How to present your project creatively. How to present an investment project and interest an investor

Regardless of the level of material, it is the ability to engage listeners that will determine the success or failure of a presentation. Be creative in your presentation of the project so that the audience does not act as a passive listener. Almost always the success of a presentation depends on good planning, but pay equal attention to the way ideas are expressed. Your final plan should take into account all aspects of the presentation - verbal, visual and social. A creative idea can go to waste if you're new to speaking in front of a lot of people, but with the right approach, you can get your audience interested in just about any topic.

Steps

Part 1

Verbal aspect

Get rid of the pre-presentation anxiety. Easier said than done, but the key to being a successful speaker is being able to let go of all negative feelings before starting. Excitement is difficult to beat in open combat, but can be greatly reduced by curbing potential stressors. It is extremely important to sleep well and prepare for the presentation in advance. Use as much time as necessary to feel confident in your project.

A couple of minutes of meditation before the performance will also help relieve tension.

Consider the scenario ahead of time. Every talented speaker always leaves room for improvisation, but a successful presentation almost always relies on a polished script. Imagine that your report is an oral essay that consists of several parts.
- The script can be taken to the podium with you or kept handy in case you veer off track and want to get back on track.
- Try to plan your presentation wisely. It is necessary to invest within the allotted limits.
Speak slowly. A slow and measured pace of speech is unlikely to be your first idea when thinking about a creative presentation. By itself, slow speech is devoid of a creative flavor, but it allows you to convey your inventive ideas to the audience without a hitch. They can manifest themselves in impromptu remarks and witty observations, but for this your brain must keep up with what is happening in the hall. Try to slow down the usual pace of speech and it will become easier for you to control your statements.
- Time yourself and read the text of the script at your usual pace. Then turn on the timer again and try to read this text, spending more time on the fifth part. Aim to slow down your speech in rehearsals so you can better keep up with the pace of your presentation.
- Pay special attention to this aspect if you often get nervous during performances.
Present in a conversational style. You need to be clear about what you are talking about in the presentation, but at the same time try to voice your thoughts slightly casually. Listeners do not like it when the speaker's speech looks like monotonous sight reading. Give the audience the false impression that your speech is an improvisation to get them interested in the project. Conversational style is impossible without self-confidence, while confidence requires proper preparation.
- If an insight came to you in a conversation before the report, then write down this thought and insert it into your script through improvisation.
- Record yourself on a voice recorder during normal conversations. Listen to the intonations of your voice. Use the correct intonation and change the volume of speech during the presentation.
- The conversational style should not be confused with complete improvisation. Experienced presenters are able to get the point across with a conversational style, but still stay on topic.
Rehearse. Rehearsals and preparation will be the foundation of a successful presentation. It is better to speak in front of a mirror and choose a tone of voice that suits the chosen topic. In the process of rehearsals, you will come to understand how to present your script correctly. Fresh ideas are the pleasant consequences of rehearsals.
- Rehearse in different places so you don't get used to certain conditions. You don't have to think that you will have enough time to prepare in a real presentation room, so you should prepare for any environment.
Part 2
visual aspect
1. Use confident body language. During a personal presentation, the body is as much an instrument of expression as the voice. If the audience is interested in your visual image, then they will definitely listen to your words. Like an actor, use gestures and facial expressions to express thoughts. Movement should be smooth and natural. Use the following guidelines to get the most out of your presentation:
  - gesticulate with your hands to emphasize important points;
  - maintain eye contact with the audience;
  - keep correct posture. Take up as much space as possible on stage.
2. Clothing must match the presentation. Viewers will make the first conclusions about you already by appearance. Thanks to neat and appropriate clothes, any words you say will be taken seriously. Also, do not forget about deodorant and hair. In the morning before the performance, take the time to clean yourself up. The image of a successful speaker gives confidence.
  - Don't try to impress the audience with your outfit. For such events, a standard dress code has been adopted. Do not deviate from the rules, otherwise you risk appearing on stage in the form of a jester.
3. Use simple visual aids. Most often, the audience sees the slides for only a few seconds, after which the presenter moves on to the next point in the presentation. Use simple materials so that the audience has time to consider and think about the information without being distracted by small details. All details must be given orally.
  - The color pie chart makes it easy to show proportions.
  - Significant liberties in presentations are unacceptable, so use colors wisely to show ingenuity.
4. Use funny pictures to entertain viewers. In addition to information, listeners can expect entertainment moments, so it's not enough just to get them interested in the main topic. A funny picture will help dilute the formal tone of the presentation. Not every topic allows humorous remarks (for example, they are inappropriate in a report on the genocide), but in most cases they are what keep listeners bored.
  - Dose your presentation with relevant and relevant Internet memes. Don't forget to consider the age of your intended audience.
  - If in the process of preparation you came up with witty ideas, then select visual materials for them. On the Internet you can find illustrations for almost any situation.
5. Handout. Such materials allow listeners not to lose the thread of the presentation. If your report is based on a lengthy text, then give the audience a summary of the key aspects of the project or background information. Text handouts are preferred over slides.
  
  Don't stand still. In addition to confident body language, the presenter must be a moving object. Walk around the stage to make it interesting for the audience to follow you.
  - Walk back and forth, but don't move too fast. Feverish pace is associated with excitement. Your steps must be confident, and your posture must be correct.
Part 3
Spectator Participation
1. Grab attention at the start of your presentation. Arouse the interest of viewers in your project, regardless of how familiar they are with the topic. Your introductory phrases should be as clear as possible. Start your presentation with a captivating statement. Tell a joke, emphasize the importance of the project, or use a poetic description of the topic to “get through” to the audience.

