How to get your first $1m+ round of investment!

Everyone has an idea, right? Good or bad, we all want to become the next billionaires with our unique idea, but as you know, 99% of the startups fail even before entering the market. So, what is wrong? What makes us fail? And what is the solution?

I am here to answer the 10 common mistakes founders do.

1- Validate your idea (interview people)

Let me guess, you probably did your research and asked your friends about your idea, and they loved it, right? This happens almost every time. Founders think their idea is legit, the best idea ever, no one ever did it. I am sorry but the world doesn’t turn that way. Why? Because your friends and family members never want to hurt your feelings, honesty is the least you will be expecting. So, what is the solution? Simple, you must interview people. Go outside and interview 100 people, try to ask indirect questions, get to know them, their habits, interests, and problems with the market. Don’t ask direct questions about your startup idea, because you don’t want to lose the honesty. People lie on surveys! After collecting 100 interviews, there is your value proposition and customer segment. You now know who your customer is, what their interest is, what the problem in the market is which means, you will have the solutions.

2- Build your MVP (no-code, free website builders, etc.)

There is a famous quote by Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.” This is one of the most common problems with startups in the idea stage. I don’t know how to code and build a website, or I am looking for the perfect version of my app with all the features. This never will happen. Even if you have a billion users, you still will be upgrading, updating, and improving the app with new features. So why is the MVP so important? Would the investors invest in an idea stage startup? Let me be honest here. There is almost no investor who would invest to an idea stage startup. If you don’t have social proof of your product or service, how can you be so sure that your idea would work? Therefore, I always say, there are almost no unique ideas in the market. Someone somewhere tried your idea, and it probably didn’t work out. Long story short, we are in the year 2021 where you can learn how to code your MVP app in 6 months from scratch, build your website in a couple of minutes with Wix or WordPress. All you must do is, get your app or website running, get some traffic flowing and see how many impressions you are getting. If you have a clothing company but you don’t have the product up and ready, just put the design in the middle of the page with a BUY NOW button and redirect people to a mailing list. This is how you get traction. Even if it is paid advertisements. In conclusion, there are tons of no-code platforms which allow you to build your app without any coding experience. All you must do is research.

3- Don’t fall in love with your startup

“You have to fail and fail again until you succeed.” This is what Tim Draper thought me. We all have been there, falling in love with our startup. We think our idea is the best, which makes us extremely vulnerable to outside factors. Don’t fall in love with your startup. If it is time to let it go, you must stop listening to your heart and quit it. Failure makes us stronger. It took me 2 failed startups to get investment in Silicon Valley. It might take you more. Idea’s never end. Also, remember that investors prefer founders that you have the experience of a failed startup in the past. Mistakes make us stronger!

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4- Start listening to people and lose your EGO

This happens a lot. More than half of my clients and students have a hidden ego behind the scenes. They never listen, accept their faults, follow leads, suggestions, anything. It’s like I am talking to a brick wall. If you haven’t received an investment yet, that is because you are failing, not because it is the wrong time. So, start listening to people around you when they are giving you critiques. I am not telling you to change or pivot your idea because of a negative comment but, you always must consider different opinions and start with validating your idea.?

5- Start spending money to save time and leave things to professionals

Stop listening to people telling you to learn everything by yourself. Time is the most expensive currency. Without spending money, you cannot make money. Almost every day, I get messages from clients asking me to write a business plan, pitch deck for lunch money. Don’t take me wrong, but if you think your startup is worth millions, why would you risk your one-time chance of pitching to an investor with a pitch deck that doesn’t represent your startup? Not just me, if you don’t have the proper visuals of your mobile app, how would you convince the investor that you gave your best to your own product? I know, entrepreneurship is a very expensive path, and you want to cut down costs as much as you can, which you must do but, years of experience is nothing you can just create. Always consider taking professional help.

6- Create a beautiful, well-structured pitch deck

A Pitch deck is the first communication tool used by entrepreneurs to reach out to potential angels, VC’s and investors. It is your business plan, your story, your idea, your everything. It should be 12-15 slides long and take you 3 minutes to pitch it. Why is it so important? Because it represents your whole startup. A pitch deck should never be text-based, when you present it, you want the attention to be on you, not on the screen. How do you structure it??You need to have to follow slide structuring in your presentation.

1. Welcome Screen

2. Story Slide

3. Problem Slide

4. Solution Slide

5. Product Slide

6. Market Size Slide

7. Traction Slide

8. Revenue Model Slide

9. Competition Slide

10. Competitive Advantages Slide

11. Roadmap Slide

12. The Team Slide

13. Investment Amount Slide (The Ask Slide)

14. End of Presentation & Contact Slide

Try to structure your presentation in the following order with the minimum amount of text, just titles, and one sentence bullets. Use high-quality images, icons. If you need help, I am here to help!

7- Connect with investors on LinkedIn

We all are human beings, investors are nothing different than us, they just have the capital and connections. Finding investors on the other hand is not as hard as you think. You just have to research relevant investors on LinkedIn and try to connect with as many investors as you can. There is nothing complicated with this. Click to connect and message them. Don’t advertise your startup right away. Don’t copy-paste your pitch to each of them. Try research first, what they do, what startups they did invest in the past. Remember, they are getting hundreds of connection requests per day, you have to shine out with a message that is uniquely written. That’s all!

8- Apply to incubators and accelerators

There are hundreds of incubators and accelerators in Europe, even more in the US only. Almost all of them have application pages, some of them will ask for an equity contract, some will ask for an application fee, some are completely free! Quick research will be more than enough to find the best incubator in your country and in the end, you might have the chance to pitch to investors on the demo day. Why wait?

9- Network with other founders

The entrepreneurship journey is always tough; therefore, you always must have friends in this ecosystem. Not just to get in touch or network, maybe you will find your future co-founder and work together! Try to get in touch with as many founders as you can, it can be through startup pitching events, rooftop parties in San Francisco, or even from LinkedIn/Facebook Groups!?

10- Get a startup mentor!

A startup mentor will be your co-founder in the time period, trying to help you out with all the challenges you are facing, showing you the paths to take. Never underestimate a startup mentor. There are things you will never find on google which is why I am here to help you out. If you are struggling with your pitch deck structuring, what and how to write it, help with finding the market size, and write your executive summary which is the short version of your business plan. I am here. Let’s schedule a free call right away on the link under the video and tell me everything about your startup!

https://calendly.com/ashviral/30min