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Shark Interview Essay

Decent Essays

Your success will be determined before you even step into the Shark Tank

Preparation is what wins you investments.

If you don’t know what you are talking about, you won’t make an effective pitch.

In short: if you don’t know your startup inside out then you might as well just walk away now.

Luckily, you do.

You’ve crafter a great elevator pitch which you can use as a starting point for your longer pitch.

You’ve also created a winning pitch deck, which will guide you during your pitch and helps you stay on topic.

You know your startup figures and you know what your vision is.

This part of preparation is done and dusted.

But what else do you need to be prepared for? How to best nail those nerves as you enter the room to pitch to …show more content…

Especially when it comes to your industry?
➢ What kind of past investment record do they have? What do the startups they’ve invested in reveal?
➢ What kind of person is the investor? What does he or she do outside of business?

Remember, this is all a bit like going on a first date with someone – you are trying to woo the investor.

A good way to do it is know something about them. Something that helps create a personal connection to the investor – make them feel emotionally engaged with the startup.

Now, to find out the answers Google really is your friend.

Find out the investor profile on the VC’s website, check out their social media and LinkedIn. You should even see if you have common acquaintances that can reveal you something.

The key is to research and modify your pitch accordingly.

Be prepared to answer tough questions

Investors will make you work hard for the money.

Even the likes of Facebook and Airbnb have had to endure some tough examination before the investors gave them money.

If you don’t get tough questions to answer, you probably didn’t do very well with your pitch.

What you should do is prepare for the questions in advance.

You should put on those thinking hats again and think what kind of questions the investor might ask.

Go through pitch slide by slide and think what would concern someone who’s about to provide you $200k (or whatever the amount of money you are looking for)?

Which points would they hang on to and how

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