No one will argue that any successful sale half depends on a good presentation of the “product”. Also, the success of a startup often depends on its “pitch” - the presentation of the project to a potential investor, buyer or future partner (from the English term pitch, “throw”, who came from baseball and migrated to sales).

Depending on the target audience and context, the presentation of your project will vary. There is a big difference between pitching from a stage in front of a large audience and, say, an "elevator" , when you have only 20-30 seconds to interest a person and another 3-5 minutes to tell a little about yourself and the project and exchange contacts for further communication. And, of course, the pitch will be completely different with a full presentation of the project during a private meeting, when you can fully reveal all the nuances of your project and outline all its advantages. Nevertheless, in all three cases, the main task of the pitch is the same: to “hook” the listener, draw attention to yourself, be remembered, and, most importantly, make your potential “buyer” – the investor – want to know “additional details about the product”.

Everything has its time

During the first meeting, when you are just getting to know a person and presenting a project to him for the first time, you do not need to attack the investor and bombard him with details. Consider the specifics of the situation: if you are at a network event (that is, at a meeting designed to establish business contacts), most likely the person has only a few minutes to talk, do not take him hostage - your task is to exchange contacts, to be remembered and agree on further communication, then to organize a second meeting and send Additional materials. Be moderately assertive, but respect business etiquette.

By the way, now many do not take business cards with them, but take pictures and scan them on the phone - prepare your business cards for such a turn of events. And in no case should you immediately hand the listener a complete set of materials - for sure it will be inconvenient for him to carry them with him and he will most likely just leave them somewhere. If a person is interested in you, he will ask you to send him materials.

Your main task at this stage is to leave a good impression and interest so that the investor wants to continue communicating with you. Tell a potential investor in a nutshell about yourself and what you do. Do not forget to say what exactly you need and what you expect from your communication, so that the person understands what is of interest to him.

Make the most of your time

Have you just started talking about all the benefits of your product or service, and the time allotted to you has already expired? You, of course, never made it to the numbers slide or the discussion of your plan and needs—a common mistake that is easy to make no matter where or how you present a project.

If you do elevator pitch at a conference, it is worth remembering that you have only 2-3 minutes left to “hook” the person’s attention, get him to give you his card, and offer to meet in a more private setting to discuss the details. You should not keep a person with a long story about all the nuances of your technology and product, and even more so, you should not follow him everywhere.

As you prepare, find out ahead of time how much time you have, prepare a script, and rehearse your performance to make sure you stay within your time limit. The shorter and brighter your presentation, the more it will be remembered by the audience - choose the main accents taking into account the specifics of your listeners and concentrate on them. It is better to tell briefly, but about the main thing, than to be interrupted in mid-sentence and try to put in all the remaining information in the last 30 seconds. Your main task on stage is to stand out from the mass of other presenters, so the brighter and more unusual your presentation is, the higher the chance to attract attention. But do not overdo it - it is unlikely that inappropriate shocking will help you much.

So, when meeting with an investor in person, ask in advance how much time he has and what his expectations / goals are. Get ready to improvise. After agreeing on a time, be careful not to “fill the entire airwaves” with a selfless story, leaving no time for the interlocutor to ask questions, recommendations and lively discussion. You should have time to discuss all the planned issues, take stock and, most importantly, agree on the next steps.

Consider the specifics of your listeners

A personal meeting with an investor is always a separate and unique story, which depends on who you are meeting with. I have seen many times how the personality of the person for whom the presentation is being made, drastically affects its course. In front of different people, the same person can both “ignite” and present his project rather dimly. The main advice here is to prepare in advance, work through the material and analyze who you are meeting with. Look at the website of the fund, where he invests, which of his partners and managers you meet, what is the experience of the investor and interests. If possible, talk to someone in whom the fund has already invested, learn from their experience and get valuable information about priorities.

At the presentation of your project to a group of people, there is always a different ratio of experts and investors. Use professional terms carefully: most likely, most listeners will not understand them. If the presentation format does not allow you to fully talk about all the details and nuances, do not go into details, leave them for those who are interested in the general idea. It is much more important to convey to the audience why this project deserves additional consideration (big idea that can affect the entire market and touch “everyone”, a unique team, current successes). At the same time, it does not hurt to have in the hall technical specialist, to which you can always safely forward the questions that have arisen.

Entrepreneurs often think that people around them understand the topic and understand it in the same way as you - a mistaken opinion. And it is very sad when a person enthusiastically talks about his project, and then no one even asks questions. After all, this is a very bad sign: it means that no one understood anything. The main thing in a speech is to convey your idea, because any presentation is a kind of process of involvement. Why are you better than others, and why is this market interesting? Everyone loves to talk about what a great product they have, but very often they forget that they must first explain who needs it, whether it has a market, whether there is a consumer. You need to explain to the audience that there are problems and needs, and there is a product that meets this need, as well as a team that can do it. And demonstrate that your product is better than the competition.

Remember the purpose of your pitch

Never lose sight of your goal: what you want to achieve with your pitch. Are you interested in PR, just getting to know a famous person, or do you want to attract investments?

Many people think that the purpose of a pitch is to convince that your project or product is better than others. It must be understood that this is unrealistic to do in one short presentation, especially from the stage.

