HOW MUCH SHOULD I TELL TO MY INVESTOR?
Almost everyone looking for investment needs to answer this question for himself. When you’re looking for the right investor you have to decide what you want to disclose. It is clear that you don’t want to show every detail on day one but if you hold back too much there won’t be a day two.
Last week I had a discussion with a client that developed a super-innovative solution for wireless transmission. As many tech companies the step from technology-ready to product-ready proves to be a serious challenge for them.
In a first discussion we could carve out three focus applications and started to work on a high-level road-map outline. We achieved to agree on a rough product roadmap that follows their technology roadmap and also is attractive to investors. It is needless to say that we signed a none-disclosure-agreement beforehand.
It became very clear during our discussion that it can help a company a lot, if they have a filter before they disclose details to investors. In our meeting we could advice what kind of information is crucial from the very beginning and what will need to be disclosed only at a later stage. We even agreed on an on-site visit, so that we could have a close look at their demonstrator. After that we will agree on a strategy, what kind of technological details we will share with potential investors.
So if you think about The Missing Link between investors and companies, keep in mind that it is not only about money and key-figures. Having a trustful partner to help you manage your information disclosure could help you seal a great deal. And for me it is a part of my job I enjoy a lot.
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ABOUT JUERGEN BOPST:
Juergen Bopst is a senior executive with almost 20 years of international general management experience. He has a background in successfully managing large turn-around and post-merger projects and his industry knowledge includes microelectronics, consumer electronics, automotive and utilities. He has worked and lived in Switzerland, Austria, Germany and France and managed large projects in China, USA and the UK.
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