You know the Mantra…”During the Bear Market, it is time to Build!”
This phrase couldn’t be more accurate, but the issue is… What do we mean by Building? Building what exactly?
The first thing that comes to mind is building a piece of code that represents the initial draft of a tech solution that the fuzz world army calls Minimum Viable Product or MVP.
Well, that’s a very narrow interpretation of what an MVP is. Let me tell you what it means for Angel Investors, Seed round Financiers, VC’s, Private Equity Firms, Hedge Funds or even Banks.
Your MVP certainly must include the programing code that will enable a real solution, but also it must include the following:
1) A team of Founders and Managers with the right mindset. Yes, you not only need to be qualified and experienced in what you are producing and selling but also you must have the capacity of navigating turbulent times because guess what…it will be pressure cooking time 99% of the time.
2) Your Ego must be on check, yes, an Alpha can do it and a self-confident attitude is necessary but don’t over cook it because if that happens, you are going to annoy plenty of people along the road and that increases your risk of not making it. Negotiation skills!
3) Your community must be active, smart, and thriving. The quality of your followers will tell a lot about your project. Trust me, if your “loyals” are only close to you because you are promising and selling a get rich quick scheme, they are going to throw you under the bus at any second.
4) You should pay very close and careful attention to the jurisdiction you are choosing to base your legal entity. This is especially important in the Crypto and Blockchain Industry where the world is literally divided into three groups; the ones that want to develop and take advantage of this new technology, the ones that have no idea of what they are doing yet and those who are so buried into the rabbit hole of multilateral entities that simply can’t afford the dignity of independent thinking. So choose wisely!
5) Link to the previous point, the jurisdiction of choice will have a huge impact on the quality of your service providers… are you sure you have the right lawyer for this industry?
Sorry I am not done yet. Also, your pitch deck must be tailored to the reality and investment thesis of the Investment Fund you are trying to get funds from.
Your project, idea and pitch could be awesome and amazing yes, but so are the literally hundreds of others that I have in my inbox. So you need to take a handful of minutes before meeting with any potential financier to try to understand their needs and especially their investment mandate.
Say you are dealing with Belobaba for instance, well you must now that as a crypto native hedge fund your project must be in the web3 or Blockchain space and you must also know that you are competing with probably the best financial assets in the history … (not a Maxi but yes, it is Bitcoin). Meaning that your project after the risk adjustment, still must have a higher expectation of profitability than Bitcoin, Ether, or DOT for example.
Always remember that it is not personal. The decision to invest or to pass is not based on emotions but in methodic analysis of your case and how well it matched with the mandate of the Fund.
Last week I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of project founders, the first thing they did was to ask me about what I need as a Fund so they can produce a tailored value proposition because they know I am accountable to my investors.
Hope that these honest and open thoughts will help you to adjust and improve your pitch strategy and hence, increase your chances of getting funded.
Yours in crypto.