Small Business central Presented By Canon

Menu
  • Programs
    • Get Started
    • Pay It Forward
  • Resources
    • All
    • Start
    • Work
    • Grow
  • Products
    • All Products
    • Printers
    • Scanners
    • Projectors
    • Cameras
    • Video
    • Calculators
  • Support
    • Drivers
    • Manuals/FAQ
    • Find a Store
    • eStore
Presented By Canon
  • En
  • Fr
  • Home
  • Resources
  • Questions Investors Will Likely Ask You

Questions Investors Will Likely Ask You

EzineArticles.com

Asaf Matyas

  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Linkedin
  • Download
  • Email
  • Join your peers and share!

Your email has been sent!

Get small business tips, articles, and resources from Small Business Central sent directly to .

No, Thanks

Thanks for signing up!

Be sure to keep an eye on your inbox for some great small business tips and articles from us.

Getting your startup funded is not a small challenge. It's even harder when your startup is at an early stage when there is no "field" proof that could indicate the chances of its success, like a working product, happy customers, steady income etc. in the early stage of a startup, founders need to prove investors that the company doesn't only have a great product with a clear market fit, but they need to show as well they are capable of leading the company through the next stages and ultimately to success. As a preparation for the meetings with potential investors, it is not sufficient to only master the business plan and intimately understand the business model, but to also work hard and prepare for the conversation itself with the investors. What does it mean? First, you need to know and understand the potential questions that investors could ask, and be prepared to answer them thoroughly, to the point and impressively. Those will include personal questions on your resume, as well as technology, business and financing questions. Most likely it would be around 20 questions; here are some examples:

1. How complicated is your technology? How is it protected? Is it easy to copy it?

Especially in a technology venture, protection from theft and copy is very important and provides security with investors, who can ensure that this is significant technological innovation. In case the specified product requires heavy quality assurance tests, software validations, licensing authorization or regulatory approvals, it is recommended to start those at the very early stage of the project, since it is likely they will require time due their nature. Any kind of such an approval will increase the value and prestige of the company to the investors.

2. How many months are required for each stage of the development process?

Some of the ideas and projects have a short window of opportunity for market penetration. In such cases, in it important to show the startup can complete the development stages in a rather short amount of time (months), without contradicting that though the development is fairly quick, it will still be relatively difficult to copy the product.

3. Who are the competitors?

When the need/market size for a certain product exists, chances are there are already a few companies trying to fulfill it. Therefore, it is important to show that there is actually competition out there, and do not try to avoid or hide this subject.

Show your advantages and unique value proposition compared to your competitors. Don't claim your product is perfect - it is highly unlikely.

It is important to show the founders know how to take advantage of their product or service unique values over the competitor's one, and take it to the right market - the market where the value of the product is higher and the disadvantages are less noticeable.

4. What is the addressable market size (AMS)? How did you reach those numbers?

Established researchers from leading companies such as IDC, Gartner etc. costs thousands of dollars. Usually, a new startup does not have the resources to invest in such market research.

It is recommended to invest a good amount of hours on search engines to find other researches, presentation slides, and other data that will help calculate the relevant market size for your startup. Even if the information you dug up does not match precisely to your target market, you can roughly evaluate your addressable market size.

There are many more questions, such: how do you plan to penetrate the market? What is the business model? What is the basis for it? What is the business model of your competition? How much cash do you need until operation balance? What are the ownership rates you are willing to give for the investment? And more.

Knowing these questions and being prepared for them significantly improves the impact you might leave on the investors and their ability to properly evaluate the chances of the founders to lead the company towards success.

Additionally, most founders come from a technological background (engineers, developers) and lack the business and financial understanding needed to build and scale a company. Terms such as operating profit, cash flow, fixed and variable costs, equity, and many more and rarely known and will make it hard to lead and steer the discussion in front of the investors. Such a thing could harm the investors' enthusiasm and willingness to invest - even if the product is great, with no competition and a great market. After all, even the greatest ideas could fail without the proper business, marketing and strategic leadership.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Asaf_Matyas

Used With Permission

Small Business Q & A!

What is / was the biggest challenge when starting your business?
To see the results, select your business size:
Ok

Topics

  • Business
  • financing
  • investors
  • startup
  • technology
Filter Your Options

Related Content

Building a Business Plan: The Basics

A good business plan will help you secure financing and suppliers and guide your entry into the market. Here are the basics to building that solid foundation. Before you …

Learn more

Do You Need a Business Makeover? 6 Steps to Redefining your Business

Is your business in need of a makeover? Here are 6 steps to ensuring your goals, customers, and technology are still taking you where you want to go. “True success,”…

Learn more

Finding the Right Tools: A Startup Checklist

As many as nine out of ten startups fail. Beat the odds by finding the right tools to meet all of your small business’ needs. “Now is the best time ever to start a bu…

