There are a number of things that investors look for before they decide to invest in a startup. And obviously, not everything is important to everyone. Momentum however is important to all investors.
It often does not matter if your idea is excellent and your startup seems really attractive. Investors believe in Momentum and they use it with startups like they use it in Wall Street.
All you need to do is to find the ways to convince them that this is the right time for them to invest in your startup because, for example, your team has grown from 3 people to 8 and you have managed to get a lot of new beta customers lately.
Also, you can explain that you have achieved certain milestones so far with great success and that now is the momentum for you to use the investors’ money in order to do this…or that. It shows that actually the ball is moving forward and it makes people feel that this can be the right time to work with you.
Competition is also something you can “use”. You should always monitor your competition and their relationship with investors, especially local ones. If they failed to attract investors you definitely need to find out why. Then use this insight to avoid similar mistakes and present your strengths as “great opportunities during this time”.
Finally, try to efficiently use statistics from the market you are aiming at. Do not just say that you see XXXX prospect customers who would like to use your product or service. Use statistics to show how people use services or product like yours in the past 2 years, how much money they spent, what is the forecast for the coming years. Then clearly state what makes your idea more special than the ones already in the market. In order to be more persuasive, find or make your own graphs with these statistics. Instead of talking continuously about how good your startup is you can spend more time explaining these graphs.
