In this episode, Hall welcomes Brian Deutsche, Founder of XV Capital Group. XVVC focuses on seed-stage investments across industries in the US.

Before XV Capital, Brian was a CPS by trade with a focus on chemical manufacturing. Brian then went on to grad school to get an MBA to transition into the world of investment banking where he was an M&A advisor in the world of consumer and retail. There was a focus on food, beverage, multi-site, retail, and direct-to-consumer. Brian helped early-stage businesses with their positioning and preparing for their fundraising. That's what led to his passion to be more deeply involved in the world of early-stage companies and now investing in them.

Before you launch your fundraise, you’ll need to build some basic documents for pitching the investor and following up their due diligence.

Start with a basic pitch deck, ten to 12 slides, that includes a non-confidential introductory version of your deal.

For first presentations to an investor, keep it simple and focused on the core. The goal is not to tell the investor everything. Instead, tell him the key value points in your deal, along with basic details such as how much you are raising, and what you are going to accomplish with the funds.

You’ll also need a terms sheet that an investor can sign to join the fundraise. You want to be able to take funding when offered. If you don’t have a lead investor yet, then start with a convertible note with a standard discount rate, interest rate, and cap rate.

For your diligence box or what some call a dataroom, you should gather your documents regarding articles of incorporation, entity filings, patent filings, income statement, balance sheet, and 3-5 year financial projections.

With these basic documents in hand, you are ready to engage investors.

Thank you for joining us for the Startup Funding Espresso where we help startups and investors connect for funding.

Let’s go startup something today!