|#93 MWAVC| - Investor thoughts 💬
Back again with what an investor is thinking when you’re pitching her. Guaranteed, these are 4 things that cross the investor’s minds. I’ve had a good number of conversations with investors so you can take my word for it. Really.
—
Will this company build something lots of people really love? ——“If so, and if ‘lots’ is sufficiently large, the company has the chance to produce substantial earnings.”
Will this company be easy to copy? —-“The most successful companies I’ve worked with have a significant competitive advantage—network effect, proprietary technology, complex coordination, or barrier to entry of some other sort. I understand in theory it’s possible to build a very successful commodity company, but I don’t know how to do it.”
Will these founders develop into “forces of nature””—“As most people say, it’s hard to make money unless you invest in great founders. Defining what that means is usually left as an exercise to the reader. Here are some questions I ask myself: Are these founders relentlessly determined? Are they original thinkers? Are they smart, and especially do they have new insights I haven’t heard before? Are they good communicators (and so will they be able to hire, sell, raise money, talk to the press, etc)? Are they focused and intense? Do they always seem to find a way around obstacles? Would I work for them?“This is the often the hardest factor for me to evaluate, because you have to make a judgment about trajectory—you are trying to predict where someone will be in five years.”
Does this company have a clear and important mission?—“Without this, I usually get bored. More importantly, companies that don’t have this usually have a hard time recruiting enough great people to work with them, and thus struggle to become very large.”
—
To watch:
Harmonising public & private sector activity - Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede
Kola Karim on the Story Behind Shoreline Part 1
Kola Karim on the Story Behind Shoreline Part 2
Kola Karim on the Story Behind Shoreline Part 3
The African investment landscape - Hakeem Belo-Osagie
📱📱Quote of day
“If I make an investment, I am ready to lose it. But I am not doing it to double my money. I am doing it to make 10 or 20 times my money—that’s my goal.” - Raymond Debanne
Remember: “Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.”