How Do You Raise Funding After Creating Your MVP?

Great. You’ve developed a kick-ass MVP that your customers are buying.

So what.

That’s the question (or questions) you’re going to need to answer in order to raise money.

Just because customers are buying your product doesn’t mean you are going to get funded. As I said, so what.

Imagine you’re talking to an investor about your company:

You: “I have a kick-ass MVP that customers are buying.”

Investor: “So what. How big is the market for your kick-ass MVP?”

You: “The market size is $5B today growing at 15% per year.”

Investor: “So what. That’s great you are attacking a big, growing market. Why are you 100X better than the competition?”

You: “We’re 100X better than the competition because of these cool things we’ve developed.”

Investor: “So what. How proprietary are these cool things? In other words, how easy will it be for a competitor to replicate what you’re doing?”

You: “We have patents filed on various pieces of the technology. Plus it would take two years to develop what we’ve developed.”

Investor: “So what. What are you going to do when Facebook comes after you? (For more, read: What If Facebook Enters Your Market?)”

You: “It will take their best people to beat us. Plus, we’re going to be more focused than they are on the market.”

Investor: “So what. Tell me why your team is so great?”

You: “Let me tell you about the team. We've been working together for 10 years. We all worked together at Google, and we are expert on this area.

Investor: “So what. Show me the revenue plan for the company for the next five years.”

You: “Here it is. You can see we get to $100M in revenue in year 5.

Investor: “So what. How much money does it take to get to break even cash flow?”

You: “It takes $10M. We get there in June of year 4.”

Investor: “Okay. Now I’m interested. Let’s talk.”

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