How to structure a 15-minute investor call?

Once an investor or investor network likes your deck, many a time they set up a 15 minutes calls with you to understand your business better. How to organize the call?

1) Outcome:-

He is not going to wire the investment money into your account in 14th minute. Your desired outcome at the end of the call is to:

i)get a face-to-face meeting with the investor. 

ii) get some suggestion from him.

So, your pitch should excite the investor, and build curiosity. That's it.

2) Opening:- 

Inv:-Hello

You:-Hello sir/name/madam

Inv:-How are you? (Interpret it as how are you at this moment?)

You:- I am super excited now for the call. (Don't say boring "I am good" like rest 99 will do)

Inv:-Cool. Ok, Founder, Can you walk me through the business? the problem, team...?

[STOP. DON'T READOUT OUR MUGGED UP DECK]

Let him invest first(some thought, some energy, a little time).

You:- I will. But, can I ask a question first, so as to curate my talk? [Because I value your time and don't want to waste it]. Also, I have another call in 15 minutes with our client, so I want to be precise.

The last line is called an FTC, false time constraint. Essentially, no one should ever lie. So you may as well set up a call with some client or co-founder. You may give time to a friend or anything. Make sure that you give a 15 minutes time constraint to the call. You are running a business and you do not have eternity to give to an investor for the call. This also elevates your status. The investor feels that you are business focussed and were not waiting an entire day for this call.

Inv- Sure. (He will be happy, no one wants his time to be wasted. That you understand and value his time will separate you from others).

You-You get 100s of deals like ours. So, what excites you in our venture?

Inv-(Not ready for this, will try to think your deck.)I love the idea of your product and think it has potential. (etc). (This is a vague answer. He doesn't recall much).

3) Business Discussion:-

You- Thank you. [I know how painful it is to review so many deals every day, many of which appear similar]. That you have gone through our deck and you are excited about our product is in itself a happy feeling. Let me brief you about our product first?

Inv:- Sure.

You:- Elevator Pitch(Read how to build a nice elevator pitch that hooks and sells)

You:- Pause.

You:- The Humor Line. [Isn't it?] (Read in the link above, what is humor line)

Many sales training teaches you to get some "YES" answers from the buyer first. But remember the investors get into these calls every day. They know "Yes questions". Smartness will hurt you. Be genuine and different. He should enjoy the conversation.

Inv:- Haha, yes true.

Now, do not speak. Wait for his question. You may be itching to open your mouth, but do not. Remember, he has to invest, his energy, his thought and time first.

Inv:- Ok, can you get me through the other parts of the business?

You:- Sure. Would you want me to elaborate on the business model first? [Because ultimately that will define our potential as a billion-dollar revenue company and (whether) we will be in your portfolio]

Inv:- Sure.

You:- Business Model.

While explaining the business model, cover the following with ONLY ONE USE CASE

i) Who is your customer?

ii) How do you know that he is your customer?

iii) How painful is the problem you are solving for the customer?

iv) How much is he willing to pay for the solution to this problem?

v) How will you discover them?

vi) How much have you sold so far(if an early-revenue company)

vii) How many such customers are there.

Then,

We know there is healthy competition(don't use huge competition) in this field, companies like [Some competitors of yours] are also solving this problem, BUT we are unique because[Your uniqueness]

Hence we CAN(don't use WE THINK) get 10% market share in the next 3 years, which is about XXX Million Dollars.

You can not end a business model discussion without mentioning the competition and revenue projection.

You:- So what you think about the [market segment] we are operating in?

Give pause, let him think and analyze what you have stated.

4) Evaluation of Business discussion

Either

Inv:- Interesting. Yes, this is a new area with a lot of potentials. But Google and Apple(Or, whomsoever your market leaders are)are also bringing their product in this domain

You:- [I have a feeling that you are very passionate about this problem]. Don't you think that the very fact that Google and Apple are also trying to solve a problem that we are solving makes us desirable?

Or

Inv:- Yes, but this segment is extremely populated. There is a cut-throat competition.

You:- Doesn't that justify that there is a huge revenue potential and the problem is not optimally solved yet? Do you not think that if a startup can solve the problem optimally, it will be tomorrow's market leader? (Remember, if he was not excited about the segment, he wouldn't have the call at the first place)

5) Close

If the call has gone according to your strategy,

Inv:- So, how much you want to raise in this round?

This is a tricky question. Don't throw the number directly, let him again invest.

You:- We need, xx thousand dollars for hiring and sustaining a team for 6 months, yy thousand dollars to reach out to zzzzzzz customers and generating K million dollar revenue in next six month. So according to our estimation, we need about M million dollar. [However, as you are more accustomed to the market and startup ecosystem, then I am, I want to know what is your estimation?]

Inv:- I think(Whatever he thinks, the good thing here is that he is thinking. Which is investment)

You:- Cool, [can we discuss the opportunity in detail sitting across a table?]

If you are not having any other discussions in an advanced stage

[Would, (give 10 days) later week be fine with you? Because we have two more discussions at an advanced stage, we have to give them priority]

This will give you a deadline to figure out two more investors and talk to them. Startups work best when there are deadlines.

Or, if you really have other discussions in an advanced stage

[We are also having ABC, DEF interested in our venture. Would you like to asses the opportunity in collaboration with them, or are you looking at an exclusive stake?]

Angel investors love co-investing to mitigate their individual risks and take advantage of multiple Angel's network. VCs and Micro VCs on the other hand mostly prefer exclusive stake(Control!).

The rule is that you can not simply appear NEEDY, you can not appear

If the call hasn't gone according to your strategy:-

Inv:- Ok great, thanks for elaborating. We will discuss this internally and get back to you.

This is a politically correct NO. Do not take a politically correct NO.

You:- Can I ask you one last short question?

Inv:- (I have another call in 2 minutes) But ok, sure.

You:- What other parts of the business I should have covered if you were to end this call happily with a firm decision on going ahead with the opportunity?

If you were really unauthentic and boring:

Inv:- Nothing. I have all the answers. Thanks.

(Dead end. This deal will not go through)

If there was something missing

Inv: I am not yet confident of your ability to take on the likes of Google(or whatever his concerns were)

Good, take the discussion forward. Now you know, how to make the moves.

Conclusion: Often calls are not the best ways to pitch your idea to someone. Not everyone is genuinely good with phone calls. Also, during a call, you can not hook a person's attention. The trick is to significantly slow down the conversation speed. Speak slowly. Convert the pitch into a conversation. Ask questions that would lead to the investor investing time and energy. Look, whether investment happens or not, it is always great to get their perspective about business. They have made money, so they know the business aspect better than you. You do not get an opportunity to talk to some high-value individuals every day. Make sure you get one of your desired outcomes from the call.

All the best.