Many app creators have a goal to find investors for their mobile apps. There’s a lot of information out there about how to properly present and exactly what to do. It’s hard to know what will work and what won’t. The important thing is not to let no’s discourage you from continuing. In fact, no’s can even help you determine what to fix in your presentation.
Getting mobile app investors is not an easy task. You have to be persistent and understand that it requires hard work to be able to get what you want. Before we jump into how you should present let’s take a step back and determine what you need to do beforehand.
1. Gain momentum
Showing up with an idea and nothing else isn’t going to cut it. You need to have a working viable product with real user feedback. If you’re not sure how to go about creating this simply contact an app development company to help. This allows you to show a proper demo of your app with usage data to back it up.
It helps by taking a look a what competitors are doing and what they did to grow. See what you provide that the other competitors don’t have and use that to push your app forward and get people interested.
Showing them a working product where they can see the difference between you and competitors will make you stand out. If you can gain a little footing in the game already it shows that you can succeed. You must provide them monetization strategies so that they know they can earn a great return on their investment.
2. Research potential Investors
You don’t want to just grab a generic list and start reaching out. It’s all about connections and relationships. You should spend time researching various investors, see what they’ve invested in before, and determine if they are the right fit for you or not. If they invest in similar types of projects as yours then it a good fit.
However, keep in mind if they have invested in a company that is a direct competitor of yours then they’re not going to be the best option.
Yes, you want to get your foot in the door everywhere you can but knowing which investors are more likely to be interested in your mobile app will help you save time. Do your research on them. You can go to places like LinkedIn, AngelList, Angel investment Network, CN Insights, and more. You’ll find information that will help you match your product to investors. Once you gather that list it’s time to start reaching out to them.
3. Go to meetups
Your first instinct might be to email them your pitch to try and get a meeting set up. The change of getting a response is very low, not impossible, but it’s very difficult as they get many emails every day with pitches. What can you do differently that can help increase your chances of getting a meeting? You should first try to establish some kind of connection.
This can be through someone you both know or through a connection on LinkedIn. If you can find someone who knows them and they can connect you with them, they are way more likely to speak with you.
In the case that you don’t have any connections or only have 1 or 2 it is useful to sign up for entrepreneurial meetups and startup events. There are a ton of these all over. This includes various startup events or even industry conferences, and more.
This can give you a real opportunity to connect with other startup owners, investors, and entrepreneurs. Don’t focus on these events only in your area. It’s better if you expand out further especially now when everybody is doing these meetups digitally rather than in person. You can meet and discuss it with people all over the world.
When you can have an honest conversation with someone that isn’t about you trying to get money from them, people are more likely to open up to you and be more willing to have further discussions later.
Next, it’s time to go through what needs to be done to prepare for your meeting.
4. Elevator Pitch
The dreaded elevator pitch. The pitch that makes you scratch your head for what feels like forever trying to come up with the perfect phrasing that best describes your business and peaks investor interest enough for you to get funding for an app. You will always hear everyone say you’ve got 30 seconds to get them interested. What does that really mean and how do you know if its interesting or not. You don’t have time to get into some emotional story.
Think of it as 5 brief statements that total about 30 seconds in length.
Your personal story, something that strikes an emotion
♦ The purpose of the app
♦ The most important function(s)
♦ The most interesting feature(s)
♦ How does it solve user problems
If you take the time to lay this out and create an interesting pitch the app investors will let you move on to the next step.
5. Pitch Deck
Finally, we’re here. After all your hard work, you can now get down to all the details with your potential investors. You can now dive deeper into all the features and functions your mobile app has to offer.
If you have a working viable product then they can see and follow along with you. Plus it also shows them you are serious about this and not just throwing out an idea that could go nowhere easy. Along with the app, you should have a visual which shows content and graphical presentations.
Go into details about
♦ Every app function
♦ Every app feature
♦ How it is going to be developed
♦ The costs associated with development, maintenance, hiring personnel, and any office expenses.
♦ How you are going to market the app
Make sure you show proper statistics and details that the investors can easily understand. Remember though they see a lot of this so it’s ok to put some storytelling in there.
After all, just hearing numbers and looking at graphs gets boring so hearing your personal or someone else you know the story can make things more personal for the investors as well. You never know what is going to spark someone’s interest so keep it interesting.
If you have more questions about various investors such as angel investors, venture capitalists, crowdfunding, and more for the mobile app business you can contact SDI today to help you create everything you need to pitch and find app startup investors.