In the circle, entrepreneurship and financing are inseparable. An entrepreneur should more or less sneak into a dinner party and seek a cordial exchange with capital. This time, I saw many scenes. Investors can often see things through dinner and look at people while eating. The so-called beauty of dinner is not in the meal, but in the "game"-financing is an eternal thing, and gains and losses are known.
In 2006, when Wang Feng, one of the "Three Masters of Jinshan", left his job to start a business, he invited Zhang zhen of IDG to have his first meal. At that time, Wang Feng had just founded Blueport Online and wanted to do the game business. "What are you going to do? We voted for you. " Zhang zhen and he ate and talked. After a meal, IDG's $2 million round was settled. Don't envy, don't envy, IDG will vote for people, and several places will be voted according to resumes every year.
Jiang Hua, the founder of Kunlun definitely, is also the angel wheel decided at the dinner. Although Kunlun definitely has a valuation of more than 500 million dollars, Jiang Hua was not even an insider before. At that time, Niu Gengsheng and Sheng Xitai were at the dinner table, and Jiang Hua went up and said, "I want to build a world fighting center in Beijing in five years." 10 minutes later, Sheng Xitai asked for his bank account. In less than 24 hours, there were millions of angels in Kunlun's account. Sheng Xitai, English name Tiger, is a tiger-like investor who can appreciate entrepreneurs with the same gas field.
Why do some people eat and talk for ten minutes and get millions of financing the next day? Some people have been drinking into the hospital, but they have not received the attention of investors. Besides the project itself, it is also important to perform at the dinner party.
Step one, who? Know yourself and know yourself, and you will win every battle.
Entrepreneurs should know in advance what companies and stages investors and institutions will invest in. For example, what have you invested in before, and whether you have invested in competitors or related companies. What is the background and title of the person who met? In order to attract investors successfully, it is essential to "do your best" beforehand.
On this basis, entrepreneurs need to be psychologically prepared:
1. Investors have ten thousand reasons to reject a case.
2. The investor needs to confirm the truth of the information you said and give it to him to judge whether it is good or bad. All you have to do is be true.
The investor may have reached a conclusion before meeting you, and meeting you is to overturn his conclusion or verify it.
4. Enough is a sign of maturity, and keep a normal heart.
Step two, what to eat?
The point is not to eat, but to exchange information and feelings, that is to say, what you eat should have the functional attribute of "social interaction".
I heard that crayfish are very popular, and their shells are full of oil. Investors can't play with mobile phones, they can only chat. Meat won't let you eat it all at once. Take all kinds of conversations, jokes and intimacy as seasonings and taste them slowly.
In addition, when many people eat hard-shell food, they have a feeling of fighting with it. The process of exploring the contents of the bag is full of exploration spirit and is a good way to decompress.
Step three, what to talk about?
What investors want to talk about: Who are you and what is your unique value orientation? What is the current market environment? How do you get customers? How do you tell your target customers that they need your products? Why not use your product instead of other competing products? If your opponent imitates you, where is your moat?
It is very important to chat with investors and learn to tell stories. A good founder must be a storyteller. If you can tell the story truly and credibly, it is a great advantage in itself. You should pay attention to how to tell the story concisely.
Here "give a chestnut":
US President Trump should have withdrawn from Afghanistan, and a photo presented by national security adviser McMaster persuaded Trump to decide to continue to station troops in Afghanistan.
This photo was taken in 1972 in black and white, in which several Afghan women were walking in the street in short skirts.
Through this photo, McMaster told Trump that western values and norms have helped Afghanistan's prosperity. As long as the United States continues to work hard, western values and norms will definitely return to this landlocked Asian country.
A good founder must be a story master.
The fourth step, matters needing attention:
Investor Zhuang told an old story.
"We are interested in investing in a project and talked about the final stage. Entrepreneurs told us that Tencent would also vote, hoping that we and Tencent would each take half. When we had dinner together in the evening, we asked: Tencent invested 20 million yuan 10%? The other party was suddenly silent, and when one of them said yes, he changed the subject.
We judged that the other party had lied on the spot and called Tencent's people that night. Sure enough, Tencent said 65438+3000. Finally, the investment fell through, and they were dishonest. "
The following are some suggestions that investors can refer to:
Don't be late. If you are late, it is acceptable to call ahead. The value of finding FA in early projects is not so great, but if you are not confident in your narrative and documentation work, it is ok to find one; Don't dress too formally, of course, it is best not to be slippers and shorts; Don't belittle your competitors too much, it's a big reduction; Financing scale and valuation is a bargaining process, the premise is to maintain integrity.
The last step is contact and feedback after dinner. The dinner will end, but the contact can't be broken.
On the same day or the next day, entrepreneurs can send an email to express their gratitude and supplement the missing content. For example, a supplement to an unanswered question, detailed time schedule, resumes of core members, etc.
Every other week, if the investor doesn't contact you, you can send an email to ask if there are any follow-up arrangements; If investors haven't contacted you for a month, you basically don't have to have too many illusions. Send an email to express your gratitude.
It should be noted that investors generally don't directly keep people away, but they should be able to understand the "subtext".
When you talked passionately about spitting at the dinner party, the opposite investor began to interrupt you with a dull face and said, "Sorry, I have a meeting later. Let's go there first and talk about it another day. "
Everyone in the circle knows that it is a euphemism to say "talk again" when you have time at dinner. The investor said this, which proves that he has lost interest in your project.
If you haven't finished eating a meal for two or three hours, and even some investors take the initiative to ask for another place to talk while eating and drinking, then bless you, and you are not far from successful financing.
Strength still needs to be there.