A CAPITAL COACH’S PERSPECTIVE – PART 1
Karl Dakin
I help you overcome challenges to raising capital. Take advantage of my Motivated Money Method to identify those investor candidates that are most likely to invest. Top expert in fundraising.
CONTENTS
?·?????? Quick Calendar
·?????? Funding Point
·?????? SuperCrowd Chicago
·?????? Top Fundraising Voice
·?????? Successful Funding
·?????? Don Cohen
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QUICK CALENDAR
?June 18 – Successful Funding – Ron Yeager – Evaluating Investment Opportunities
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FUNDING POINT – ?A CAPITAL COACH’S PERSPECTIVE – PART 1
?Most investment opportunity pitches are targeted at no one, are incomplete, or do not fully communicate the opportunity. As a result, the capital campaigns are unsuccessful or only raise a portion of the capital goal, while the small business wastes time talking to investor candidates who will never invest or who will turn the proposal for lacking credibility.
?I am producing a series on my Successful Funding show where I am inviting investors, coaches, and scouts to share their approaches to reviewing investment pitches. This week, Eric Hanson was my guest. Next week Ron Yeager will be my guest. You are invited to participate in these live streamed events where the audience can comment and ask questions.
?When an investor pitch crosses my desk, I have my own approach to reviewing the opportunity. I do invest occasionally in opportunities, although my investments are largely in-kind investments of my services. However, my approach is a ‘capital coach’ where I see my primary role is to see if I can contribute to conducting a successful capital campaign.
?I, like investor candidates, look for flaws in investment pitches. However, as a coach, I have a larger and longer list of flaws that I will consider without an outright, immediate rejection. I give thought to whether or not the flaws may be fixed. I know more funding sources than most people. I give thought to whether one or more of these sources may be a ‘workable’, ‘best’ or ‘optimal’ fit for a particular investment opportunity.
?I already have a full plate of funding projects. I receive funding proposals all the time, multiple times per week. This means that not every funding proposal receives the same amount of consideration. In the same manner that an investor will only fund one or more selected opportunities, I will also limit time to reviewing opportunities and only work with those where I believe I may make a significant contribution and which align with my interests.
?Every investor has preferred interests. They may have expended time assessing and analyzing their interests which they can clearly communicate or, on the other end of the extreme, they have made no effort and will ‘know it when they see it’. If possible, a small business should know their interests. I have an interest in community improvement and economic development that typically takes the form of providing funding or launching new businesses or industries. Often, a new technology captures my attention because its application may have far-reaching benefits.
?After filtering through the investment pitch for topics of interest, I look to my ability to rapidly understand the totality of the investment. In most cases, this is not possible. The small business or community project has submitted the entire investment package, or the pitch is no more than a request for dollars.
?In the first case where I have received the entire investment package, it may be necessary for me to spend one to two hours to briefly review the package. Kings Crowd has studied the review process and recommends spending up to 40 hours to complete due diligence of a single investment opportunity. I will not do that. I do not have the time. I will not invest my time. I do not have time to invest in something I do not know anything about. Submitting a full investment package to someone in an initial presentation of the pitch fails pitching etiquette – see yesterday’s edition of this Instant Funding newsletter – in that it disrespects the investor candidate recipient. Disrespect leads to a loss of credibility. Why would an investor candidate think that a small business leader will best manage invested funds if he or she fails to respect the time of others? The initial contact with an investor candidate should be a one-page document or slide deck equivalent that quickly frames the investment opportunity so the investor candidate can make a quick determination of interest and key deal elements.
?In the second case, where the pitch is a simple request for dollars, there is no ability to determine what the investment is all about. There may be no information about the business opportunity, the products or services, market acceptance, or the qualifications of the management team. I reject these pitches automatically. They demonstrate that the management team is solely focused on themselves, considers investors as a substitutable commodity, and does not understand fundraising or all of the above. It is possible that the investment is a great deal, but I have no time to explore the opportunity, and the management team has flunked out like it is on a game show where the contestant misses the first question. Like the game show, there will remain a large number of contestants, so first-round flunkouts are not missed.
?All of my comments fall within the accepted statements that ‘The first impression is the most important impression’ and ‘You never get the chance to make a second first impression.’
?This is just the beginning of my review of an investment opportunity pitch. I have several more hurdles for a pitch to pass. All of these hurdles must be passed quickly or placed on a stack by my desk or in a digital folder that I will rarely have time to consider later.
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SUPERCROWD CHICAGO
?WEDNESDAY, I presented at SuperCrowd Chicago with over 20 speakers on the topic of investment crowdfunding, impact investment, community support, capital markets, and small business with past, live, and future investment crowdfunding projects and campaigns.
?My presentation was on ‘Crafting Crowdfunding Offers to Customers,’ where I shared my work and thoughts on framing an investment crowdfunding campaign to match the needs and capabilities of a small business customer.
?The event was live-streamed. You can see the entire recording of the event on YouTube at:
领英推荐
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?TOP FUNDRAISING VOICE
?LinkedIn recognized my work over the last six months in publishing this Instant Funding newsletter, the production of my Successful Funding show live streamed on LinkedIn and answering questions on funding topics with the issuance of a badge to me for “Top Fundraising Voice.”
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SUCCESSFUL FUNDING
TUESDAY, JUNE 11, my guest on the Successful Funding show was Eric Hanson. We discussed Viable Investment Opportunities.
You can see a recording of this show at:
You can see all of my shows at the time of broadcast or recordings of past shows at my profile on LinkedIn.
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DON COHEN SHOW
MONDAY, JUNE 10, I was a guest on Don Cohen’s show with Todd Dewett. We discussed leadership which focused on balancing one’s business and personal life.
You can see a recording at:
I enjoy being a guest, engaging in conversations with other guests, and building communities with Don, using LinkedIn as a communication channel. Every show is its own adventure as we start with a word of the day and then see where the conversation goes from there.
Don is an expert on LinkedIn, particularly on the use of Live streaming to build brands and communities. We will discuss using LinkedIn as a social media platform for building communities that support raising funding.
All shows where I have been a guest can be viewed on Don Cohen's LinkedIn page under Posts.
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Karl Dakin, the Capital Coach
Dakin Capital LLC
I help you overcome challenges to raising capital. Take advantage of my Motivated Money Method to identify those investor candidates that are most likely to invest. Top expert in fundraising.
5 个月Is your initial pitch complete and concise?