Investment decisions are never made quickly, especially after the first meeting, so the goal of your pitch is first of all to interest and make it so that a full-fledged meeting follows, and then another, and so on until you shake hands with the investor. Each contact will bring you closer to the ultimate goal of obtaining an investment through the gradual establishment of trust and building a working relationship.

Rehearse and Add Raisins to Your Startup Casserole

Rehearse - a bad presentation kills the most best idea. Any presentation is good when it has highlights. But humor is appropriate if you know how to joke. Bright and colorful slides with pictures are very "catchy" when you talk about it vividly. Among Russian projects, for example, there is one with an animated presentation, there are characters, and the whole presentation is a kind of metaphor, a fairy tale. It's funny and attention-grabbing, and the metaphor helps you understand that there really is a problem. Vivid images and analogies really attract the attention of the audience, the perception immediately rises to another level.

The dynamics of the presentation itself, the ability to communicate with the audience, the ability to speak beautifully and loudly, to “rock” the audience are very important. Voice, energy, charisma - all this is gained by training. Although many people think that it solely depends on talent: some are given, while others are not. This is not so, the skill of speaking is a skill that can be acquired and honed to perfection. You can watch speeches of great presenters on the Internet (for example, Steve Jobs), you can go to special courses or work with individual trainers - no matter how, the main thing is to take it seriously.

Often good projects do not attract due attention simply because the one who presents them does not know how to speak. The other side of the coin is that often speaking skills take precedence over presentation content. Find your balance and use every opportunity to improve your performance. Rehearsal and preparation is 100% the key to success. Very often you can see how it is precisely those projects that rehearse their performance with the whole team before going on stage to win.

Tell us about yourself and the team - you are the main asset of your project

For investors, the team is one of the most important criteria by which they decide whether to invest in a project or not.

Tell us about yourself, about the people you work with, what unites you and why you are doing your project. Each of you is unique in some way, and together you are the main asset of the project - do not miss the opportunity to present it in a favorable light. Ideally, splitting the presentation between each other, allowing everyone to contribute and show their role in the project - this will add dynamics to the presentation and demonstrate that the project is not alone in the field.

Think about what impression you want to leave

Investors invest primarily in people, and only then in projects - never forget this. Therefore, a lot depends on the impression you make at the first meeting.

It may seem obvious, but it is the simplest things that often fail - for example, observing elementary rules of etiquette. Nothing spoils the mood like being late. Why pre-create communication difficulties that can be avoided?

Or, for example, clothes. Dress appropriately for the venue and the level of the meeting. To dress properly, you need to have a very clear idea of where you are performing and in front of whom. In an effort to attract attention to yourself, try not to overdo it.

Or simple rules of courtesy - the ability to listen and not interrupt. Often, trying to convey your idea, you can go into a rage and forget about the interlocutor and the purpose of the meeting. If the interlocutor says something, think before interrupting him or immediately “getting on the defensive” if he starts asking questions. The ability to listen and show respect for what you are told is important. You can (and should) be confident and have a better understanding of the subject, but if you leave the impression of a person who does not know how to listen and with whom it is unpleasant to communicate, there will be no sense in it.

In general, venture capital investment is a very personal business, so the most important thing is to gain a reputation as someone you can trust and enjoy doing business with. Think for yourself: if you don’t like someone, what is the probability that you will give him money, no matter how much gold he promises? Personal contact is one of the main components of success.

Know your subject for five and be ready for dialogue

Show that you understand the topic better than the investor, or at least not worse. Be prepared for the fact that the investor has already seen many such projects and is oriented in your market, especially if you have come to the “right” investor. If you don't know something, be honest about it and promise to come back with the information after the meeting. It couldn't be worse to come up with some kind of answer to a question - because there is a risk that the investor knows him, and if you lie, trust is forever lost.

Don't ask about money

Do you like being asked for money? Don't talk about money before an investor asks about it. If an investor has hypothetically decided that he is interested in a project, he will ask himself how much investment you are looking for and for what. It is very important to show that you understand what exactly the project needs money for - the need for investment must be clearly justified by your plan and budget.

Agree on next steps

Finally, it is very important to end the meeting correctly. It is ideal that the result of your communication is an agreement on the next meeting or some practical steps that will allow you to delve deeper into the investor in the project. If an investor has expressed interest in the project and a potential intention to invest, it is good to immediately discuss with him the sequence of actions that will be required for the transaction to take place, to understand how the decision to invest is made, what procedures will need to be completed, what time horizon. You must understand that one good meeting is not enough to get money; it usually takes four to five meetings just for the investor to come to a fundamental investment decision, and much more time to agree on all the details and close the deal. Therefore, it is important to be patient, be ready to move forward and have backup options.

Studying many investment projects that come to our investment fund for consideration, we never cease to be amazed at the imagination and inexperience of their creators. Yes, of course, they made every effort to successfully develop their business - launching new services and products, negotiating with suppliers, customers and banks. However, this experience is not enough when negotiating with potential investors. Let's consider step by step how to correctly present the project and make sure the investor is reliable so as not to get a money "pig in a poke" in his face. Acting as the financial director of one of our portfolio companies (Capital Debt Recovery Agency), I will be able to talk about attracting an investor from the other side of the barricades. I hope my advice will help you bring more than one project to life.

Step 1. Find out the investor profile

Each investor has his own investment strategy and business areas in which he prefers to invest. Usually these are areas where he already has experience or where an investor, having studied the industry or the experience of other countries, sees significant growth potential - industries with a high growth forecast and, most likely, temporary "windows of opportunity".

