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风投最在意、最希望创业公司回答的65个问题

Richard Harroch 2016-03-27

创业者在向风险投资人推销自己的初创公司时，必须提前做好准备，设想投资人会提出哪些问题。下面是创业者们在推销时，必须回答的或者有可能被问到的一些关键问题。

创业者在向风险投资人推销自己的初创公司时，必须提前做好准备，设想投资人会提出哪些问题。对于风险投资人的问题，如果不能提供考虑周全的、合理的答案，会使公司获得投资的几率大大降低。下面是创业者们在推销时必须回答的或者有可能被问到的一些关键问题：

关于公司概况

在创业者向投资者推销的过程中，风险投资人首先希望创业者简明扼要地概述公司在做什么，它凭什么吸引投资者的兴趣，以及它为何最终能够带来巨大的退出机会。因此，这个话题可能涵盖下面的问题：

• 公司的业务是什么？

• 公司有什么独特之处？

• 公司业务能给客户解决什么重要问题？

• 市场机会有多大？

• 公司总部在哪里？

• 公司可以发展到多大规模？

关于市场空间

你需要向投资人描绘一幅清晰的蓝图，说明市场机会巨大，并且机会会越来越多，在这方面，你可能遇到下面的问题：

• 真实的潜在目标市场是什么？

• 你计划在多长时间内获得多少市场份额？

• 你如何达到行业的销售规模以及增长率？

• 为什么你的公司拥有巨大增长潜力？

关于创始人与团队

在许多投资人看来，管理团队才是决定是否投资最重要的元素。创业者必须证明他们对公司充满激情，全情投入，并且有相关领域的丰富经验。创业者可能会被问及下面的问题：

• 公司创始人和关键团队成员是谁？

• 团队具备哪些相关领域的经验？

• 短期内，团队需要补充哪些关键职位？

• 为什么团队具备执行公司商业计划的独特能力？

• 公司目前有多少名员工？

• 是什么在激励着创始人？

• 未来12个月，你计划通过什么方式扩大团队规模？

关于产品与服务

创业者必须明确阐述公司的产品或服务，说明其内容及独特之处，因此可能会遇到下列问题：

• 对于你的产品或服务，用户关心的是什么？

• 有哪些重要的产品开发里程碑？

• 你的产品或服务有哪些关键的差异化特性？

• 你从早期版本的产品或服务中学到了什么？

• 提供产品或服务演示。

• 你计划增添哪两种或三种关键特性？

关于竞争形势

任何公司都要面对竞争问题，如果有创业者说“我们没有竞争对手”，投资人肯定会对其可信度产生疑问。所以，一定要提前准备好下列问题的答案：

• 公司有哪些竞争对手？

• 公司的竞争优势是什么？

• 竞争对手拥有哪些你不具备的优势？

• 你如何在价格、特性和业绩方面，与竞争对手展开竞争？

• 行业有哪些进入壁垒？

关于市场营销与客户获取

投资人希望了解公司计划如何进行市场营销，获取客户的成本，以及客户的长期价值。所以，要准备好回答下列问题：

• 公司目前如何营销或计划如何营销其产品或服务？

• 公司执行了怎样的公关策略？

• 公司采取了怎样的社交媒体策略？

• 客户获取成本是多少？

• 客户的预期生命周期价值是什么？

• 你会进行哪些广告宣传？

• 从最初的客户接触到完成销售，中间通常会经历怎样的销售周期？

关于吸引力

一家公司如果已经获得了某种早期吸引力，对投资人来说将是利好消息，所以要准备好回答下面的问题：

• 公司获得了哪些早期吸引力（销量、公司网站流量、应用下载量等）？

• 如何加快获得早期吸引力的速度？

• 获得早期吸引力的主要原因是什么？

关于风险

任何商业计划都有风险，这是不可避免的，所以一定要认真准备下列问题的答案。

• 你认为公司面临的主要风险是什么？

• 你面临哪些法律风险？

• 你是否会面临任何监管风险？

• 是否存在产品责任风险？

关于退出策略

投资人希望知道他们可以在什么时候以哪种方式退出，并获得相应的投资回报，所以，他们可能会问：

• 公司可能采取怎样的退出策略——IPO还是并购？

• 你认为可以在什么时候退出？

• 谁将是潜在买家？

• 如何根据市场可比数据，确定退出时的估值？

关于知识产权

对于许多公司而言，知识产权是成功的关键。投资人会特别关注下面这些问题的答案：

• 公司拥有哪些重要的知识产权（专利、未决专利、版权、商业机密、商标、域名）？

• 你有多大把握，保证公司的知识产权未侵犯第三方的权利？

• 公司如何开发出知识产权？

• 团队成员之前的雇主是否会对公司的知识产权提出潜在诉求？

关于财务管理

任何一个投资人都会花时间去了解公司目前的财务状况和未来的烧钱速度。所以，创业者要准备好回答下列问题：

• 公司对未来三年的预测是什么？

• 预测基于哪些关键假设？

• 公司分别有多少股权和债务；公司采用怎样的资本化结构？

• 公司未来需要进行哪些股权或债务融资？

• 公司为员工预留出的股票期权池规模有多大？

• 公司何时能够实现盈利？

• 公司盈利之前，需要投入多少资金？

• 公司的单位经济效益是多少？

• 有哪些限制更快增长的因素？

• 管理团队关注的关键衡量指标是什么？

关于融资活动

投资人希望明确公司在融资活动中将融得多少资金，以及下列相关信息：

• 此轮融资将融得多少资金？

• 公司期望的投资前估值是多少？

• 现有投资者是否会参与此轮融资？

• 计划如何使用此轮融资的所得款项？

• 此轮融资将帮助你实现哪些发展里程碑？

实际上，思考并准备好上述问题的答案，并不必然保证你能获得投资。相反，这是一次难得的创业思路整理。如果你觉得有些答案甚至不能让自己满意，那么，你最好反思创业项目的合理性和可行性，并及时调整改进。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓

Entrepreneurs need to be prepared in pitching their startup companies to a venture capitalist by anticipating the questions they will receive. The failure to have thoughtful and reasonable answers to VC questions will decrease the likelihood of the company getting funded. The following is a list of key questions the entrepreneur should answer in the pitch or anticipate getting asked:

Overview

At the beginning of an investor pitch, the venture capitalists will want a clear and concise overview of what the company does, why it should be interesting, and why it would eventually lead to a large exit. So, expect that you will need to cover the following:

• What does the company do?

• What is unique about the company?

• What big problem does it solve?

• How big is the market opportunity?

• Where are you headquartered?

• How big can the company get?

Market

You will need to paint a clear picture that the market opportunity is meaningfully large and growing, so you will receive questions like:

• What is the actual addressable market?

• What percentage of the market do you plan to get over what period of time?

• How did you arrive at the sales of your industry and its growth rate?

• Why does your company have high growth potential?

Founders and Team

