Will you invest in my startup?

As business angels, we consider a lot of factors before helping a start-up with investment of any kind (cash, connections or time). I often get asked by entrepreneurs what those factors are and my response is always with the same question "Do you really have a Vision?"as I expect a founder worth their salt to be able to clearly paint a 10-year picture (which for me is the minimum) of where they're going with the venture in my mind. How they do that is a matter for them as though I'm pretty much a visual guy, I can dig into text and numbers just as well. If they can’t paint a picture I can see, rule is don’t engage any further.

When they do get a picture in and I engage, I use my POEM Framework to assess the start-up's -

1. Product/customer/market fit (i.e. Proposition);

2. People/governance/operations structure (i.e. Organisation);

3. Revenue/expenditure/capital flows (i.e. Economics) and

4. Targets/achievements/challenges (i.e. Milestones).

By the time we get through the framework, we are both able to agree if the venture is investment worthy and if so whether it's also investment ready. If it's not worthy, we both move on. If it is worthy but not ready, then there may be (not always) an opportunity for some Mentoring and/or Advisory using a FAST Agreement.

I hope that helps.