I advise you to start your acquaintance with the investor and his profile from his official website - almost all open investment structures present their strategies and completed projects, from which it is approximately clear where they are invested and for what purpose.

Tell me, why talk about what is already known to everyone? I do not agree. From time to time we are approached by businessmen who have not even bothered to read on the website what areas we are considering. Or send by e-mail projects that, according to the contract with our own investors, we cannot even consider.

Previously, investors immediately after signing the documents were ready to invest the entire amount in the project. Now they prefer to keep the money in the account and give it out for specific projects and items of expenditure. Thus, investors get more control over their investments.

Step 2. Make a presentation

You will laugh, but we used to have such a practice: when making an appointment at the office of a potential portfolio company, representatives of the investment fund would definitely come to see how clean the toilet was there. This is such a kind of test that helps to understand how management relates to comfort in the office, cleanliness and order. Also, an investment presentation is a kind of primary characteristic of how organized the thoughts are in the head of entrepreneurs who want to raise money. If the project is well structured on paper, then most likely it is well structured in their heads. Moreover, these are not empty words, so far 2/3 of the presentations that we receive are of poor quality and do not cause a desire to read them further. And for this desire to appear, you need to consider the following.

presentation format. The most understandable, first of all, are the two formats within which it is worth talking about your project.

A one-page teaser, where all the information fits on one page or one slide. Here you provide only key information. Dedicate one or two lines to the purpose of the project, business owners, their experience in this area, and the team. This is enough to interest the investor.
A multi-page teaser can include from 3 to 10 slides, the information is divided into categories: the profile of the company's owners, how the industry is developing, the management of the company, expectations from the project. Here, too, general, but slightly more detailed information is provided. Remember that the main things will be discussed at the meeting.

Presentation quality. Forget the knee-deep presentation that has helped you many times in internal meetings and meetings. The requirements for the presentation this time are very high:

high-quality design - modern, beautiful, in bright colors, using diagrams, graphs and tables. Such a presentation has to be scrolled to the end. Graphs and charts can be used to illustrate what are the trends in the industry, who are the competitors, the growth of the company over the past few years;
reader-friendly format – ideally a Word or Power Point document translated into pdf format, because such a file is easy to read on a phone or tablet.

Also pay attention to formatting - it is very unpleasant to receive presentations where the text does not fit in a column, a graph has flown, or some kind of error is underlined. Make sure that:

there was an equal distance between the lines;
graphs on each slide were in one part - only on the left or only on the right;
there were no errors in the text;
All slides were made in the same style.

Text volume. Investors do not want to waste time on presentations where they need to find the information they need in a large amount of text. In the format of the initial presentation, the text should be short, at the level of theses. If the investor really has an interest, then he himself will request all additional materials.

In general, two or three minutes is enough to get an impression of the project and decide whether to study it further or not. That is, from the moment a potential investor opened the letter, you have two or three minutes of his attention until he wants to move on to the next letter.

If the investor, after reading the letter, then opened the attached presentation and scrolled through it to the end, this is already a success, because in most cases this does not happen. Remember that successful and experienced investors receive hundreds of such emails a day.

Now I will say a few words about the text cover letter, reading of which should take no more than one minute out of the two or three mentioned.

Transmittal letter. In the body of the letter in which you send a presentation of your investment project, there should be a small text from which you could find out the following information:

the essence of the project for which investments are needed - it can be a new product, expansion of an existing business, purchase of a competitor, merger with another company;
the industry in which your company operates;
the size of the investment - one investor is interested in projects within a million dollars, while for another, the interest starts from 50 million. From my own experience, I know that it is a pity for investors to spend time studying a project if they are not sure that it meets their profile and criteria.

You need to write something like this:

“Good afternoon, I am the financial director of the “….” company, I learned about you through “….”. In order not to take up your time, I tried to very briefly reflect the essence of our project in the attached presentation. The project is in the "...." area, we are looking for money for "....", it takes "...." million dollars, the payback depends on the "...." scenario. Details are in the attached presentation. If you are interested, we will be happy to meet and tell you more about the project.”

That is, five or six lines are enough - if the industry and the size of the investment coincided with the interests of the investor, then he will most likely open the presentation and begin to study the project.

From personal experience: Larisa Semenyuk, CFO, Gradient Alfa Investments Group

The initial presentation of a project that requires investment is usually prepared on the basis of a detailed and carefully drawn up business plan. This is an important document that should convince the investor to invest in the project, so it should be as informative and attractive as possible. Below is the structure of the presentation, which our company presented a major project at investment forums and conferences (construction of a cement plant and purchase of a technological line for the production of cement).

1. Purpose of the project.
2. Project parameters.
3. Terms and stages of project implementation.
4. Information about the project initiator (team, qualifications, experience).
5. Market context.
6. Competitive environment.
7. Applied technology.
8. Description of products.
9. Volume of investments and sources of financing.
10. Use of investments (investment plan).
11. Predictive investment efficiency.
12. Financial indicators of the project.

Presenting the project for the construction of a cement plant, we substantiated the economic feasibility of building a plant of exactly the given (and not another) capacity.

In the section revealing the parameters of the project (second paragraph), they indicated the horizon and the planning step, the total amount of investments, the amount of own and borrowed funds and their percentage, the planned date for the start of production.

