Fundraising Elevator Pitch
Founders know that they need an “elevator pitch” to quickly describe their business. I’ve covered this topic elsewhere and will probably do so again. But what many founders often do not do well (or at all) is to effectively convey their fundraising “ask”.
Every time you meet someone and talk about your startup you should be thinking about what you may need from that person. For early stage founders that is usually an ask for money. But you can also ask for referrals to customers, employees, etc. Here’s a template to use for the fundraising “ask” (CAPS designate where you fill in your own details):
“We’re currently raising $XXX to DO WHAT?, which will get us from CURRENT METRIC to NEW AWESOME METRIC by DATE. We already have AMOUNT COMMITTED and plan to close the round WHEN. VISION/OTHER DETAILS.
A fake example using Uber:
“We’re currently raising $3 million to expand into 3 more cities and expand our fleet by 500% in the next 6 months, targeting annual revenue of USD10 million from the current USD1 million in the next 12 months. Till date we’ve been growing our revenue at an average monthly rate of 28%. Existing investors have already committed 55% of the raise and we plan to close the round in the next 1-3 months. By 2015 Uber will be American’s preferred form of urban car transport from coast to coast”.
The fundraising elevator pitch can often be used after your regular startup elevator pitch. You should be efficiently conveying:
- How much you are raising
- For what
- Where does that get you (metrics)
- Current traction
- Ensure you convey the longer term vision