Learn more

How to find the mentor you need

Starting a business can be a lonely endeavour. Even the most experienced entrepreneurs will come up against new and daunting challenges – and "fake it 'til you make…

Learn more

Startup sales strategy: Four ways your team is failing

With investors highly focused on startups showing traction, sales is a key consideration for early-stage companies – but it is easy for any team to go astray. We sp…

Learn more

The Culture Conundrum

The biggest reason Laurel Sim joined Canadian professional staffing company Taleo Project Services in 2012 wasn't the pay or the perks: it was its culture. She and founde…

Learn more

Techtoberfest 2015 offers sobering words for startups, with a side of sauerkraut

Have we entered an age of make-believe entrepreneurs? It’s a sobering question, and it arose time and again as Gary Vaynerchuk delivered a frank, high-energy talk to l…

Learn more

Let’s do more than imagine a new world for women entrepreneurs

A while back, I read this article by Carol Leaman of Axonify, with its very bold headline. It would be easy to have a knee-jerk, “Yeah, I wish…” response to it, sin…

Learn more

Three ways to keep your company’s culture

The culture of a small business is part of its appeal. With just a handful of staff, team spirit comes naturally, and it's relatively easy to keep everyone on track with …

Learn more

Staying creative once you’re successful

Starting up a business is one thing: you're so busy putting out fires that you don't have time to get bored. But how do you keep the creative juices flowing once your com…

Learn more

Three easy tips for driving organic growth

When developing a business, it's common to think you have to look outside your current customer base for new opportunities. However, while diversifying your income stream…

Learn more

How referrals turn one client into 10

Bringing on new clients can be challenging, especially for a newer business. And while technologies are constantly evolving, giving entrepreneurs more and more ways to co…

Learn more

Time-management tips for busy business owners

It may be an unconventional time-management tip, but Kelsey Ramsden swears by it. When the London, Ont.-based entrepreneur is swamped with supposedly important tasks, she…

Learn more

Essential accounting tips for the new entrepreneur

Barbara Garbens has seen some messy bookkeeping records. The Toronto-based financial planner and president of BL Garbens Associates once had a client who, for several yea…

Learn more

Fighting Conflict

Every employee in a small company is crucial to its operations. If a business owner sees conflict brewing among members of staff, he or she needs to jump in to make sure …

Learn more

The trucking industry gears up with December’s Get Started winner.

Trucking freight. Imagine the logistics — piles of paperwork, communication between suppliers, drivers, and dispatchers, freight tracking, and revenue lost to intri…

Learn more

Piloting the Pivot: Why and How Your Business Must Change

In a constantly changing marketplace, businesses prepared to change themselves are at an advantage—but only if they do it well and in the right measure. Rebooting y…

Learn more

Case Study: PrimaGate: Making Smart Homes More Accessible

The smart-home market is wide open and waiting for a low-cost, user-friendly platform to make the comforts of home even easier to enjoy. With the help of Canon’s Get St…

Learn more

November’s Get Started winner curates Canadian comedy with a twist.

Everyone loves to laugh, right? But live stand-up comedy just isn’t that accessible, save for in major city centres, where the acts are found in dark and cramped clubs …

Learn more

The Good, the Bad, and the Loonie: Pros and Cons of the Falling Dollar

A falling Canadian dollar might not be so bad. Small Cap Power asked the Financial District what a “low loonie” means for them, and we asked an accounting pro about t…

Learn more

Mealtab: Launching a New Way to Lunch

Eating out can be expensive and unhealthy, and toting your lunch can be an awkward experience. If you’re thinking there should be better way, you’re right—and s…

Learn more

Take a dinner break with October’s Get Started winner.

Our busy lifestyles are showing no signs of slowing down, releasing a floodgate of start-ups focusing on streamlining our daily routines. Take Pearce Tibbles’ Gourmet O…

Learn more

Making a Name (and a Profit) for Yourself: 4 Keys to Growing Your Business

Making a name—and a profit—for your small business is a matter of understanding your customers and being relevant to their needs. Here are the four keys to fo…

Learn more

Top 10 Business Tips for Newbies

Thinking of starting up your own business, but have no idea where to start? Here are the top 10 tips to get your creative juices flowing and thinking along the right line…

Learn more

Limiting Business Risks and Reaching For Success

Entrepreneurialism in business is the driving force behind success. While everyone may naturally associate entrepreneurialism with business, they are not necessarily link…

Learn more

5 Must-Dos for Building a Business in Canada

Building a business takes more than putting together a new product. There are legal considerations, accounting concerns, and other must-do matters to attend to. Here are …

Learn more

Checklist for Starting a Business

Use this comprehensive checklist to plan each step of your new business and transform your dream of entrepreneurship into reality. These steps may not necessarily be comp…