In the section “Terms and stages of project implementation”, we calculated how much time it would take for the entire project and its individual stages: designing an object - one year from the start of the project launch; quarry development - eight months, start of quarry work - 16 months; construction of the plant - two years from the date of completion of the design; start of operation - 37 months from the start of the project launch; reaching full capacity - 43 months from the start of the project launch.

The sections containing information about the project initiator, market features and competitors are very important (the fourth-sixth paragraphs of our presentation structure). The applicant for investment must give exhaustive and reasonable answers to many questions, including uncomfortable ones, in presentations and during negotiations. Listing the competitors of the cement plant, we indicated not only specific enterprises and their production capacity, but also the competitive strategy, the needs of the region and forecasts for cement consumption.

In our case, the volume of cement production did not cover the needs of the region's construction complex, not to mention the needs of neighboring regions. Forecasts promise an annual growth in consumption of 10 percent, and competitive strategy of the new plant was determined by three components: a guarantee of the quality of the goods, an adequate price level and the constant availability of cement in the warehouse.

Step 3. Present the project

If you did everything right and the investor is interested in your project, you will be assigned a meeting. Most likely in your company office. About checking its purity, which I talked about in Step 2, you can tell your management as a joke. Next, you have to work out in detail your performance in front of the guests. I will list several important aspects of it.

Be extremely realistic. Investors really do not like it when they hang noodles on their ears, trying to sell something that is not there, or overestimating expectations from their projects. It usually doesn't work. Even if an investor does not know the industry, he will quickly realize that the forecasts that are given for the market and specifically for the company do not correspond to reality.

It is important for an investor to see that you are a sincere and open person, do not hide anything and try to be objective - this will help the process. But criticizing yourself and your company at a meeting with a potential investor is also not worth it:

if there is any difficulty, present it as an opportunity;
call the weak side of the business a certain risk. And do not forget to add that you are working on it and will close it soon;
when describing a team, you need to objectively show which areas you can rely on completely, and which ones will most likely need to be strengthened;
if the strategic division of the company does not have a leader, do not hide it - say that you need to look for someone on the side, but you already have such and such developments, etc.

Draw a picture of the team. The next important parameter for decision making is the management team. When there is good project, but you need to look for a management team to implement it, the investor will evaluate this project as high-risk, not everyone is ready to consider such scenarios. And if this is a company where the team is fully formed, people have been working together for a long time and are well motivated, this is a completely different situation, the risk profile is much smaller here.

Imagine business owners - entrepreneurs. For an investor, this is key information - after all, he will have a long-term collaboration with a portfolio company, and the issue of personal comfort is primary here!

In this regard, investors will be interested in the following information:

profile of owners - businessman, financier, production worker;
experience in this industry and how successful this experience is, because practice shows that successful people are successful in everything;
the essence of the projects that entrepreneurs were engaged in before - they created, organized, brought out of the crisis, sold, united. It is important for the investor to understand what exactly they are strong in.

Also tell how the current owners of the company got into this business - they created it or bought it, and how they earned their capital.

It is one thing for an entrepreneur who has built his business from scratch and is looking for money to develop it, and quite another for an official who, it is not clear with what money he bought this business before the crisis, and now, when you need to turn on your head, does not know what to do with it further : whether to sell, or to look for money to expand it. It will be interesting for some investor to work only with the first, and someone will subscribe to the second, more risky option, although the investment conditions may differ greatly.

Describe the strengths of the company. The most attractive investment will always be a profitable company on promising market industry. Although such companies usually have no problems finding investments, investors find them themselves.

Show in the primary materials the historical growth rate, which will confirm that the company is growing at least as fast as the market. Investors believe that a successful company must be able to grow faster than the market, no matter how fast the market itself grows.

Make a graph that shows revenue growth year by year—the previous two or three years, the budget for this year, and a preliminary plan for the next.

Investors take less risk when they invest in profitable company, but it often happens that even a very successful company does not earn enough, as it actively invests in new growth.

Develop several development scenarios. The level of potential profitability and possible risks can be presented to the investor in the form of several scenarios:

base - which you focus on first. Here you show how the company should develop, the forecast is quite realistic;
pessimistic - what will happen if the project does not live up to expectations. You represent the minimum wage here;
optimistic - what will happen if the project suddenly shoots and everything is on the highest level. Then the profit will be so many percent, and we will become billionaires.

Complete each scenario with a description of the key parameters and events that affect its outcome. Be sure to note that you are focusing on the basic scenario, and two additional ones are needed in order to fully evaluate the possibilities of your project.

Analyze the payback period of the project. By investing in new business, the investor accepts a certain risk. Therefore, the task of any investor is to earn more on an investment project than he could receive in relatively risk-free investments in the same market: deposits, bonds, etc. That is, any percentage of return above 10-15 percent can be justified if it corresponds to a certain degree of risk.

I think investment funds in Russia are still targeting returns above 30 percent. That is, by investing money now, most investors would like to triple it in three to four years. Further, everything depends on the specific investor and the degree of risk of your project. If the project is very risky, it is possible that investors will demand a 100% return. Everything depends on the situation.

I will note two points:
1) no one usually names a certain rate of return, and even more so, it is not legally fixed. It is very difficult to calculate it. The investor invests now, and he will earn only in three or four years;
2) you should not negotiate guarantees of payback with the investor - either it will not mean anything, because no one knows what will happen in the future, or it will be extremely unprofitable for you. You will, of course, receive money by guaranteeing the investor some certain rate of return and backing up your guarantees, for example, with a pledged share in the company or its assets. But any sane person will avoid this, because the essence of an investment deal is precisely that your company has a partner who gets into the same boat with you and bears the risks together with you, shares the success and failure of this project.

