0. The Investor Presentation

1. Investor Evaluation Criteria
4 Broad Categories Define the Overall Quality of an Opportunity 1
Large Market
Large
Growing
Global
Understanding of segments 4
Team 2
Sustainable Adv
Key Investor
Requirements
Proven Leadership
Advisory Board
Active Board of Directors
Protected Technology
Competitive Advantage
Ongoing Roadmap
Cleared Regulatory hurdles
Ability to grow the business 3
Business Model / ROI
Solid business model
Projections are reasonable
Validation in market
Ability to creat eLT value

2. Investor Evaluation Criteria
Some Additional Points on how Investors Score an Opportunity
Strategic Fit
Does the entrepreneur’s technology, value proposition and market differentiation fit with the investor profile?
Value Add
Is there an opportunity for the investor to bring additional value to the company through distribution channels, references, technical or market expertise?
Strong Management Team
Does the management team have a solid track record, domain expertise and a proven ability to deliver results?
Market Opportunity
What is the size and growth rate of the market being addressed by the opportunity? Is it significant?
Unique Technology
Are there proprietary intellectual property and patents on the technology or business processes? Is the technology secure, reliable and scalable?
Competitive Differentiation
Can the company implement barriers to entry for competitors through patents, quick time to market or other means?
Can the proposed marketing strategy be executed to acquire customers?
Strong Exit Potential
What are the likely exit scenarios and timeframes for shareholders?
Financial Considerations
Is the business model novel and is it practical?
What are the potential investment returns?
What is the total investment required to reach profitability and investor liquidity?

3. Investor Presentation Components
Suggested Format (8-15 Slides – Minutes)
Intro / problem / hook
Presentation outline
Market Opportunity
Value proposition
Product uniqueness / IP
Business model
Marketing & sales
Current situation / successes
Competition
Management team
Financials
Timeline & the ask
Summary / closing
Appendix
Presentation Tips
Use at least 30 point font. No more than seven (7) lines or points on a slide!
ONE (1) major takeaway message per slide + supporting information
Follow the general order of slides and content as outlined in this template.
Modify based on your audience, timeframe, and the purpose of each particular presentation you give
For example, if you are presenting to the RIC Centre Investment review panel, you will have more detail on your financial and investment / ask slides than if you are presenting to the RIC Centre 360 Virtual Advisory Board

4. Intro / Problem / Hook Slide 1 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Explain the fundamental problem you are trying to solve and why you started the business. Tell a story, ask the audience a question, use statistics, get them ENGAGED
You can either tell your intro story / hook on this first slide, or create another slide with an impactful / emotion-linked and relevant image to show as you tell your story
General Information
Title: Investor Presentation
Company Name & Logo (If applicable)
Presenter Names
Presenting Audience (Company Name)
Mark Document as “Confidential” (Mark as a footer so it appears on each slide of your presentation)
Presentation Tips
Get excited, show enthusiasm! Make the audience excited. Help them identify personally with the problem
Frame the business problem you solve using specific customers (where possible)
Are there existing solutions or are you creating a new market?
Why are existing solutions not good enough?

5. Presentation Outline Slide 2 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
List the topics you will be covering during the presentation. Tell the audience what you will be talking about, and what the purpose is of your presentation
If you are pitching for money, say that upfront
If you are looking for advice, also say this upfront
Presentation Tips
Tell the audience what you will be discussing in your presentation, and why you are giving the presentation

6. Market Opportunity Slide 3 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Quantify the size of the problem you are solving
How big is the total addressable market (all potential customers / users of your technology, in all market segments)
What market segments / verticals are you going to focus on initially? How big are these? Why will you focus on these first?
How fast is the market growing?
Is it a new market, a mature market?
Presentation Tips
Use data to back up your assumptions. Use secondary or third party research and cite your sources
Use your own market research data to back up your claims
This is a good place to put a market segmentation diagram

7. Value Proposition Slide 4 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Specifically describe what your product is
Who is the specific target customer?
What value do you bring your target customers?
Description and Example:
A value proposition is a statement of the unique benefits delivered by your offering to the target customer. It describes the unique value of your product or brand and offers a compelling reason for customers to buy
“Google is the world’s largest search engine that allows internet users to find relevant information quickly and easily.”
“Google is the world’s largest search engine that automatically provides advertisers with potential customers tailored to the ad content, increasing click-through rates and conversion rates.”
What the product is; target customer; values
Presentation Tips
Remember – Sell your story. Don’t just explain your technology.
State what factors have changed that now make this problem easier to address with your technology
Is it better, faster, cheaper?

8. Product Uniqueness / IP
Slide 5
Key Items to Address
Continuation on the value proposition – can be part of the previous slide or expand on an additional slide
Describe your product or service(s). Focus on why it’s unique.
Include photos or screen shots
Detail how your product is scalable and when you plan to launch
Outline the next R&D steps to further build on or improve your offering.
Include a discussion of intellectual property
How will you protect your IP? Patents, trademarks, trade secrets, first to market / speed, continuous innovation etc.
Presentation Tips
What makes your technology unique and hard to copy or replicate?
What prevents competition from doing the same thing? What’s your ‘secret sauce’?
Leave live demos for another part of the presentation (instead use screen shots, product photos or a simplified architecture diagrams where appropriate)
Avoid jargon. Limit the use of non-standard language and acronyms.
Be very honest about the status of product development - is the product real? Make sure you are clear about what parts of your solution are in development vs. customer trials vs. products released (that customers may be paying for)

