{"id":44557,"date":"2023-10-20T15:36:50","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/what-the-worlds-biggest-investors-want-to-know-about-your-business-mark-cuban-shahrzad-rafati-and-chris-sacca-on-what-they-look-for-in-a-startup-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:36:50","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:36:50","slug":"what-the-worlds-biggest-investors-want-to-know-about-your-business-mark-cuban-shahrzad-rafati-and-chris-sacca-on-what-they-look-for-in-a-startup-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/what-the-worlds-biggest-investors-want-to-know-about-your-business-mark-cuban-shahrzad-rafati-and-chris-sacca-on-what-they-look-for-in-a-startup-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"What the world’s biggest investors want to know about your business: Mark Cuban, Shahrzad Rafati and Chris Sacca on what they look for in a startup – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Will
Image: Brett Power <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Whether you\u2019re preparing for an investor pitch or need to give your startup a quick self-check, here’s a guide to what some of the world\u2019s leading entrepreneurs, innovators and investors want to know about your venture.<\/p>\n

At Dreamforce\u2019s inaugural pitch contest watched by more than 55,000 people, a heavy-hitting judging panel including US Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban, artist-turned-tech entrepreneur Will.i.am, Broadband TV founder Shahrzad Rafati and former Google executive Chris Sacca took centre stage as hopeful startups threw their ventures on the line for the chance to win up to $US200,000 in investment.<\/p>\n

The judges didn\u2019t hold back in ripping apart contestants’ pitches and companies.<\/p>\n

Here are the questions they asked and it may be worth answering some of these for your own ventures.<\/p>\n

Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban: “The proof is in the pricing”<\/h3>\n

Cuban\u2019s questions to pitchers focused on cash flow, scale and point of difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow are you going to scale?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can just grow as your data set grows, you don\u2019t have to sit and reprogram? How do you price it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Referring to Warren Buffet\u2019s investment approach, Cuban said that companies with most pricing power are the ones he\u2019s most interested in and asked that founders really consider the price of their product.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe proof is in the pricing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also highlighted the need to define what\u2019s compelling in the product.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to have less than four minutes to walk in and convince a customer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said founders must show that they have solution that will make life easier, and speed is critical if the point of difference is just a first mover advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re in a race more than anyone else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdd incremental value – don\u2019t make it seem like your solving this complicated problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuban, who began his entrepreneurial career at the age of 12 selling garbage bags door-to-door, also offered a bit of encouragement for new startups to stay in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know that being an entrepreneur is not easy – it\u2019s not easy to start a company, it\u2019s not easy to go from concept to implementation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Broadband TV founder Shahrzad Rafati: “What’s so special?”<\/h3>\n

Rafati, who has negotiated some of the world\u2019s biggest media deals, forced founders confront the fundamentals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is so special and unique about your product?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the competitive landscape?\u201d<\/p>\n

She warned that competitors can easily come in and “do it faster and better”, and grilled founders on their financials.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is the cost of customer acquisition and how does that change and scale as you grow your business?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t know [that], you don\u2019t know what your gross margin is.\u201d<\/p>\n

When one founder stated they have a 50% addressable market, she asked them to size up the opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow much of that is addressable to you?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many users do you need to get to acquire to reach profitability?\u201d<\/p>\n

On claims one contestant made that they are already profitable, she asked why they wanted external investment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mentioned that you\u2019re profitable, then why do you need this money?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow you going to spend this?\u201d<\/p>\n

She too ended with some words of inspiration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best entrepreneurs take that feedback back, they pivot and they make it better,\u201d Rafati said.<\/p>\n

Artist and tech entrepreneur Will.i.am: “Make it hater-proof”<\/h3>\n

Will.i.Am, named Tech Personality of the Year by T3 Magazine, asked the wining team Claire if the commerce chatbot would be \u201chater-proof\u201d before giving them his vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you do about trolls and bombers that could totally rip apart a product?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

His concern that without consideration at the development stage chatbot creations and the like could become places of abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe internet is full of smut and people that abuse it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Claire co-founder Misha Laskin told him that they have built-in filters to screen that out, Will.i.am was happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to be disrespectful to anyone but I really liked Claire a lot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vision of it was amazing and I like it a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shark tank investor and former Google executive Chris Sacca: “What’s your unfair advantage?”<\/h3>\n

Sacca also pressed founders to really understand their competitive edge.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s your unfair advantage?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When the contestant\u2019s response summarised the fact that he has been to Dreamforce several times and has experience in the space, Sacca was less than impressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t say that your unfair advantage is that you\u2019ve been breathing for 11 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShelves need to be stocked and shops need to be crowded, how do you do that?<\/p>\n

He also highlighted the need to evoke feeling in the people founders pitch to.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou haven\u2019t emotionally attached to anyone of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

StartupSmart is reporting from Dreamforce in San Francisco as a guest of Salesforce.<\/em><\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on<\/em> Facebook,<\/em> Twitter, LinkedIn.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image: Brett Power Whether you\u2019re preparing for an investor pitch or need to give your startup a quick self-check, here’s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44557"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}