Step 4. Choosing an investor

So, we have come to the most interesting and inaccessible step for some companies, when it is not the investor who chooses you, but you choose him. The investor became interested in you, and you approached the signing of a confidentiality agreement and the preparation of investment documents. But before you rejoice and open champagne, take another look at it from the outside and think about whether it is worth cooperating with it. Answer the following three questions for yourself.

Does he have sufficient knowledge in your field? It is important to raise money from investors who understand something about your business - who either have experience or connections in this area. They will understand how to implement the project faster and better, without stepping on the same rake that an inexperienced investor would definitely step on.

Are you comfortable talking to him? It is better not to deal with investors with whom you do not feel comfortable after the first serious meeting. Also, you should not bring the matter to a deal if you doubt that the investor shares your basic human values: the principles of honesty, fairness, attitude towards business and towards your employees. Because no matter how attractive an investment project looks on paper, it is unlikely that it will be really successful if there are constant quarrels and conflicts between its shareholders within the company.

Talk to the investor closer, talk to entrepreneurs in whose projects he has already invested. Look for information about him and his projects on the Internet. The inner feeling that will form after this will be the most correct.

How willing is he to take risks? Some investors want to minimize risks as much as possible, while others want to earn more money and are ready to take risks that others refuse. Someone wants to work with young entrepreneurs, startups, and do 10 projects, each worth a million dollars. And someone would prefer to do one project for 10 million dollars, but he will work with experienced entrepreneurs and invest in successful company with a strong market position.

And finally, I want to give advice: avoid people who are ready to invest their “last money” in the business of your company, so that in the future they will not stifle all your interesting undertakings that involve some degree of risk.

From personal experience: Dmitry Mokhnachev, General Director of the Capital Collection Agency

In 2009, a year and a half after the founding of the company, we decided that it was necessary to attract additional investments for the further development of the company. The auditing and consulting company Ernst & Young, with whom we cooperated at that time, recommended that we send our proposal to the Mint Capital fund, they have a fairly strong relationship with this fund. The transaction was successful, now Mint Capital owns a blocking stake in our company, which is more than 25 percent of the shares. The presentation was prepared by Ernst&Young, we provided her with all the necessary characteristics of the company. Based on this information, they prepared a brief and sent it to the fund. Within a month, the investor responded, and we held the first meeting - we shared the logic of the company's development, our vision of the market. In the secondary presentation at the request of Mint Capital, we compiled three scenarios for the further development of the company - the most likely, the most positive and negative, and also disclosed the financial side of the enterprise in more detail. The contract was signed nine months later.

I'll tell you about our company, what it was at that time.
We had three shareholders, these are Russian citizens who previously managed various banking structures. The debt collection market in Russia was then actively developing, the competition was much lower. But the leading companies were the same as now - the collection agency Sequoia Credit Consolidation, the debt agency Pristav, FASP, and ourselves. Our main competitive advantage at that time was the largest regional network in Russia - about 50 branches. We have already made considerable investments in the company, and they have yielded results. In addition, we have begun construction of a large call center. I cannot say that at that time we managed to realize the full potential of the company, but we were able to develop it to the level at which it became of interest to potential investors.

Initially, a long investment project was planned, for six to seven years. Now, in 2013, we continue our cooperation. I can say with confidence that the company is interested in the cooperation with Mint Capital to last as long as possible. But investors usually enter the project for a limited time, for Mint Capital this period is on average three and six years. It is important for investors to be with the company at the peak of growth, this is the meaning of an investment deal.

For those who are just preparing to attract investments, I would like to advise you not to be cunning, but to present your company to the investor as it really is. It is important to be honest and realistic in your plans and forecasts. Don't be afraid to look unattractive. The best investment for an investor is a business that has not yet shown dizzying results. Then the investor will enter it at the lowest price. And if he correctly calculated the prospects of the company, assessed its future, then he will be able to get a good return, due to the fact that the profitability of the company will grow with his help.

The ability to convince the interlocutor, whether it be a future colleague or a potential investor, of the value of your project is something like an art. We will talk about how representatives of the venture business advise to build their oral presentation and what tricky questions investors like to ask after the presentation.

How to talk about your project

One of the most important questions that haunts everyone who prepares an oral presentation: "Where to start?" When it comes to a startup presentation (or pitch), then representatives of venture business, such as DocSend and Sequoia Capital, advise starting it with a story about the goals and values of the company, and then smoothly moving on to the problem that the project solves (this advice is true for speeches , and for structuring documents - for example, a business plan).

As for the structure of the entire speech, Andy Raskin, who advises companies funded by AndreesenHorowitz, TrueVentures, FirstRoundCapital on strategic planning and communications, advises to adhere to the principles of storytelling. This means that the speaker (in this case, the founder of the project) should not "mechanically" jump from one section or idea to another - on the contrary, one should try to make a whole story out of his story.

Like any "classic" story, this one has a good character (you and your project) and a villain - the problem you're trying to solve. Andy Raskin advises to start the story precisely with the problem - and at the same time show that the "villain" is not a figment of your imagination, but a real "pain", close and understandable to each of the listeners: “Never start a pitch by talking about yourself, your team, your product, or target market. Instead, start with what gets in the way of your client's happiness. Paint an emotionally vivid picture of how imperfect the world around your customer is at the moment, what or who is to blame, and why.”

