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Peter Cowley and Paul AnsonAngels, Dragons (or Comedians)?
Peter Cowley and Paul Anson
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Topics
• Pitching to Angels
• How the investment environment is changing
• Personal experiences
• Other sources of funding
• Martlet
• Pizza time
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Pitching to Angels
Peter CowleyCambridge AngelMentor/investor/charity chair
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Format of event• Audience/location size?
• PPT allowed?
• Hand-outs allowed?
• Gadgets/widgets to pass around
• Pitch length and Q&A length
• Which team members are on the “stage” and how many speak?
• Dress, sitting/standingPeter Cowley
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What angels want to see (or not)
• Be genuinely enthusiastic/passionate!
• Need to build trust
• Need to believe that team can deliver
• Angels soon put off by stated facts that they know (or suspect) to be wrong
• Avoid management speak
• Avoid “slick” salesman approachPeter Cowley
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Must have topics – part 1
• Core business “sound bite” 20-30 words
• Market being addressed
• Confidence that either market will grow or company can grow into the market
• Where you’re at right now – market research, technology, sales/grants
Peter Cowley
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Must have topics – part 2
• What you will use the money for
• That you are not a one “product/service” company
• Team
• Monetisation opportunity
• Investor exit route and forecast return multiple (10x?)
Peter Cowley
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May have topics
• Competition
• Defensibility? Patents/copyright etc
• Market justification
• SWOT slide
• Existing shareholding
• Existing IP
• Deeper description of technology/servicePeter Cowley
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PPT guidelines
• Depends of time allotted
• Say max one slide per minute, 30 point font?
• Use images, drawings etc
• Must avoid too many words – 4 to 8 lines of 10 or so words
• Graphs of market growth, sales, cash flow etc
• Can embed videosPeter Cowley
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Ending
• Essential that there is a very concise overview with the “ask” - £xxxK cash (possibly saying at a pre-money valuation of £xxxK).
• Ask for questions (if format allows)
• If possible, ask who is interested in following it up.
Peter Cowley
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Q&A• Listen to the question!
• Decide which team member is answering what
• Make sure all team members speak
• Do not lie! Say “you don’t know and will check”
• Avoid bull-shitting
• Take control if questioning is going off at a tangent – you haven’t got long and the tangent may be of no interest to others
Peter Cowley
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What is happening?• BBAA 2009/10 figures suggest membership stable (around
5000, perhaps 20% of market) but only 10-15% active.
• Applications increased, proportion presented decreased.
• 2.5% of all applications (9640) successful (down from 2.7%)
• Number of investments increased 8%
• Value of Angel investment dropped 12.6%
• Overall investment value did not change
The feeling is that not much changed but there is increased competition and reduced availability due to lack of exits.
Paul Anson
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Personal Experiences• VC funding is less available to pre-revenue businesses &
sector critical – e.g cleantech
• Some large angel deals –groups are syndicating and co-investing with VCs. Are Angels plugging the gap?
• Experience suggests many angels are looking after current investments, but new angels are appearing
• The angel networks are busy so are screening more
• There continues to be an appetite for early stage investing, seeding a business and providing support
• Good quality deals are getting investment, but take advantage of all sources of income.Paul Anson
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Other sources of income• Friends and family
• Bootstrapping
• Grants
• Loans
• R&D tax credits
• Business accelerators
• Corporate venturing
• Sales!
Ventures that demonstrate funding ‘initiative’ are more likely to be successful.
Paul Anson
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• Co-invests with other angels
• Equity cash from £1bn engineering company
• Possibility of synergy
• Any sector
• Cambridge centric
• £250K this year rising to £500K+ from 2012
• Done deals: Neul, Psychology Online
• Close: Pasmarine, Isotera
• www.martlet.org.ukPeter Cowley
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Questions, please!
• www.linkedin.com/in/plcowley & @plcowley
Peter Cowley