Whats the best way to get a Venture Capitalist's attention?

Answer 1

The very best way is to have very thought through project. Not as much in detail for details are worked out after Venture Capitalist agrees to do business with you.

It has to show the benefits of the deal, many times higher ROI (Return On Investment) than any other investment available, detailed honesty about all the risks involved but most of all, no matter how many people, groups or companies will be participating, it must show that everybody involved will come out of the deal as a WINNER. Equally including you of course. There are only two things that kill the deals or bury very sound projects and companies -- GREED and EGO.

Stick to these ideals and Venture Capitalist will start knocking on your doors. It always works for me!

A WORD OF CAUTION: There are many companies out there providing services of locating a Venture Capitalist for you. Very few if any can actually deliver. Their "trick" is that they may take on a hundreds of applications at $1,000.00 a piece and out of this collected amount finance one or two deals using it as a refference for their services.

Legitimate company will agree to collect its commission or fees after they deliver the 'goods' charging flat rate or anywhere from 3% to 10% from the secured amount.

Depending on what project you have you may want to drop me a line if you need more detailed suggestions. Free of charge to you of course.

Answer 2

Not sure if I put it in a correct order (or if there is a correct order), but here you go:

1. To operate (or plan to operate) in the industry the VC is interested in. If you have a social networking or a new media company, you will be of no interest to a VC specializing in handheld hardware; he simply won't feel comfortable evaluating your revenue prospects and competitive position.

2. To be in the right development stage. All VCs have a preferred habitat, be it start-up, proof of concept, revenue, mezzanine, or pre-IPO, and they don't like to stray too far from it; they may go one notch up or down, but no more than that.

3. To have the right funding requirements. If a VC only invests in deals requiring between $5 and $20 million, he won't listen to a $200k proposal, nor to a $100 million proposal (unless he has a co-investor in mind); either would be out of his range.

4. To have a presentable management team in place. At the very least, you should have someone capable of overseeing product development, someone who knows how to market the product once it's developed, and someone who can keep track of where the money goes and have an intelligent conversation about burn rates, pro forma financials, valuation, and all that. Ideally, you also want a CEO with previous experience running high-growth companies. They don't have to quit their day jobs yet, but they must be prepared to attend meetings with potential investors and start working for the new company full-time once funding is in place.

5. To have substantial revenue potential (tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue is okay, hundreds of millions is good, billions is even better).

Answer 3

Let me know if you find out!

There are some good service companies out there that can help - it costs around $800 to start. Check online.