Sequoia Capital emphasizes that if you understand that the problem your project solves may not be familiar to the audience, provide convincing facts showing the impact it has on those to whom your solution is addressed. Otherwise, listeners will get the feeling that you are "fighting windmills."

From a storytelling standpoint, Andy Raskin suggests building a story like this:

1. Designate the "enemy"

2. Answer the question: "Why now?"

3. Show me the promised land before explaining how you'll get there

4. Identify obstacles. Then explain how you will overcome them.

5. Provide evidence that you are not just shaking the air.

This approach is consistent with the structure of the classic "pitch": the "enemy" will be the problem that your project solves. By "promised land" one can mean both a description of the final type of the product and a story about its future in the market: what share the project intends to receive and what will be its size in monetary terms.

Obstacles are both competitors and what the project has yet to do. To overcome them, you need a qualified team, a well-thought-out and reasonable business plan. The evidence that Andy Raskin offers to provide at the end of the story is the real financial performance of the company, what it has already achieved.

However, a compelling story about the project is not everything. It is not enough just to talk about the business - you also need to answer in detail the tricky questions of investors. And it is always better to approach tricky questions prepared and think over the answers to them in advance.

What investors want to know

First of all, the founder needs to think over the answers to obvious questions about “where is the money” (where and how exactly the company plans to make a profit), what is the company’s profit per transaction, how the most popular indicators are calculated (CAC, LTV and the like).

Dmitry Kalaev, Deputy Director for Educational and Acceleration Programs IIDF

“In my opinion, at different stages of investment, different issues are a priority. For example, at the stage when there is no turnover and the product is under development, questions are important: who is on the team, what motivates them, why exactly this team will “break” the market. At all stages, the question “how big is the market” is important.

In fact, if the market is small, then there is no chance of building a big company. For example, for IIDF the minimum acceptable level is a company with an income of 300 million rubles, which means that the market must be more than 1 billion rubles.

According to the experience of the IIDF Accelerator after the first sales, the real size of the market, which is calculated not on the basis of the size estimate from Gartner, but on the basis of the ratio " average check to the number of available clients”, in 99% of cases it decreases – it is important to constantly update this size!”

In addition, investors may be interested in the following:

What is the reason why the graph/measure looks like this? Investors are interested not only in absolute values - they want to understand why the company showed such growth in the reporting period, what is the reason that this or that indicator looks a certain way. This approach allows investors to feel that the founder really understands how his business works, and helps the project team to better understand what is really behind the numbers and abbreviations.

Why can't you develop faster? This question follows smoothly from the previous one. It is important for the team not only to analyze the reasons behind its current state, but also to understand the factors that limit the company's growth. There is nothing reprehensible in this - growth can indeed be limited by something, and a company that will invest money and effort in getting around these restrictions will inspire more investor confidence.

This will help them to make sure that the invested funds will not be wasted and will be spent wisely. And the project team, on the other hand, will realize that their task is to work on problems that are relevant specifically to their business, and not to try to achieve some “average indicators” that characterize a successful startup.

Dmitry Kalaev

“At the stage of company scaling, the question “why can’t you develop faster” becomes really relevant - it is very important to find the limitations of rapid growth and come up with tools for multiple growth”

What factors will help the project accelerate progress? This question can be answered with the standard phrase that the project team will work 24 hours a day and try to make every client happy, but it is important to understand that in this case, investors need an analysis of the real situation. Even if your perspective on “growth-enhancing factors” later changes and you realize that the source of your growth lies elsewhere, by answering this question thoughtfully and in detail, you will signal to the audience that you are not only well versed in the current situation, but and think about the future of your business.

One of the innovations is a new criterion for evaluating the works submitted for the competition: the level of presentation and protection of the project. Indeed, it is not always enough to organize and hold a cool event, you also need to talk about it so that others are carried away by this project and see the result. How to do it competently and efficiently? We talked about this with Igor Lyutenko, project manager "Challenge accepted", chairman of the jury national award among the organizers of the Golden Puzzle events, an expert and festival of the event industry.

- Igor, tell us why the contestants need to pay special attention to the presentation of their project?

Because the presentation can both strengthen the jury in the opinion that the project is worthwhile, and disappoint them. For some experts, the performance of the contestant is only an insignificant appendage to the project itself, which they have studied well, someone needs lively emotions, a vivid performance that can hook, and someone wants details in the form of numbers characterizing the results of the project, and an answer to a sacred question "Why?".

As chairman of the jury for the Golden Puzzle award, I have come across situations where an indistinct presentation had a negative impact on the ratings of the contestants, and worthy projects did not even make it into the top three. By the way, my master class "Present to win" in the educational part of the Event-Breakthrough 2017 festival. I will show several cases where you can clearly see how not to present your project, and together with the participants of the master class we will practice how to defend our work correctly in order to win the Golden Puzzle (all participants of the Event-Breakthrough automatically and without a registration fee participate in the federal award "Golden Puzzle"), and in general for life!

I am not going to give a deaf theory, teach oratory skills, the basics of presentations, I will share my practical experience, life hacks and personal observations on how to convey to the jury the full depth of your brilliant project with the help of a speech.

What are the main mistakes contestants make on defense? What should you avoid when presenting your project to an audience?

