MVP or Pitch Deck?
Apologies if this has been covered before...
I'm looking to reach out for funding for an idea (one of many!) but I'm lost on whether I should be working on a proof of concept (a MVP), or a lot more documentation on the business proposal, a pitch deck, forecasts etc.
Or indeed, both?!
I think you have unrealistic expectations. You're unlikely to get funding even if you have all of those.
According to https://venturebeat.com/2014/04/19/heres-a-look-inside-a-typical-vcs-pipeline-a-must-read-for-entrepreneurs/, an average VC firm reviews 1200 companies to fund 10.
And there are more than 1200 that would like to get a meeting with a VC but can't.
The best way to get investors interested is to have a product that grows 12% every month on some meaningful metric (like number of monthly users).
Lacking that your name better be Evan Williams (i.e. be someone who has a huge success before).
Lacking huge prior success or obviously successful product, your best (and pretty much the only) bet is to self-fund from profits.
I don't think it's unrealistic, but equally I don't want to mess the one shot I have with contacts through friends by approaching unprepared.
D, all of the above
Although there are stories on people raising money from just slides, it always advantageous to have a working product of some kind - an MVP in this case.
I would focus on working on that, if it is an option. If you were to get someone interested based on your slides and they wanted to get their hands on something, you'd be ready with your MVP - bonus points if you could get some early users.
The more you can do without funding, the stronger your footing is when negotiating, should you gather enough interest.
This comment was deleted 7 years ago
Thank you, that's a useful way of putting it.