Successful start-up: 5 questions need to have a clear answer before deciding to call capital

Before starting the first call, you should learn the relevant information, get advice from experienced people and always remember: "it is more of an art coal it is a science" - call which also requires art, not merely following the rules available.

Like other businesses, the goals of startups are profitable and sustainable in the market. However, it is impossible to take you if you rely solely on your strength. At first it may be slow to grow but in the long run, you must pull the whole company up with the power of missiles to achieve the desired success.

The appearance of investors

Today, startups have a lot of ways to call capital, family, friends, crowdsunding (crowdfunding) to investors with strategic use of capital.

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However, startups need to remember that it's important not to pursue investors just because they have money. Investors have different capabilities and startups need to focus on the people they have put into your business to monitor, evaluate or intervene internally; What are their needs and desires, and also need to assess investors who are deeply interested in businesses like normal business partners.Calling too early or expanding your business too quickly can lead to wrong decisions and strategies .

So how do you know when you are ready to call investors? The following 5 tips are shared by Jordan Gaspar - co-founder and management partner of AccelFood - a startup fund for food startups that will help you answer that question.

With many years of experience as a co-chair of an investment platform focused on the early stages of food start-up companies, from capital investment, Team support to finance. monopoly, Jordan's advice for those startups is to concentrate.

According to Jordan, each investor has a different investment perspective and in each area they will have appropriate standards for evaluating startups. Here are 5 issues that startups need to consider before deciding to call capital.

1. Does your product have a high quality guarantee for investors to trust?

At AccelFood , Jordan shared that experts always consider the taste and quality of each product. They are always looking for products that they are confident that the testing process will be successful, ie customers will buy more than once.

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That is why the traction at the initial stage is very important; You want to find the problem, fix it and create the highest quality product to present to the investor. Even when working with a leading expert, it is essential to explain to them the "dream" they are investing.

2. Is your leadership excellent?

In all cases, including us as consultants, a strong group of leadership skills will be the difference between a successful business and a failed business. We also often say that when a "dead" startup idea can only be due to one of three reasons: marketing, leadership or technology.

According to Jordan, Accel usually only invests in startups with talents and motivations to promote their business - "passion, persistence, intelligence and the ability to collaborate and manage others." ".

3. At the present time, can your product hit the market?

"We invest in brands that can compete with other industries with attractive market dynamics. We value everything from scale, growth, competitive position. until the cost of goods and consumer behavior ".

In any case, time is everything. From a PR perspective, finding a market entry is very important. That's why Social Listening (also known as Social Monitoring ) is something that any business, including startups, must pay attention to.

Social Monitoring (also known as Social Listening) is a tool that helps businesses and brands "listen" to how people are talking about their brands, products, and services. According to the predetermined algorithms, the "smart bugs" of Social Monitoring will travel all over the internet, especially social media channels such as Facebook, Google+, blogs, forums, online articles to scour the content containing the predefined keywords, then save the information of these "dialogue" into the system to extract, analyze and export the report.

4. Is your brand scalable?

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"The company needs to be able to switch from a niche market to a certain loyal consumer base to operate on a broader scale with the ability to attract more customers."

5. Do you listen to feedback and accept changes when opportunities come?

The sign of a great leader is someone who knows they are not good at everything. Starting a company is like controlling an airplane without knowing what is ahead? You have to believe in yourself but at the same time, listen to the co-founders and consultants who have experience in that area.

Connecting with investors, trusting their instructions and feedback is the core factor that helps you succeed in the start-up process.