Oddly enough, contestants sometimes violate even the most obvious requirements for preparing presentations. These truisms include the following postulates:

do not read from slides;
do not turn your back on the audience;
write headlines in large print;
place a minimum of text on the slides, ideally one thesis per slide;
make the tables used in the presentation understandable, but rather replace them with diagrams;
use more illustrations, supplement your speech with videos: a minute of high-quality video can be more visual and informative than five minutes of speech;
read the text several times, learn it by heart if possible;
rehearse the performance in front of a mirror;
use intonations, highlight the main thing with their help;
move, gesticulate, change position in space, do not freeze in place;
maintain eye contact with jury members and with the audience.

In addition, at the defense, I often have a question: do the contestants know by what criteria the jury members will evaluate their projects? And the answer is not always yes. Meanwhile, understanding what you get your points for, it is easier to prepare so that there is no tricky questions so that all the necessary information is reflected and disclosed in the main speech.

- Practically in all nominations of the competition projects are evaluated according to four criteria. Let's take a closer look at each of them. The first is creativity and innovation. How should it be reflected in the presentation?

Probably, in every project submitted for the competition, there are both creativity and innovation, but they need to be emphasized. Do not be afraid to use the words: nobody, never, rarely, for the first time, etc., indicating that in your work you have done something unusual, exceptional, used the latest technology, collected under one roof the hitherto uncollected. A competitive presentation is similar to a sales presentation that highlights all the benefits and advantages of the proposed product. Do the same.

- And how does such a criterion as the quality of performance work?

To reflect the quality of the project, it is worth adding to the presentation a few descriptive figures characterizing the past event. You can compare with the events of the same customer in previous years or with your own early work. Of course, the competition project should look advantageous against this background.

An illustration of the quality of project execution can be feedback from the customer and event participants. If they are satisfied, it means that the event was organized at a high level, with a competent selection of performers, with strict compliance with requests. Therefore, feel free to spend the last 20-30 seconds of your speech feedback. So the jury will see that the project was liked not only by you, but also by those for whom it was organized.

The jury pays special attention to the effectiveness of the project - this is the third criterion for evaluating works at the Event-Breakthrough 2017 competition.

Despite the fact that now such an indicator as KPI has appeared, not all projects can be expressed in numbers. There are events during the implementation of which the customer does not seek to achieve digital indicators, but he sets certain goals and objectives. And efficiency is the ratio of the tasks of the project and the result obtained.

Can't find a tool to measure results? So come up with it, you are eventers, you must be creative! And we, the members of the jury, will already decide whether these tools work or not.

And I also want to draw attention to this point: until now, not everyone clearly knows what such abbreviations as KPI, ROI mean, and jury members ask about them regularly. Therefore, the contestants must have the necessary conceptual apparatus, understand what they are asked about, and have their own version of the answer to the questions posed.

- Well, the fourth criterion is the level of presentation and protection of the project.

This is a new criterion for evaluating the work of the contestants, which was introduced this year by the Organizing Committee of the Breakthrough Event. During the defense, the jury will set a certain point for the presentation, its compliance with the regulations, the requirements for the participants of the competition. The relevance, integrity, complexity of the presentation will be evaluated, and most importantly, the quality of the reflection of the goals and results of the project in it.

- How to start working on the presentation of the project? What to focus on?

I think that first you need to prepare the text, and then put a visual row under it. And you can get away with timing. 5 minutes are allotted for the presentation of the project at the Event-Breakthrough 2017 competition. The first two minutes are information about the agency and introductory data about the project: customer, type of event, tasks. The next two minutes are the data arrays on the basis of which the jury will judge the quality of the project: idea, concept, tools used. And the last minute - the results achieved and their compliance with the tasks.

The performance of the contestant should be supported by bright slides, photographic materials and, preferably, a spectacular video. When everything is put together, start the stopwatch and read your speech. Most likely, it will have to be significantly reduced in order to keep the timing.

- What should be the very performance of the contestants? What should they pay attention to?

The contestant must have a neat appearance. His speech should be convincing, holistic, rehearsed. In addition, it is important to find for yourself some means of calming down, relaxing, relaxing, because a competition is always an excitement, and not only for yourself, but also for your project, for the entire company represented, so it is important not to burn out, not to get overwhelmed, to remain calm and worthily bear their burden of responsibility.

Some contestants add show elements to their presentation. How effective is this? Does it apply to all categories?

Elements of the show work advantageously and convincingly in the nominations associated with event tourism, with private and children's holidays, maybe with themed weddings and internal corporate events. In other cases, it is better to include a high-quality video than to arrange a live show.

How can the contestants build interaction with the members of the Event-Breakthrough jury? What do strict judges want to hear in speeches? And without what questions, as a rule, not a single defense can do?

As in the past year, for sure, the question “Why?” will sound. I think it will be relevant for more than one year. Why did the client need the project? Why did the agency take on this job? What did this project give to those to whom it was directed? Each contestant should have answers to these questions. It should be understood that the task of “so that everyone has fun and rest from the heart” is no longer in trend. Here's an example: let's say a family day was held in a company. What for? You can answer - according to tradition, so that employees have an interesting time. And another option is possible - to form a positive attitude towards the enterprise among the younger generation, so that young people want to continue the activities of their parents and also come to work there. This is already a super-task, which you need to focus on when implementing the project. And even if the customer does not offer any super-tasks, they need to be pulled out from him, found. And how effectively they were achieved - this is exactly what the jury decides.

General partner of Event-Breakthrough 2017 - innovative team building "Challenge accepted"