Oliver Kraus

A CTO’s View of the Startup Process

A guide for non-tech founders

Stage 4 – Pitching to investors:

At this stage you will have enough knowledge to be able to tell a lot about your app. Maybe you will even have a business advisor who could help you with getting the figures right and tell the story in an attractive way. Your marketing and sales people will probably be able to give some advice, and so will I.

It is wise to remember that the longer you wait with getting an investor, the less equity you will have to give up, and the more funds you will be able to raise. On the other end, the longer you wait, the more of your own resources you will spend, the more risk you will take, and if you don’t have huge sums to begin with, the more you will compromise on things that may be crucial for your success.

Investment doesn’t come with a set formula – there’s no one way to calculate how much equity to give and how much in the way of funds you will receive, especially if you’re a startup and you don’t have years of stable income. What you will give and take will depend on how successful you are so far, how much the investor thinks you can scale your startup to become much more valuable, and most of all – on how good you and the investor are at negotiating and how well you presented your product.

You should:

✪	Find investors and pitch to them.
✪	Go to investor and pitching events.
✪	Check out accelerator programs.
✪	Look into the option of hiring a funding adviser that will help with funding and ways to pitch your idea and present your product.
✪	Get a solicitor to make sure all the legal documents are in place and you know exactly what you give and what you get.

My part in this stage:

✪	I will help with writing about the technology in a way that will be understood by the investors themselves but will also clarify things for their tech advisers.
✪	I will help with estimates for different features you will want to present as future additions, as well as suggesting ways to add cutting edge technologies that will make your product more appealing and add value to it but will be hard to achieve without the investment.

➠	Go to the next chapter

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