Perfect your product

Your product is, of course, the core of any investment deal. Creative branding, an impressive team, the latest manufacturing equipment – any and all of these things can help secure investment, but they are wasted if the product underneath is flawed, problematic or simply not standout.

So what makes an investment-worthy product? Whilst you don’t necessarily need to have come up with a brand-new concept – many successful products are simply a refined version of something that has gone before – your product does need to offer a certain amount of marketplace disruption in order to appeal to investors. It also needs to offer a clear route to monetisation – many new IoT products demonstrate innovative and exciting applications of connected technology, yet fail to offer tangible business or consumer value which can convert into sales. And it should have gone through multiple rigorous testing phases, not just to perfect its capabilities but also to gather feedback from end users and enhance it accordingly.

Develop your business plan

Your product is your shop window, the shiny advert to entice potential investors in and capture their imaginations as rapidly as possible. Your business plan is your roadmap, the detailed explanation of how those potential investments could generate return and therefore the element that converts interest into action.

As such, your business plan needs to be both detailed, and immaculate. Financial projections are clearly critical, but these need to be underpinned by a clear explanation of your target customers, how you are going to reach them, and what the growth potential of that customer group is. This information is what transforms your financial projections from dreams and imaginings to tangible action, and enables potential investors to see how their money could grow.