because the sender, again, do not know what they are doing or what they are pitching.
3. When Investors do not listen to or discard the pitch, the market is then flooded with messages that investors are not serious or they do not really invest however this is totally untrue. Investors do listen and invest but only in the businesses where they think the business is worth and will be rewarding. Ofcourse nobody is willing to invest time & money on the idea or the proposal or pitch if it is not presented properly or if its worthless.
4. Another problem with the startups looking for funds is that the startup founders are impatient, ill educated thus when it comes to fund raising they want the cheque to be presented in the first meeting. They do not know that an investment can take a few months to 1-2 years.
5. One more problem is commonly seen with the startup aspirants or the startup founders that they want an investor to sign an NDA before even they talk about or disclose their idea. There are a lot of these startup founders mainly in developing nations. These people create a lot of mess/damage to the startup ecosystem as almost everyone of this type is definitely not serious about the business or the investment but just wandering if he is lucky enough to fool an investor to get the money which is 100% waste.
There are always few good startups, businesses and founders who are good, their product is good, they are patient and listen to investors (questions & advises) and this helps build a good relationship between two parties that often results in investments & growth.
Important factors that plays an important role in investments:
1. Time is money: Investors are very very particular about spending their time (even a single minute) for quality rather than quantity and where they think is worth for the consideration and for investments.
2. Pitch/Plan: Even if you have good business but you cannot present it in a good pitch or with a good business plan or can't explain it in simple words then definitely nobody is going to take any interest in it. Consider you will pay $10 for a cup of coffee if it is well served and that too in a good ambiance.
3. Engagement: Again engagement means value of time & money. If your business/idea has good future and you yourself are worth of it then definitely there will be an engagement HOWEVER this engagement is not like having a conversation on daily basis but once in a week or two weeks kind of.
Remember, investors are not just looking for the product, traction, numbers, business model BUT also the person who is running it and the team that he has (this is the major factor here).
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