Last week I was invited along to the Business Start-up Show at ExCeL in Docklands to talk to budding entrepreneurs about how to raise external funding.

Having recently closed a second round of Angel investment, I was asked to talk about my experiences and what types of things potential investors what to discuss.

In the current financial climate when Banks are seemingly only lending money to established businesses, Angel investors and Venture Capitalists are pretty much the only source of funding for business that needs capital to fund R&D.

Both VCs and Angels are pretty savvy investors, so a key theme of my presentation was about operational execution and the importance of really understanding how to target prospects and execute a sales and marketing strategy.

They know the importance of clearly defining your 'go-to-market' strategy and tracking KPIs within a business, so if you want them to invest their hard earned money in your venture, you really should have good answers to questions like:

• Who is your target market?
• How are you going to acquire your customers?
• How many leads do you need to make a sale?
• How long is your sales cycle?
• Why are you more likely to succeed than your competitors?

The presentation was well attended and lots of people asked for copies of the slides - so I've uploaded them here.