Find your angel investor ? 8 keys to startup success | Young Island

Venture Pitch 2012 was recently held at Leonard?s of Great Neck in Great Neck, providing business professionals a great opportunity to network with venture capitalists and angel investors.

The event?included Long Island?s best and brightest entrepreneurs pitching ideas to a panel of judges that included Daymond John, founder and CEO of FUBU and star of the ABC TV show Shark Tank, Ira Halperin, head of the corporate group at Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone; Bruce Zutler of MCI Products Group; and Luis Cuneo, of IBM.

The event?s key attraction was a venture pitch session where five business competitors had only five minutes to convince the panel of judges that their business idea should win top prize.

Among the fascinating business ideas pitched to the panel were: EZ-Nite, a VIP management solution for nightclubs and other hospitality venues; Grout Shield Grout?? Restoration System, designed to tile floors or walls (and the eventual winner); MD Chat, an information sharing system for healthcare professionals; The BizMark, an innovative golf ball cleaner; and SolarbilgeBuddy, an automatic portable bilge pump with solar panel charging.? Seeing each business owner put their energy, heart and soul into their pitches was exciting and inspiring.? These entrepreneurs clearly invested time and effort into their products and wanted to show why their product was the one to invest in.

The panel listened to each pitch and responded with a variety of questions about the product?s use and scalability, as well as sought financial information, such as projected revenue.? For a startup company looking to find venture capitalists or angel investors, the presentations and panel questions provided some excellent insight into questions that startup and entrepreneurs should consider when seeking capital and investors.

As a corporate and social media attorney, I turned to Halperin, my colleague at Meltzer Lippe, to provide some key questions a startup business or entrepreneur should consider before deciding to seek venture capital or investors:

• Is your product or service protected? Are you products protected by a patent or trademark registration and/or are you the first to market with your product.

• Is there margin? Are you currently making money on your product and is your product financially viable in the long-term?

• Is there a big enough market for the product?? The market for your product should be large enough to attract investors.? Specialized, niche products may fall short here.

• Is the owner fully invested? Is the product?s owner putting in part-time or full-time work on this venture and does he or she have significant money invested in it.

• Is the product being effectively marketed?? What are the product?s sales distribution channels and is there a sales force effectively distributing the product.

• How much?? How much capital does the product need, when do you need it by and what you will do with the money are questions to consider in advance of any pitch.

• What is my share? If you receive equity money for the product, how much of an ownership stake in the product are you willing to part with?

• Do you have an effective business plan that puts all of the above together?

The above steps to securing venture capital and angel investors are valuable advice for any startup business or entrepreneur to consider.

Luis Cuneo of IBM also touted the importance of an effective business plan, ?Managing scalability during the early stages of a startup will have long-term impact on the company?s financial outlook. ?By developing a 12-month investment roadmap, an executive team can prioritize investment based on the business needs and growth opportunities.?

Rob Basso of Basso on Business, who moderated the panel, said before an entrepreneur pitches to investors, they should ask: ?Do I believe in myself and do I believe in the product or service?? It all starts with a strong conviction that you and your product can be successful.?? Basso believes the traits of a successful entrepreneur include having the ambition, confidence and conviction to make their dreams a reality.

When asked what pitfalls a start-up company or entrepreneur should avoid, Basso responded:? ?The major pitfall for a startup is to be undercapitalized. Many new businesses fail because they are consistently under-funded and never gain the success they deserve.?? According to Basso, getting the capital needed to take a business to the ?next level? is critical.

In all, I left Venture Pitch impressed with the quality and enthusiasm showed by Long Island?s start-up and business community.? Startups and entrepreneurs should take notice of the above advice for their own businesses as they try to attract venture capital and investors, in order to take their business to the next level.

Source: http://libn.com/youngisland/2012/03/23/find-your-angel-investor-%E2%80%93-8-keys-to-startup-success/

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