9. Business Model Slide 6 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Most important slide – make it very clear
A business model describes the value an organization offers its customers and illustrates the capabilities and resources required to create, market and deliver this value and to generate profitable, sustainable revenue streams.
How do you acquire customers, how do you charge them, how much do you charge them? (retail, licensing, SaaS etc).
Cost to acquire a customer? Total lifetime value of customer?
Through what channels (direct to consumer, online, business to business, through partners, distributors, etc)
What are your fixed costs, what are your variable costs? (cost of manufacturing, marketing/sales, overhead etc.)
Presentation Tips
Explain clearly: How does your business make money?
Identify specifically who pays you for your product / service
Be prepared to defend your assumptions and numbers

10. Marketing / Sales Slide 7 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
This can expand on your business model – optional. Can be combined with previous slide, or expanded on in an additional slide.
What is your pricing strategy?
What is your current sales pipeline? Value of it?
Through which media will you communicate with your market?
What is your branding strategy?
Who are the Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in your field?
How long is your sales process?
Where do you get your prospective customers ?
What’s your distribution strategy?
Presentation Tips
What is your general go-to-market strategy? How is it scalable?
Where do you start? Where / when do you expand? Which market segments and geographies?

11. Current Situation / Successes
Slide 8
Key Items to Address
Stage of product development
Any prototypes? Functional? In Beta testing? Pilots?
Any partnerships? Key partners
Any sales? How much? Free trials? Key customers? Early adopters?
Patents, trademarks etc. granted?
Funding secured?
Funds raised / spent to date?
Key hires?
Current area of focus moving forward / next steps?
Presentation Tips
Show off your progress to date!
Level of detail based on purpose of presentation, audience etc.
Providing a proof that people have paid or will pay for your solution is one of the most important points you can make in your presentation.

12. Competition Slide 9 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Direct and indirect competitors
Established and pipeline competitors (current vs future upcoming)
Competitor matrix vs product functions and values (to compare to your product)
How are you different? Additional value added? (cheaper, better, faster, etc).
How do you maintain your competitive advantage (reference to product uniqueness slide, IP, features, ‘secret sauce’ etc)
Presentation Tips
A good way to present competition is by using a matrix to highlight functions and values vs your product
How can you position yourself among the competitive landscape?
Are there gaps within the niche you are in?
Be careful not to dive into an exhaustive list of competitive deficiencies at the feature level.
Do your homework on competitors beyond simple scans of their website. Look for analyst reports/whitepapers or reports in the trade press
Do not misrepresent competitive strengths or weaknesses. If you don’t know, say so.

13. Management Team Slide 10 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Founders, team members and advisors
Include pictures if possible, title/function and BRIEF highlight of relevant education or experience (1 line)
If there are too many, break into two pages
Presentation Tips
Don’t spend too much time, just highlight relevant functions within the organization and critical points on expertise
The point of this slide is to convince the audience that you have the team to get the job done and be successful.
Team is cited by most experts as the most important reason investors sign on
If you have an incomplete team, be honest with the fact. Describe key gaps and plan to address (i.e. will you approach through new hires or consultants, advisors. board members)
Show you and your advisors have the capability to attract quality talent

14. Financials Slide 11 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Beware hockey stick projections. Are your sales projections realistic and achievable?
Base financials on realistic and defendable assumptions
3 year forecast is typically sufficient
Graphs or tables – present in a clear way
Identify breakeven point / cash flow positive
Identify points of inflection due to assumptions such as expansion into new geographic region, release of next generation product, follow-on investments etc.
Does your projection rely on external funding? Comment on this
Presentation Tips
Assumptions for financial forecast should be defendable and based on realistic figures
At this stage investors don’t want to see a detailed spreadsheet.
It is important to show significant but realistic annual growth to be of interest to investors.
Investors aren’t expecting you to be able to see all future revenues/expenses in great detail. However, your numbers should align with all of the assumptions you have made throughout the presentation.
Pay particular attention to key assumptions that could seriously affect your forecast such as sales cycle time; estimated go to market costs and start dates of new personnel.
Estimated 3 Year Projections
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Revenue
Expenses
Net Income
(Loss)

15. Timeline & the Ask Slide 12 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Based on your audience, this will be different
If pitching to investors (RIC Centre Investment Review Panel), make sure to outline investment to date, and future rounds of financing required in order to meet your financial projections on the previous slide. Comment on valuation and investor ROI. List the proposed uses of funding (not in extreme detail, just generally). Outline milestones you will achieve along the way. Potential exit strategies (what do you want to do with the company)?
If pitching to RIC Centre 360 Virtual Advisory Board or Regional Alliance, the ask may not necessarily be fore money. Focus on asking the panel for advice on specific components of your business strategy, or for connections to specific potential partners, or on your presentation style in general.
Presentation Tips
The ask is dependent on who the audience is and what the purpose of the presentation is
Your ask should be as specific as possible.
Take milestones seriously - this is what investors pay for - they are essentially your promise to perform
Be aware of share dilution issues

16. Summary Slide 13 Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Re-iterate the most important take-away points from your presentation
Re-iterate the purpose of giving your presentation (this slide should be very similar to slide 2 – Presentation Outline
Close the presentation with as much enthusiasm and excitement as when you first started
DO NOT close by saying “And that’s it” or “Thank you for listening, any questions” or “That’s the end of my presentation”
Presentation Tips
Remind the audience the most important points from your presentation, and the reason you are presenting to them
The close is very important, make it count!

17. Appendix Presentation Tips Key Items to Address
Add additional detailed slides here, including backup information for any assumptions you made in your financials
Some ideas for consideration:
PEST analysis
Job descriptions
Technical specs
Financial spreadsheets
Testimonials
White papers/references
Presentation Tips
It helps to have backup slides during the Q&A period – try to anticipate what questions will be asked

18. Potential Questions Presentation Tips
Examples of Some Common Questions
Presentation Tips
Don’t get defensive when answering questions. You should remain calm and back up your answers with facts