Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

In raising funding, investors want to know what progress the company is making. 

After the initial presentation the investor wants to hear about progress in four areas:

Sales, team, product, and the fundraise.

For Sales -- show pipeline forecast, revenue increases, and key accounts going through the sales funnel.

For Team --  show the experience of the team and what team members are doing to move the ball forward on the business. 

For Product -- show the status of the product and how it is developing.  Show customer success stories as well as the customer ROI.

For Fundraise -- show the fundraise progress including interest, committed, and invested amounts.

Updates on the market size and growth and the competition status is not of interest.

The investor wants to know what you are doing. 

Focus on your updates on these four core items in each communication with the investor to give a sense of traction and momentum.


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.

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/
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For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

Most startups focus on the product first and treat the customer as an after-thought. 

The investor knows that in the long run, customer revenue will make or break your business -- not the product. 

In every discussion with an investor you should give a customer update.

Even before you have a product you should be talking with customers about their needs and relaying that to investors.

As you build the product, you want to maintain customer interactions with you and your product and share that with investors.

Highlight to the investors, the customers’ problems and the solution they would like to see.

It’s important to show the investor that customers are with you on your journey and not something to be recruited later when the product is done.


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.

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

To pitch your deal you must first start with a prospect list of investors.

Include your contacts who are angels, family offices, and VCs.

Canvas your network for those who know angels, family offices, and VCs.

This is two degrees of separation which means warm introductions can work.

When it goes to three degrees of separation or more, then warm introductions no longer work.

Include local venture capital and formal angel network groups you have heard about.

Capture the names and emails of all the prospects and plan your approach for each one. 

After you’ve made contact and given the initial pitch, you want to keep those investors up to date on your progress with monthly mailers that are short and to the point.

Focus the mailers on core results related to sales, team, product, and fundraise. 

Avoid long stories as most investors want to know there are real results at play and will listen to the full story later.

Through a series of mailer updates, you can start to build a relationship with the investor.

It starts with a prospect list and it’s important to take the investors on the journey with you.


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.

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

The investor will look closely at the team in your startup.

In particular, they will look for skills and completeness.  Your team must have the skills you need to accomplish the work and you’re not missing anything important.

At the seed level, a complete team is someone who is building it and someone who is selling it.

No fair, everyone is building it and no one is selling it.

This is the most common mistake startups make thinking we must have a product before we can go sell it.  You should be selling it all the way through. You may not be generating revenue but you should be bringing the customer through the process just as you are doing so with the investor.

In later-stage firms, the team will expand but you can again summarize the team’s capabilities as -- do you have team members who are building it and those who are selling it?


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.

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

The sign of a quality pitch is the simplicity in the message.

One test is, can you say your business in five words or less?

You should know your business well enough that you can boil it down to the core value proposition.

Here are some examples:

We make radiation hardened memories.

We provide you additional energy.

For TEN Capital we say, “We connect startups for funding.”

You’ll be amazed at how much easier it is to communicate your message when you can say it in 5 words or less.

It’s a great way to introduce your company to investors and works well as a part of your elevator pitch.

In fact, it could be your tagline.

Try it for your business.

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.

For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/
For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

In this episode, Hall is joined by Dana Myers, founder of Myers EV.

Myers EV builds and services electric vehicles, something that Dana states he has been obsessed with for decades. The mission of Myers EV is to “make electric vehicles affordable and practical to everyday people”.

Dana provides facts, statistics and comparisons between gas vehicles and electric vehicles. He explains the many advantages of owning an electric vehicle, one being that gas-vehicle sales will drop dramatically and will then be banned outright in many countries.

You can visit Myers EV at https://myersev.com/

Dana can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dana-myers-3029102/

He can also be contacted via email at dana@myersev.com

Hello, this is Hall T. Martin with the Startup Funding Espresso -- your daily shot of startup funding and investing.

In raising funding, you always start with your core network and increasingly expand the circle outward.

The list includes the following:

• Family
• Friends
• Coworkers
• Your service providers such as attorneys, accountants, etc.
• Past coworkers

As you progress through this list, you ask for referrals to second connections.

After your network is finished, you expand the circle further with:  

• Local angel networks
• Local VCs
• Local family offices
• National angel networks
• National VCs
• Some look at crowfunding portals.

And for later stage startups there are broker dealers.

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.


For more episodes from Investor Connect, please visit the site at: http://investorconnect.org

Check out our other podcasts here: https://investorconnect.org/

For Investors check out: https://tencapital.group/investor-landing/
For Startups check out: https://tencapital.group/company-landing/
For eGuides check out: https://tencapital.group/education/
For upcoming Events, check out https://tencapital.group/events/

For Feedback please contact info@tencapital.group

In this episode, Hall welcomes Vinod Jose, founder of Konglo Ventures LLP. Konglo Ventures is a seed funding firm based in Cochin, India, with partner offices in Dubai and New York.

Since 2013, Konglo Ventures has invested in companies in India ranging from a healthcare platform utilizing acute disease management modules for early diagnosis, to a matchmaking app. Vinod is originally from India, but is now based in Philadelphia. As an experienced angel investor, he gives advice to both investors and entrepreneurs.

You can find Konglo Ventures at kongloventures.com  

Vinod can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/vinod-jose-04805b11/

He can also be contacted via email at vj@kongloventures.com