Learn more

Meet Beefy Jerks, September’s Get Started winner

Allow us to introduce Krys Gray, a young entrepreneur looking to change the way we snack with his beef jerky subscription service, Beefy Jerks. Having recently won $5,000…

Learn more

Sportopolis: Scored a Big Marketing Win

Since winning the Canon Get Started prize in April, co-founders Farhad and Sandra Ramezani of Sportopolis in Vancouver, B.C., have been able to ramp up their local market…

Learn more

5 Ways to Give Your Business a (Tax) Break

Looking for tax breaks for your small business? You’re in luck. Canada’s 2015-2016 budget offers help—and so do we. The only certainties in life are death and t…

Learn more

Getting Your Business To Grow - Lead Generation

When your business depends upon getting new leads regularly, there are some options that are open to you which can help you to achieve it. In today's technologically adva…

Learn more

8 Steps to Grow Your Small Business

Here's the reality. As a small business you know you are limited terms in terms of resources; undisciplined pursuit of growth will squander your time and money with littl…

Learn more

What You Need To Fire Up Your Startup

Ried Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn stated, "You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down." This kind of strategy is not always to be adopted by sta…

Learn more

5 Ways to Manage Risk When Starting a New Business

In the middle ground between optimism and pessimism lies a realistic risk management strategy—and prosperity. Starting a business is an act of optimism. Entrepreneu…

Learn more

Schedulock: Revolutionizing Real Estate

Schedulock’s win could pay off for homebuyers everywhere! With the help of Canon’s Get Started program, they’re set to take the real estate world to the next level.…

Learn more

When (and How) Should You Update Technology?

Is your technology part of the solution—or part of the problem? Here are the tools your business needs and how to keep them current. As a business owner, you can…

Learn more

Your Startup’s First Sales: The Who, What, When, and How of Creating Customers

Your startup’s success depends on a strong launch. Learn the who, what, and when of how to seal your first sales right out of the gate. Startups tend to spring up arou…

Learn more

The Evolution of teaBOT: Charting the Rise of a Tea-Making Robot

From prototype to pro teaBOT, the Canon Get Started program has helped a savvy startup take their tea-making robot to the next level. Brian Lee’s idea for a tea-making…

Learn more

How to Turn Your Home Business into a Successful Money-Making Venture

Many people have considered operating some type of home business as a means of supplementing their income, and with more people becoming unemployed home based business is…

Learn more

Politics Plug-in: Asked to host a visit? Be gracious and set limits

You just got a call and a federal minister wants to visit your business to celebrate your success. That’s great, right? Of course it is. You’ve worked hard to build a…

Learn more

Customer Service in the Digital Age: Maximizing Technology

Customer experience can make or break a small business. Make sure you're getting the most out of your customer relationship tools-and that your customers are getting the …

Learn more

Is Your Data Really Safe? Tips for Protecting Your Business – Online and On Paper

In an information landscape populated by hackers and identity thieves, can you keep your data safe? Shred-It’s 5th Annual Security Tracker report suggests that Canadia…

Learn more

The world’s best startup communities: How to build a Top 20 contender

Aspiring entrepreneurs emerging from a top university or an accelerator such as Y Combinator frequently find themselves faced with a tough logistical question: where to s…

Learn more

Developing a Business Plan = Developing a Successful Business

Whether you are starting up a new business or you already have an established company, the importance of a business plan may be over looked. Yes, they can take some time …

Learn more

Keep Your Business’s Backbone Healthy: How to Define and Align Your People and Processes

Customers unhappy? Costs out of control? Your operational backbone might be a little bent. Improve your posture—and your profit margin—by putting the right pr…

Learn more

The Business Makeover: Remaining Relevant to Your Customers—and Yourself

Making money sometimes means making over your business. Stay relevant by re-examining your customer base, tools, and reasons for starting your work-from-home business. T…

Learn more

Looking for Funds in All the Right Places: 6 Ways to Finance Your Startup

In a recovery economy, financing a startup is hard. But it’s not impossible—if you know where to look. Here are six powerful new ways to fund your small business …

Learn more

Seven Money Channels To Grow Your Business

In order to grow and thrive as a business owner it's essential to master your revenue channels. Because if circumstances change unexpectedly, you or family member becomes…

Learn more

Venture capital world clicks for former online-shopping exec

Janet Bannister is likely the woman behind your shopping addiction in Canada.If you’ve compulsively bid on a favourite record on eBay, sold that old couch on Kijiji, or…

Learn more

Starting Up a Business - Why a Business Plan Can Help

In the current economy it seems that more people than ever find employment by going into business for themselves. For a number of people, it will be the first time they h…

Learn more

Basic Principles of Marketing

Learning how to market correctly is the biggest task when starting a new business or selling a new product. Without proper marketing, your endeavors will more than likely…

