Angel Investors Ontario Article on the importance of Entrepreneur’s Investor Readiness.

One of Funded’s first article featured 10 things entrepreneurs should do to prepare for discussions with potential investors. At AIO we want to make sure that entrepreneurs are collectively ready to pitch and answer the questions from investors, and that across the province we have some continuity of start-up readiness coming out of the cohorts of incubators and accelerators.

I have seen, far too many times, a founder becomes defensive if the investor starts to ask too many questions. The good news is that the investor is showing some interest, but remember he is also seeing how well the founder reacts under pressure.

Succinct answers are key, and some great examples are provided in this article. What I also believe is important is that the founder needs to be totally ready for due diligence should an interested investor get hooked. If you make the investor wait 30 days to get your data room ready, in many cases they will have spent their available funding on a startup that is prepared, both to pitch well, but to make it through due diligence without a hitch.

If you are trying to help a startup friend on their journey, make sure you practice every potential question on them, and make sure you are satisfied how they answer. Don’t take for granted that you don’t need to cover all subjects in trial runs. It only takes one bad answer in answering questions about Intellectual Property to lose an investor’s interest.

Investors out there should point this article out to entrepreneurs at an early point of contact. The better the founder knows what is expected, the smoother the eventual interaction with investors, and hopefully a mutually beneficial round of financing is concluded.