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Events like InfoShare or Wolves Summit are great opportunities to make new connections and meet interesting people. During this worldwide pandemic, most of the events were moved from congress halls or expo venues to the online world. It saves time and money for travel and accommodation but makes it more difficult to establish relationships with potential customers or investors. This list should help you to prepare for meetings and make it as efficient as possible.

1.Set up your strategy

Just preparing a few simple questions could help you with scheduling your meetings. Why did you attend an event in the first place? Is it for the networking with VC funds? Meeting with business angels? To get in touch with CVC or accelerator representatives? Or maybe customer acquisition is the goal?

The way you are looking for development of your startup determines the people you should talk to during the conference. Being aware of your current situation could save you a lot of time.

2.Pitch, pitch and pitch

Talk about your business as often as possible. Practise is the best way to master your skill. You won’t be able to impress others in your first attempt. Once you decide what kind of representatives you would like to meet, make everything to set up as many meetings as you can.

Remember to be open to questions and suggestions from your audience. Does every pitch ends with a question about your business model? Add this to your pitch and it will save your time for other topics. Use your time wisely – it is recommended to fit in 3 or 5 mins.

3.Prepare your pitchdeck

Most of the events have the option to upload your pitchdeck. You should definitely use it. This is a perfect opportunity to describe your business in a more detailed way. It must contain a description of the problem, solution, team, market, business model. If you are looking for specific investment, you can describe your proposition at the end of presentation. Also consider implementing some additional slides describing more detailed aspects of your company.  If you have troubles with putting everything in a right place you can use template ieg. from Black Pearls VC http://blackpearls.vc/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Black-Pearls-VC-Pitch-Deck-template-2017.pptx:

The graphic side of a pitchdeck is important as well. You can use many free (or cheap) templates that are available on the internet.

4.Research

Spend a few minutes on research about your interlocutor and company that he or she represents. Does it fit into your strategy? Is this fund investing in startups from your industry? Do they offer non-financial support for startups? Do they have connections among your potential clients? What is the opinion of the alumnus or excited investments? Not everything will be available online, but usually you will be able find a portfolio. This information can be useful and help you guess if the cooperation between the startup and the institution is successful.

5.Step into clients boots

You will increase your position if you will show that you understand your clients needs. Put a Focus on their problem and explain how your product solves it. Show that there is a market need for the solutions that you can provide.

You can also show your competition and explain why you are different. Remember – no competition is not always a good sign. It raises a lot of questions, like: maybe there were other companies that didn’t find paying clients, maybe the technology is not available yet, maybe the market is not ready?

6.Avoid inaccurate data

Total market of IoT in 2019 was 212 bln USD? That is great information, but it does not mean you will get most of that. Without proper context global data is useless for investors. Instead Focus on your shares in this market and explain how you forecast that. Share information that is relevant to your startup.

7.Describe the Team

Good team with a poor project is better than a poor team with a great project. Spend a few seconds on describing your team. Do the skills of members fill all of the startup needs? Or do you need to extend your team in order to scale your business up? What about non technical skills like business development or marketing? Show that you have a complete team or that you are aware of you lack of. It is also good to mention why you decided to work together on a specific topic. The background might be a game changer in your story.

8.Wear trousers

In an online meeting when only the upper half of your body will be seen people often don’t care about the rest of the body. There are many situations where something could go wrong. The cat jumped on the laptop and moved the camera in the way we would not like to be moved? Or you spilled coffee on a monitor and the camera fell down? Act professional and don’t share images that the other side would not like to see.

 

That’s all. All hints were summed up after a few events from investors perspective. We wish you good luck and many successful meetings!

 

Author: Wojciech Leonowicz

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