How I: Build one-pagers to get investment meetings Video Lecture | "How I" by Google Developers - IT & Software

today we're gonna focus on what's called
a one-pager or an executive summary
something that you send to an investor
in order to get a meeting you've got
your startup your starting to raise
funds and now you need a snapshot of
what you do to get people interested in
calling you in well there's absolutely
no way that you're going to be able to
tell your entire story on one page or
even two pages so you just want to
intrigue them you want to give them just
enough of the story to get them excited
about it to see that you have something
innovative and new and something that
has a market out there that they can
make some money off of and then that's
enough to call you and so you're not
endeavoring to get an investment out of
this piece of paper what you're
endeavoring to get is a meeting so you
want to get them just excited enough
well similar to a pitch we want to start
with the pain you want them to
understand that there's a problem that
you're addressing so maybe about a
paragraph or at the most - addressing
the fact that there's a gap something is
not solved and you want to write in
language that's very conversational very
flowing you want them to feel like
they're sitting in a room with you and
you're describing it to them not a lot
of technical speak not a lot of very
high language in big words that does the
opposite of impress that kind of
depresses so get them understanding that
there's a pain and get them to feel that
pain now it's always nice to write a
little headline about the pain and about
the solution so if they're just scanning
the page they can kind of see oh here's
a one-liner that describes it and then
they dig down and read now you want to
be able to explain your startup first in
one line we do X for Y by Z which would
be your secret sauce so when we say
secret sauce we mean something that's
just unique to use something that you do
that others don't your secret weapon you
know something that really will set you
apart and get them excited then you can
move on to features and benefits you
don't want to give any more than seven
or any less than five you want them to
see that there's some exciting things
happening there but you don't want to
just run off an endless list of features
you want to really give them the
exciting bits that's make them see that
there's a real need for this next thing
you want to talk about is your cur
status and traction what phase are you
out of your development don't you in out
fudge you have a working prototype beta
paying customers making any money they
really need to know where you're at in
your process do you have in any IP or
potential 'ti have you filed a patent
you have a patent pending these are very
important things for them to know have
you gotten any funding up until now
these are all questions you'll be asked
so basically we're thinking of their
questions ahead of time and answering
them on the one pager now that they got
what you do and they're kind of getting
excited about the features what's the
next question they want to know how big
is the market and is there really an
opportunity so in the addressable market
section you want to talk about big
numbers how big is your market how many
users are there how what's the value how
much of people spent on related items or
related products and services showing
that you truly have a market then we
want to talk about how you'll enter that
market or your go to market strategies
so how are you gonna get users it could
be your end users or it could be your
distributors so will you have
distribution channels people that
actually will resell your items will you
have strategic partnerships with big
organizations that maybe it'll help you
get the word out will you just take out
ads on social campaigns or maybe talk to
bloggers blog yourself there's a lot of
different ways to get there so you want
to examine the strategies that are out
there and think of the top three or four
that really will make sense and work for
you now comes the money time the
business model or business models how
are you gonna make money again it might
seem a little bit silly or funny at the
beginning of a startup to say well
here's how exactly we're gonna make
money when you might not even have a
product yet and that's okay investors
understand that that's probably gonna be
the thing that shifts the most but you
want to give them a clue you want to
give them an idea an inkling that you
know what you're talking about so what
business model works best for you is it
a freemium model are there premium
services that you'll be selling another
really important piece that you want to
talk about are your competitors now on a
one-pager the best thing to do is try to
divide your competitors into different
it's maybe three or four types where you
might belong to one of them and talk
about the big players maybe the top
three big players in each you want to
talk about what this competitor type
does and what they're lacking that you
actually bring to the table of course we
want to talk about the team now
unfortunately on a one page or a two
pager there's not enough room to put in
everybody's resumes so you want to give
like two or three bullet points on each
team member that shows their core
competencies that shows their biggest
strengths and skill and finally probably
the most important parts funding
requirements or the ask how much money
are you seeking to raise and don't do
ranges investors want to know how much
you're raising so you might change it
from investor to investor but go ahead
and decide on a sum and then at the end
you can write your objective statement
this will bring us to 18 months and
breakeven or cash flow positive because
they want to see how long this will last
and if you're actually gonna be making
money or you're gonna need to seek a
bigger investment later on so there you
have it now as a little bonus I like to
add in a little section I call key
investment merits or why us why now on
the front page you want to put on like
your top five or six bullets that you
make you an attractive investment
opportunity pull out the highlights so
they really see what's special about you
now it might be the last thing that you
write but you want it to be the first
thing that they see because it really
will call them into reading your
document oh and of course don't forget
your contact information
choose one point of contact probably the
CEO put your phone number your email put
a full phone number if you want people
from other countries to be able to call
you and the best place to reach you your
company name and where you're located if
you have several offices you can write
that as well
so there you have it there's the content
you