Capital Diagnostic™: Create Successful Investor Perception
The Investor Diagnostic that Flags your Company as Ready for Prime Time - or Needs Further Work
Who Capital Diagnostic™ is Designed For:
Your company is your passion. You have strong conviction for what you have built, for how much progress you will be able to make with growth capital, and for the healthy returns you will be able to provide investors with.
But - do you really have any idea on how convicted investors will be with the opportunity? Have you already launched into the capital raise and are finding yourself a bit taken aback about the seeming lack of investor conviction that you have experienced?
If that is the case, then continuing down this road, rolling from investor meeting to investor meeting might be a continued waste of your time, money, and energy. Stop wasting these things.
If this sounds like your situation - perhaps the best next step you can take for your company is to briefly hit the pause button, regroup, and get some outside feedback and a fresh set of eyes on your business, the investment narrative, investor outreach material, and financing strategy.
While this may not sound like great news - it is not an uncommon situation. As a matter of fact, a correctable mis-alignment with the investment community is one of the more common situations that we have experienced over the last three decades.
Taking a break to tap into the experience of financing and growth experts is the prudent thing to do.
Great Solution For:
Entrepreneurs in the midst of a financing process that is not going as planned - and need quick insight on how to course correct.
Entrepreneurs with a highly-technical business (ie. science, engineering, hard tech, healthcare) - that will be a challenge for investors to underwrite.
Venture-focused entrepreneurs at any stage.
Owners of a family business that are contemplating taking investor capital for the first time - or seeking a potential future exit.
Entrepreneurs leading a mature business that are seeking institutional capital partners for the first time.
Goals of Capital Diagnostic™:
If capital providers perceived that an investment in your company was a no-brainer - you likely wouldn’t be reading these words right now. In all likelihood, investors would already be beating a path to your door, and you and your team would be moving on from the financing process.
Let’s be clear - companies that are an obvious fit for the investment community don’t hire us. If investors are already beating a path to their door, they certainly don’t need to hire us.
We get hired for financing rounds that are challenging.
Over three decades of experience in investing, we have pretty much seen everything - fads, memes, bubbles, recessions (both great and small), funding markets that were wide open, and funding markets that were tightly shut.
There are an infinite number of reasons why a financing round can be a challenge. Every financing journey is nuanced. Every Founder, Entrepreneur, CEO, and Business Owner has a business and opportunity set that is unique to them.
The goal of Capital Diagnostic™ is to tap into our diverse and deep expertise at evaluating challenging financing situations. We have witnessed many failed financings. However, we don’t believe that ANY financing situation is impossible.
In our experience, challenging financings ALL suffer from one or several shortcomings in three key areas:
Something within the business is not well-aligned to the needs of the investor.
The company is likely either not targeting the correct investor community, or neglecting other key investor demographics.
There are weaknesses or deficits in how the management team is running the financing process.
None of these challenges need to be fatal. The good news is that, with the appropriate planning and work, challenges in the business, incorrect investor targeting, and weaknesses in the capital raise process are all correctable.
But, in order to do so, company management needs to have a clear assessment of the weaknesses, needs access to the appropriate expertise to correct them, and - most importantly - needs to have the courage, motivation, and commitment to take these steps.
Capital Diagnostic™ was created to step in and help entrepreneurs to overcome these challenges. We systematically diagnose all three major phases of your financing process. The goal is to correct weaknesses in each category - thus helping to make the company more attractive candidate for capital. Rarely is there a quick fix. However, there is most definitely multiple paths to improvement and progress.
Capital Diagnostic™ follows the Capital Mindset™ framework, and assesses your company on each of the elements of the financing process listed below:
Capital Mindset Part #1: Business Progress Alignment
Product
Customer
Business Strategy
Revenue Execution
Industry and Competition
Capital Mindset Part #2: Effective Investor Positioning
Investor Feedback
Mapping the Company’s ‘Growth DNA’
Profiling Appropriate Investors
Targeted Collateral Creation
Investor Targeting
Capital Mindset Part #3 Structured Capital Markets Process
Organizational Goal Planning
Creating Team Roles
Relationship Management
Execution of Outreach Program
Process & Infrastructure Governance
What You Get:
A one-week period of company review and diligence. A full analysis of your company and marketing collateral through the eyes of the investment community, based upon the 15-point framework listed above [Capital Mindset™].
Full SWOT analysis of your company and the financing process based upon the Capital Mindset™ framework - focusing on what investors care about the most.
Post-diligence session to review findings, discuss any shortcomings that need to be corrected, offer guidance on how to create additional value for and interest from investors, and deliver go-forward plan for each of the 15 points listed above.
Putting all of your energy into a financing round that is weak, mis-aligned, and not likely to succeed is an unnecessary (and sad) waste of time, money, and investor credibility. We have witnessed this over and over again. Stop wasting these precious resources.
We arm you with the information and tools that you need to re-engage the investment community and achieve more effective outcomes (ie. capital). Your ROI is correcting the mistakes that are currently losing you significant time and money. Creating more effective investor perception and saving you tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.
Packages:
Requirements:
Any participant in the Session must have first reviewed the Capital Mindset™ framework
Companies must have a pitch deck that is at least in ‘Draft’ version format.
Please be prepared to share all relevant material beforehand: pitch deck, marketing material, financing round strategy, budget, financials, team roles and responsibilities, and any other material relevant to the session.
One-week Program of company review and diligence.
3 meetings: 2 diligence meetings, 1 summary review and forward guidance meeting
Duration: One-Week
Cost: $2,850