Learn more

5 Common Small Business Diseases and How to Treat Them

1. Cash Flow Hiccups: A tight cash situation can cause your business to struggle. Your inventory runs low, you skip payments thus accumulating debt, and you certainly can…

Learn more

Organize Your Business By Looking Forward, Not Backwards

Business organization sounds like such an easy thing. After all, we can all organize things so that they work pretty well. But in fact, careful business organization can …

Learn more

Essentials of Business Forecasting

Business is about meeting demand with supply. For each unit of demand generated equal amount of supply must be there to reach equilibrium in an economy. But how efficient…

Learn more

5 Great Leadership Skills Any Business Owner Should Have

You need to find the inherent qualities in yourself that can help you become a successful leader. Although you may not naturally tend toward a leadership role, there are …

Learn more

Solo-Preneur or Small Business Owner - Which One Are You?

This is a question that gets asked often. And it surprises me how many business owners consider themselves solo-preneurs, even with revenues well over $0.5m and even as h…

Learn more

The most important question to ask a partner

Having worked with many startups in the HYPERDRIVE accelerator at Communitech and elsewhere, I have consistently seen one after another looking to develop the channels to…

Learn more

When to outsource

As a small business owner, it's easy to fall into a pattern of doing everything yourself. You certainly limit expenses by not paying for help. Besides, you're the one who…

Learn more

How to keep the cash flowing

"Managing cash flow is probably the most important administrative task a business owner has," says James Lochrie, co-founder and CPO of Toronto-based Wave Accounting. Hav…

Learn more

When is it time to fire a difficult employee?

"As the old-fashioned saying goes, one bad apple can spoil the whole bunch," says Melanie Rego, founder and president of Elevator Communications in Toronto. This is just …

Learn more

How financially literate are you?

Only 18% of Canadian small business owners have good financial literacy, according to a 2013 survey conducted by Intuit Canada. While there's no need for you to acquire p…

Learn more

Three Vital Questions Guaranteed To Win Business From Your Competitors

There's no such thing as a monopoly - every business on the planet is locked in a deadly struggle for a larger share of the consumers' spending ability! Close to 99.99% o…

Learn more

Choosing an Accountant for Your Small Business

It is very important for a business owner to understand the financial conditions of his business. It is true that for some business owners, it is easy to maintain their f…

Learn more

Keep Talking: Speak to Grow Your Business

One of the best ways to build your business is to talk about it. It's not just talking to your clients or prospective clients that helps your cause. Taking the conversat…

Learn more

Promotional Items - The Excellent Marketing Tool For Your Business

Whether you are just starting a business or you have one running, marketing is one of the most important things you will need to do. Without proper marketing, it can be h…

Learn more

Backup Strategy: Protecting Your Small Business Data

When designing a backup strategy for your small business servers there are several factors that need to be taken into account to ensure that vital business data is protec…

Learn more

Useful Small Business Software

Running a small business is tricky with too many things to do and never enough time. You need to start working smarter, instead of harder and embrace technology to give y…

Learn more

ROI of Working With a Coach Mentor

Time and again I'm asked why would someone invest in coaching and mentoring for their small business. What these folks are really asking is this - "Is there a tangible r…

Learn more

A Beginner's Guide to Renting Offices

What to consider before you rent an office space - Before you rent an office space for your business, make sure that the rates charged are not extravagant, and that they…

Learn more

Ecommerce and the Rise of 3rd Party Integrated Fulfillment Warehouses for Small Business

Some say it is an Amazon world whereby brick stores are falling by the way side. Even the largest retailers in Canada and the US continue to ramp up their online operatio…

Learn more

How to Have a High Impact Marketing Using Business Phones

There are few people that are brave enough to venture into small businesses and those that do will need to be business savvy and ready to really work at making their busi…

Learn more

Applying Focus To Your Business - Your Life

There seems to be more and more competition everyday facing business owners. You see it everywhere especially with restaurants. A new restaurant seems to open up just acr…

Learn more

Google Tools for Business You Should Be Using

Running your own business has many perks, especially if you're willing to make the most from what the web has to offer. Among some of the most efficient web-based tools f…

Learn more

Money Management From a Business Perspective

Administrating a business is very similar to organizing a home environment, with all the different expenses to consider preventing the business from going under with defi…

Learn more

Seven Things You Need in Your Business Plan

Coming up with a business plan is crucial when you're starting out. The idea of putting down all the thoughts, research, dreams and plans you've been holding in your head…

Learn more

The 5 Biggest Cash-flow Mistakes Businesses Make

When Susan Rohac assesses the creditworthiness of a prospective corporate borrower, it's not uncommon for her to see an unpaid bill or two from four months ago. It's usua…

Learn more
© Copyright 2018 Canon Canada Inc.
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • En
  • Fr