How to Prepare for Your First Meeting with an Angel Investor

Presenting an idea and making it appealing is one of the most important subjects of the business world. In this sense, an angel investor meeting comes our way as one of the most important milestones for a startup. However, there are some proven methods that help overcoming this step with success and utmost efficiency. So, how should you prepare for your first meeting with an angel investor? What should you consider?  

1)  Show Your Passion and Motivation

The most interesting part of the startup world is to have an entrepreneurial spirit and to be motivated in turning a new idea into reality. Having a good idea and being go-getting in concreting this idea is another important element of the start-up ecosystem. When you reach the angel investor step in order to grow your business, showing this motivation is the key factor. 

Investors are the people who will play the most important role in giving you the direct support you need and growing your business. Therefore, being dynamic and excited about the idea that you are presenting will be very much beneficial in terms of affecting investors and convincing them to work with you. Trusting in your ideas and transmitting this trust to your investors is a good start to the meeting. 

2) Be Clear About Your Business

Angel investors are curious to hear about your ideas and motivation sources before making any kind of investment. Their goal here is to learn about what you will be offering customers or users in detail and clearly. In addition, your expectations from the investors will be one of the important topics to cover during your meeting. Therefore, presenting the general framework of the product or service taking this point as a reference point will be beneficial. 

Talking about what inspired you to build your business and how you will be making a difference with your business model clearly and effectively will take you to the next step with success. When you are preparing to overcome confusions, you can benefit from frequently asking yourself questions such as “Why” and “How”. This way you can be prepared to touch on every general subject that your investor should know about your business. 

3) Concretize Your Motivation

In the startup ecosystem, presenting your motivation concretely in light of data and analysis is just as important as having motivation. Market comparisons where you talk about your product or service, statistics and concrete data that you have identified (goals, expenses etc.) will help you represent your startup in the best way possible during your meetings with investors. In short, the more you concretize your idea with solid work, the more you are likely to draw the investors’ attention and to convince them into giving you the help you need.

4) Go Over Your Presentation

The most important factor in all presentations and meetings is the power of practice. The more you are prepared on a subject, the more successful you will present it. An angel investor meeting is not an exception. In the startup world, having a good idea is only important if you know how to present it. Therefore, before telling investors about your business, it is crucially important to go over any data, documents and key points that you have collected. Repeating as much as you need will help you become more self-confident and be more prepared in the face of potential questions. 

5) Make Use of Your Past Experiences

What were your most powerful and weak points when you were presenting in your professional life or school years? The answer to this question will help you be much more aware and expert in any environment that you present your ideas, not only during an angel investor meeting. The notes that you take from your previous meetings and presentation experiences, will directly remind you of the key points that you should be prepared on before your angel investor meeting. In this sense all kinds of experiences you have had, either positive or negative, will be beneficial. 

At BTM we support startups during their growth process and in the process of commercializing new business ideas by offering various services. In this article we talked about how to prepare for an angel investor meeting. Don’t forget to check out BTM’s content for more methods and information which you can adapt to your startup and business model!