Want to raise funding for your startup? This is how to do it Tinder-style

Views expressed about dating merely summarizes the collective consciousness of the male species. The investing secrets presented in the article were arrived at after meeting and closely interacting with more than 250 angels, super-angels, nano-angels, VCs, both in India and the US.

Photo credit: Pixabay.

1. Tinder matches need a story and so do investors

Have you ever wondered why despite your good looks and all the nice pictures that you’ve uploaded on Tinder, you never get a match from the girls that you want? The answer is simple — it doesn’t convey a story.

The truth is your 15-slide deck that will take 2 months, 49 iterations, and 1,000+ man-hours to prepare will be flipped by a potential investor in less than 5 minutes.

Guys are increasingly taking the help of girls to create a story about themselves through a set of 5 to 6 pictures that they upload on Tinder. The effort is made to convey who you are. For instance, are you a party animal with a lot of friends with interests in sky diving, scuba? Are you well travelled? Can you play the guitar or better, can you code?

When the girl is swiping on the other end, she is most likely to spend not more than 3 to 4 seconds on each profile, but your story has to stand out to get a good match. Treat your investor deck as your Tinder Profile and take the help of another investor who doesn’t have the burden of investing in your company but is only acting as your “mentor”. This investor will help you create a deck that the investor community wants.

The truth is your 15-slide deck that will take 2 months, 49 iterations, and 1,000+ man-hours to prepare will be flipped by a potential investor in less than 5 minutes. So what will get the investor interested to give you the first meeting? Your brilliant idea, your multi-billion dollar industry, or the all-star team?? Well, the answer is all of the above but the most important thing is “What’s the story?” Human brains forget names and data, but seldom does it forget stories.

Often times, people ask me if an awesome investor presentation will get them money from angels. My response is, treat your investor deck as basic hygiene and good clothes when you go for your first date. It is a necessary condition but not sufficient. I mean, good clothes and hygiene will not get you the girl of your dreams but lack of it will surely make you lose her.

Similarly, pay detailed attention to the font sizes, colors, charts, story telling, and design in your investor presentation so that the investor likes you, just enough to start dating you from there on. On a serious note, it also tells the counter party about your seriousness and the efforts you’ve put in.

2. When you are ‘stuck in the 2nd gear’

Now that you’ve gotten the match and you had your first interaction, you may most likely hear this: “Hey, it was nice meeting you, thanks for your time, let’s keep in touch.” This is a non-committal close by the party with upper hand where the counter-party has no idea if the other person really wants to meet you the next time and take it forward.

Every VC gets 20–30 inbound pitches everyday, evaluates 900–1000 opportunities each year, calls or meets 400 of them, and invests in no more than 9–10 per year.

The problem with Tinder is that every guy wants to date the hottest girl within his reach. He never thinks about the options that hot girl on the other end has and the dilemma she faces before making the decision. If it has to be put in venture capital parlance, every VC gets 20–30 inbound pitches everyday, evaluates 900–1000 opportunities each year, calls or meets 400 of them, and invests in no more than 9–10 per year. You are much better of playing poker or black jack in the casino than banking on a VC investing in your company. The odds are just not in your favor.

On a similar note, the match ratios on Tinder are equally bad, especially for all the random awkward boys vying for that super hot girl. Raising investor money for a startup or dating in this super competitive world seems similar in a lot of respects.

The trick is not to be that awkward guy which 90% of the startups are. Your chances of getting funding as that awkward guy is almost zero. Once you perfect your “elevator pitch” for the investor or the“opening line” for the hot girl, you graduate and become a confident guy, but your chances improve not too drastically — it now is approximately 10% since you are one of the 10 short listed boys who are in the reckoning. But when you are the founder of a startup, your chances of survival anyway is 5–10%. How do you increase this chance?

3. Investors love dishing out metrics but would you give metrics to the one you are smitten by?

4. To follow up or not

5. Social validation and the investor psychology

6. How do you seal the deal?