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SEMINAR HIGHLIGHT: Winning Business Plans

Tips for Approaching Investors, from Derby Management

Luminate cohort 4 teams recently participated in a two-part interactive boot camp with Jack Derby, Head Coach and President, and George Simmons, Senior Partner, at Boston-based management consulting firm, Derby Management. 

Jack and George have sat on both sides of the table in investor pitches. They’ve served as C-level execs at multiple early-stage companies and founded numerous startups with successful exits, and they’re experienced venture investors who have raised more than $840 million. Their boot camp focused on the elements of an effective business plan and what leadership should be doing within the first years to achieve scalable growth.

“Most startups don’t succeed,” said Jack, pointing out a recent article from Harvard Business Review. “And the reason is that they can’t go to market. They may have great technology, but they fail on how they’re going to sell. I don’t care what you’re doing — maybe you have the cure to cancer, but unless you can market it to the people who are actually going to buy it, then there is no value.”

When your startup is ready to fundraise, you must be prepared with a number of elements that all stem from your business plan. Start there and then work up to create your presentation pitch, executive summary, and elevator speech, all of which are pieces that investors will want to see.

Jack and George review hundreds, sometimes thousands of business plans a year. They described the levels of screening that venture investors follow, typically giving more review time to plans that come from someone they know. 

“If I don’t have any connection to you, I’m going to give your plan 30 seconds and look at a few things. I’m going to make up my mind very quickly, so you have to nail your value proposition right away. If you can’t pull me in with the first few slides, I’m moving on,” said George.

Jack and George also provided insights on how investors have changed through the pandemic and the impact that’s had on the importance of crafting personas.

“What happened in 2020 changed marketing and sales forever. I’m not being fuzzy and esoteric here. Make sure you’re talking about personas — not targets or prospects, but people and the specific value you bring to them. Bring humanity into it,” said Jack.

Cohort 4 startups also kicked off their time in the accelerator with training on:

• Pitchbook, the leading source for public and private capital market news, reports, and data tracking. Each team gets their own Pitchbook account as part of the Luminate program.
• Interviewing for results with Sara Cegelski,  Senior Training and Development Consultant at HR Works.
• The services available through the Rochester Public Library’s Business Insight Center (BIC) — including 10 proprietary databases for conducting market research — and the Carlson Center for Intellectual Property, an official Patent and Trademark Resource Center (PTRC) with trained experts who help file patents, trademarks, and copyrights.
• Mindfulness with Sabrina Vogler, Certified Professional Coach, Executive Coach, and Grief Specialist in private practice at Heart in the Moment Mindfulness Coaching, LLC (part 1 — stay tuned for takeaways next month).