“The best way to raise money is when you don’t need money,” said Olivier Gerhardt, co-founder of Wavecell, a could communications platform, said. “You shouldn’t be desperate. The key is that you have a vision, the right team, right product and a customer base.”
“A good story is more important than numbers or anything else,” said Mada Seghete, co-founder of Branch, a mobile solutions platform in Silicon Valley, said. “Being able to inspire them and having a huge vision for the future and a story of how your company will grow and take on a specific market.”
“Get them to actually believe in your vision,” Seghete said. “Tell them the story of how you’re going to get there and actually convince them that you’re the only person that can execute on that vision.”
“You need to provide the track of new customers and revenue,” Sergey Vozchikov, director of Copernicus Gold Singapore, a blockchain platform that allows users to buy and sell gold. “You need to provide proof of concept — maybe three or six months, whatever it is.”
While Seghete thinks telling a story is more important than hard data, CC Chang disagrees.
“They only believe in numbers, otherwise you will find Angels, who believe in a dream. But investors, they believe in numbers.” CC Chang, FunNow, a leisure and entertainment app, said.
“You want someone that shares the same vision as you and is just as excited as your product or company, as you are,” Hanieh Sigari, an executive consultant at Simple Global, a logistics and fulfillment start-up, said.
“Find somebody who’s down it before,” Meghan Jarvis, Buzvil, a fitness app in Australia, said.
“Don’t chase the dollar, chase the person who actually brings value,” said Tamim Batcha, head of Community at CampFire, a co-working space in Hong Kong. “It’s not a monetary value. It’s a value that is intangible to your business and if they see that in your business, the money will follow.”
“I need strategic people to help bring the company forward, faster,” said Audrey Uy, ServeHappy.ph, an online job marketplace for the Philippines.
You need to add value and make sure you product is something that the market actually needs. “If you’re solving a problem for anyone at all, for a big market at all. then an investor is just around the corner.” said Dominick Danao, Magpie.IM, which allows companies in Southeast Asia to accept mobile payments.
“On the occasion we got the money, we really didn’t expect that he was an investor and that he was about to invest with us,” Francesco Dolce, co-founder of Woodie Milano, a design products firm, said. “We just explained our idea and our project, being ourself, making jokes and having fun.
And if being yourself isn’t attracting any investors?
“You’re not doing a good job and you don’t have the right product,” Sigari, of Simple Global, said.