1 day Seed Forum pitch training program according to Seed Forum international standard

Transcription

1 1 day Seed Forum pitch training program according to Seed Forum international standard At Seed Forum pitch training companies are trained to carry out a 7 minutes presentations pitch and a 30 seconds plenary power pitch. The goal of the training Prepare high quality 7 minutes pitch for professional investors according to Seed Forum international standard Key issues Improve the content of the presentation and performance. Get feedback from the trainer, practice own pitch presentations. Consider world practice according to Seed Forum international standard. Key result: Considerable presentation content and art of pitch presentation improvement. General content of the 8 h training Introduction to investor mind-set and value drivers General information about the Seed Forum process Plenary presentation round all participants Practical run-through of company presentations including video training. Documents in the investment process The investment process after Seed Forum and investor terms and conditions Preparation for Due Diligence Negotiation techniques - investors How to protect your competitive edge Value drivers and valuations of start-up companies Exit strategies and how to work with a corporate finance partner The art of networking Practical networking training Investor readiness miniature acid test companies in groups. Focus on exit strategies, Budget figures (3-5years), capital need and milestones for call-inn, creation of value Each participant; run-through of video from presentation with video coach Summing up and conclusions on progression for further development of the pitch All companies advised to prepare initial investor presentation pp-slides to be presented at the pitch training. The pp-slides should be brought on a memory-stick or on a lap-top. If someone needs any kind of additional advice how to make the pp-slides investor preparation she or he should not hesitate to contact seed forum trainer. We will advice everybody to bring a lap-top to be able to do corrections in the pp-slides during the pitch training. Plan for presentation slides 7 min investor pitch Content and time 1. 1 slide Business concept - 30 s slides Product / technology - 1 min 3. 1 slide Team 30 - s slides Niche of the market / competitive advantages - 1 min 5. 1 slide Uniqueness 30 - s 1

2 6. 1 slide Business model 30 - s 7. 1 slide Main budget figures (revenues, cost, EBITDA) 30 - s 8. 1 slide Scaling of capital need / milestones - 1 min 9. 1 slide Use of invested money 30 - s slide Exit strategy 30 - s slides min. We are looking forward to seeing you at the pitch training and please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions. Alexander Loktionov Chairman of Seed Forum in Russia M a.loktionov(at)seedforum.ru Attachment 1. General pitch training program Program Arrival / Registration Welcome word Introduction to investor mind-set and value drivers General information about the Seed Forum process Plenary presentation round all participants Practical run-through of company presentations Lunch, Corrections in pp-slides etc Documents in the investment process and preparation for due diligence Negotiation techniques investors, value drivers and exit strategies How to protect your competitive edge Coffee break Investor readiness workshop - companies in groups The art of networking Summing up and conclusions on progression for further development of the pitch 2

3 Attachment 2. Participants guidelines Investor presentation 7 minutes pitch The presentation shall start with a Power Pitch as the first 30 seconds. The Power Pitch shall explain your business with not more than 15 words and thereafter answer to the question Why shall an investor invest in you? The answer is your value drivers. The message of the investor pitch must be clear. The presentation is a teaser and must give an answer to the most important questions according to the mind-set of the investor. The pitch is a tool to create interest and leads for further talks in the following networking. The pitch shall create interest. You are the seller and the investor is the customer. You shall not sell your product, but ownership to shares in the company. The investor is looking for companies with a high growth potential and a team which will succeed. Be aware of that investors receive a great amount of investment proposals. A detailed presentation can be presented in separate meetings after the networking if your pitch has created interest. It must be only one person presenting the pitch, and you should avoid confusing technical expressions, shortcuts and details. The pitch is a financial presentation NOT a technology presentation or a product or sales pitch. The overall focus of the pitch is the VALUE DRIVERS. The value drivers can either be listed in a pp-slide, or they may be presented as trigger points during the pitch. The pitch shall be a PowerPoint presentation of maximum slides as follows: 1) WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS? This is the Power Pitch as the main teaser. It should explain your business with not more than 15 words and focus on the value drivers which are the main reasons why the investor will invest. 2) WHO IS YOUR TEAM? Present the main persons in the team. Focus on famous personalities if any and relevant competence in the team such as previous entrepreneurial and exit competence, financial and commercial competence etc. 3) WHAT IS THE MARKET? How large it is, where it is and who are the customers? Do you have a specific market segment? Do you have a specific distribution strategy? 4) WHAT ARE YOUR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES? Which problem are you solving for your customer? What is the market need? Do you have competitors, who are they and what are they doing? Maybe you could compare your competitors in a competitive matrix? Is there a Blue Ocean situation for your business? 5) WHAT IS UNIQUE? What is your Intellectual Property? Patent? Trade mark protection? What is your IP-strategy? 3

