fundraising series (part one): value propositions

Arif JanmohamedPartner, Lightspeed

Oct 9, 2013

arif@lsvp.com

@arifj

Lightspeed at a Glance

18 Investmentprofessionals

140+ Activeinvestments

$2.8B of committedcapital

Investing out of$675M Fund IX

Lightspeed is an early stage venture capital firm focused

on innovations in the Enterprise and Consumer industries.

For over two decades, Lightspeed Partners have backed

and helped build more than 200 global companies, many of

which have become market leaders.

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Lead investmentapproach with boardinvolvement

Deep expertise inenterprisetechnology,consumer, digitalmedia

1990’s TODAY

Background: Arif Janmohamed

My Background :

• Joined Lightspeed in 2008, promoted to Partner in 2011

• Cisco Systems, Mergers & Acquisitions

• Key transactions include WebEx ($3.3B), Securent ($100M),Postpath ($200M), Jabber and Latigent

• Novitas Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm

• Sun Microsystems, Andes Networks (SUNW), WebTV (MSFT)

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My Education:

• MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

• BSc in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo, Canada.

My Focus Areas at Lightspeed:

• Infrastructure

• Communications

• Networking

• Software

3

@arifj

Two topics to cover today…

Company ValueProposition

what am I selling?

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Investor ValueProposition

how to raise capital from venture capitalists

Two topics to cover today…

Company ValueProposition

what am I selling?

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Investor ValueProposition

how to raise capital from venture capitalists

So what is a value proposition?

Value Proposition

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Value Propositioninform a choice

What matters?

5 things…

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5 things…purpose. audience. significance. category. uniqueness

5 things matter…

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what is it?

5 things matter…

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who cares?

5 things matter…

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key benefits. painkiller or vitamin?

5 things matter…

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competition. economics.

5 things matter…

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differentiation. substitutes.

Two topics to cover today…

Company ValueProposition

what am I selling?

Lightspeed Confidential - Not to be copied, distributed or referred to without the prior written consent of Lightspeed Venture Partners 13

Investor ValueProposition

how to raise capital from venture capitalists

What matters to investors…

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team. market. plan.

What matters to investors?

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unfair advantage

What matters to investors?

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large, rapidly growing

What matters to investors?

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sustainable leverage

Ok got it. Now what?

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goal is the second meeting

I got the meeting!

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first 3 minutes matter

who are you?why is your product important?

unfair advantage?

Why is Value Prop important?

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purpose. audience. significance. category. unique.

Why is Value Prop important?

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simple. concise. investment thesis

Takeaway

The value proposition is ALL an investor needsto know about your business.

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So, make sure you concisely emphasize the points thatmake your business a compelling investment

opportunity

So how do I overcome the odds??

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pipeline. iterate. feedback.

Turn-offs – how to get to “No”

• Asking an investor to sign an NDA

• Talking about “exit strategy” at the early stage

• Thinking too small

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• Thinking too small

• Asking for term sheet ahead of diligence

• Focusing too much energy on valuation

What next

Q&A?

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Q&A?ask me anything. just not for money now.

Arif Janmohamed

arif@lsvp.com@arifj