As “speed-dating” events are used fairly regularly to help entrepreneurs find investors, entrepreneurs are pressed to make a strong first impression in the short time they have with an investor. With sometimes only five minutes or less to gain a potential investor’s interest, entrepreneurs need to be prepared for these brief encounters—which includes understanding what investors are looking for in order to achieve that perfect match.
In addition, particularly in startup investing, investors roundly agree that the entrepreneur is more important than the idea being pitched. Ideas are bountiful, but the right entrepreneur who has what is necessary is hard to find.
At the 2017 Founders and Funders event hosted by the NJ EDA, “speed dates” are intended to open the door for entrepreneurs to meet investors who have an established interest in their particular domain. The application process managed by the NJ EDA gives the entrepreneur one step up in that they know they will be speaking to an interested investor—that is a critical assist.
To uncover the traits and skills of successful entrepreneurs that investors are searching for, American Entrepreneurship Today sat down with some investors at the event to ask the question, “When you meet a highly successful entrepreneur, what most impresses you about them?”
Their answers converged around a few key points that are worth first time entrepreneurs hearing.
Clark De Haven, PhD and investor at the Soundboard Angel Fund, says confidence and experience are everything.
“It really is a sense of confidence…that comes with experience, and the ability to clearly convey they thought this thing through,” said De Haven. “To me, a very successful entrepreneur is one who knows how to take a vision and say, ‘I can make this a financially viable enterprise.’”
De Haven also noted that when pitching, he likes to see an entrepreneur give crisp, clear answers – even if that answer is sometimes “I don’t know, I’ll get back to you on that.”
“You can always tell a 23-year-old from someone with a lot of experience because they’ve been through it,” he said.
Director of the NJ EDA’s Technology and Life Sciences Division Kathleen Coviello echoed DeHaven’s emphasis on communication, saying she often observes successful entrepreneurs and they have the “ability to communicate their business very effectively and clearly.”
Yaniv Sneor, investor and co-founder of the Mid-Atlantic Bio Angels, appreciates performance.
“Their ability to execute is what makes an entrepreneur successful,” said Sneor succinctly. They have succeeded when so many others have not and that makes them special.
Dimitris Kouvaros, NVP Labs Director and VC, only sees a highly successful entrepreneur once in a full moon. In his position of managing an accelerator, he understands the complexities of starting a business. He knows that no one knows everything; therefore, he feels successful entrepreneurs know what they don’t know.
“[Good entrepreneurs] know they have these blind spots…and they know how to tackle it based on the introduction of people to fill those gaps or just intense research,” said Kouvaros. “Their entire mindset is that there’s no potholes, no lagging of a knowledge gap anywhere. That’s the number one thing I see.”
Most of the time, they’ll ask the wrong questions, Kouvaros explains further. A successful entrepreneur in Kouvaros’ eyes knows how to ask the right questions and that leads to figuring out the answers they need.
In the end investors very often rub elbows with successful entrepreneurs, so they have a better gauge—a higher standard—that enables them to more readily assess a pitching entrepreneur who has not yet had success. When sitting across the table at an investment “speed-dating” event, the investor wonders, “Does he or she have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur?”
