Meeting Logistics
A good order for meeting investors is low -> high -> medium -> everyone else. Make sure to parallelize as much as possible!
Naturally, the first step of kicking off conversations is getting introductions to investors. This is where all the hard work you put into Phase I - Preparation will finally start to pay off - in spades! Let’s start with logistical details:
Order of Investor Meetings
A good order for meeting investors is low -> high -> medium -> everyone else. The ranking refers to the “overall fit” category, which I described in Essential Investor Pre-Qualifications.
Why start with “low?” Even though you have had plenty of practice pitching entrepreneurs as per Network with VC-backed Entrepreneurs, you should expect that you won’t be at your best in the first few investor conversations. After all, the stakes are much higher when talking to VCs. Starting with “low” fit VCs is basically warming up for more promising conversations later in the process.
Once you are in good shape, you want to hit the “high” category, because those are the folks most likely to become believers based on your pre-qualified list. This is the key audience you are really after, which will probably take up the majority of your time.
Finally, you can finish off with the ”medium” fit VCs and then everyone else. At this point you are working the long tail, which is still meaningful because pre-qualifying is not an exact business.
Regardless of your “fit” ranking, do not underestimate any VC conversations. Presumably, all investors on your list are there for a reason. And you never know when you might run into a believer!
Parallelize
The most important thing about fundraising is to parallelize investor conversations. You want to run a tight process, in the sense that you “appear” on the fundraising stage for a limited and brief amount of time, talk to key VCs, make a deal, and then go back to building your business.
That creates a competitive environment, which is the most powerful tactic you have against the natural tendency of VCs to wait for more information and reduced risk. Fortunately, because you built a strong network made up of champions willing to bat for you, parallelizing should be very straightforward for you.
By the way, you should expect that not everyone from your network will deliver on their promises to help. This could happen for a myriad of reasons ranging from personal issues to business challenges. Don’t take it personally. Remember: you built a network with multiple connections to investors for this very eventuality.