4 6) WHAT IS YOUR BUSINESS MODEL? How are you earning money? 7) WHAT ARE THE KEY BUDGET FIGURES? What is your financial status? Can you show historic numbers for turnover and profit the previous 3 years? Show your main budget numbers for turnover and profit the next 3 years. 8) WHAT IS THE CAPITAL NEED AND USE OF INVESTED FUNDS? Estimate your capital need and main purposes of use of the invested funds. 9) ARE THERE RISK FACTORS? If you should include risk factors you should explain how each of them will be eliminated. Do not include general but only special risk factors for your business. 10) WHAT IS TH EXIT STRATEGY? Is it a trade sale, Initial Public Offering (IPO) or other? If trade sale you should give an idea about possible trade sale opportunities. You do not need to stipulate any Return of investment (ROI) PowerPoint presentation design The first slide in the presentation shall be the Power Pitch-slide with the company name and logo. The last slide should include the logo and the contact details of the presenter. General information about designing a slideshow: Graphics; choose meaningful graphics and pictures, not just random clip art Use bullets, not verbatim The header on each slide should contain the conclusion for the given slide Do not use the standard PowerPoint design templates, keep it simple Do not use complex slide transitions on text animations Do not use font size less than 24` Select a font and size and stick with it. If your font size works for all slides except for one you should think if there is too much text on that respective slide Obey the 666 Rule: -No more than 6 words per bullet. Otherwise it s not a bullet point! -No more than 6 bullets per slide. If more it is difficult for your audience to read and pay attention -No more than 6 word slides in a row Limitations set by Seed Forum: The background color should preferably be white or any other bright color. No dark colors Avoid all kinds of animations and movements on the slides. The presentations should be limited to text and static images. Simple animations should be self-explanatory Videos are not accepted A 7 minutes pitch should include not more than slides 4

5 The size of the presentation should not exceed 8-10 megabyte (so it can be easily forwarded by ) The file format shall always be.ppt or pptx (not pps,ppsx, pdf, open office etc) The presentation shall always be conducted in Seed Forum on a laptop with Windows format A printed version of the presentation may be in black and white, and you should have this in mind when designing the slides. Do not use too many colors KEEP IT SIMPLE THINK SIMPLICITY Information about Seed Forum Seed Forum is a global network of national not-for-profit foundations and national representatives in more than 40 countries. The global collaboration entity of the Seed Forum network is Seed Forum International Foundation working out of London. The Seed Forum concept has grown rapidly since it was founded in Norway in 2002, and the Seed Forum concept is currently referred to as a global concept. Seed Forum is currently running investor matchmaking forums in more than 30 countries worldwide. The Seed Forum process has the objective of providing competence within investor readiness and investor matchmaking opportunities for private investors, seed funds, venture funds, private equity funds, corporate venture investors, family offices and financial intermediaries in born global companies. The Seed Forum network is giving born global companies seeking capital a unique opportunity to pitch their investment proposal concepts to investors by facilitating global, national and local investor matchmaking forums. The companies pitching to investors are nominated, trained and selected in the Seed Forum process to secure that the companies are investor-ready when they are pitching to investors. The Seed Forum process is very important to reduce the risk on investments in start-ups. The mission of Seed Forum is to provide investor ready born global companies to investors and to educate companies in fundraising and reduce the risk of investment for investors. 5