For many investors, the management team is the most important element in deciding whether or not to invest. Entrepreneurs must show they are passionate, dedicated, and have relevant domain experience. So anticipate these questions:

• Who are the founders and key team members?

• What relevant domain experience does the team have?

• What key additions to the team are needed in the short term?

• Why is the team uniquely capable to execute the company’s business plan?

• How many employees do you have?

• What motivates the founders?

• How do you plan to scale the team in the next 12 months?

Products and Services

The entrepreneur must clearly articulate what the company’s product or service consists of and why it is unique, so expect to get the following questions:

• Why do users care about your product or service?

• What are the major product milestones?

• What are the key differentiated features of your product or service?

• What have you learned from early versions of the product or service?

• Provide a demonstration of the product or service.

• What are the two or three key features you plan to add?

Competition

The company’s competitors will always be an issue and any entrepreneur who responds that “we do not have competitors” will have credibility problems. So make sure to anticipate the following questions:

• Who are the company’s competitors?

• What gives your company a competitive advantage?

• What advantages does your competition have over you?

• Compared to your competition, how do you compete with respect to price, features, and performance?

• What are the barriers to entry?

Marketing and Customer Acquisition

The investors want to get a sense of how the company plans to market itself, the cost of acquiring a customer, and the long-term value of a customer. So, be prepared for the following:

• How does the company market or plan to market its products or services?

• What is the company’s PR strategy?

• What is the company’s social media strategy?

• What is the cost of a customer acquisition?

• What is the projected lifetime value of a customer?

• What advertising will you be doing?

• What is the typical sales cycle between initial customer contact and closing of a sale?

Traction

A company that has gotten early traction in some way will be viewed positively, so be prepared to answer these questions:

• What early traction has the company gotten (sales, traffic to the company’s website, app downloads, etc., as relevant).

• How can the early traction be accelerated?

• What has been the principal reasons for the early traction?

Risks

There inevitably are risks in any business plan, so plan to answer these questions thoughtfully:

• What do you see are the principal risks to the business?

• What legal risks do you have?

• Do you have any regulatory risks?

• Are there any product liability risks?

End Game

The investors will want to get a sense of when and how they will be able to exit and receive a return on their investment, so they will ask:

• What is the likely exit – IPO or M&A?

• When do you see the exit happening?

• Who will be the likely acquirers?

• How will valuation of an exit be determined given market comparables?

Intellectual Property

For many companies, their intellectual property will be a key to success. The investors will pay particular attention to the answers to these questions:

• What key intellectual property does the company have (patents, patents pending, copyrights, trade secrets, trademarks, domain names)?

• What comfort do you have that the company’s intellectual property does not violate the rights of a third party?

• How was the company’s intellectual property developed?

• Would any prior employers of a team member have a potential claim to the company’s intellectual property?

Financials

Any investor will spend time understanding the company’s current financial situation and proposed future burn rate. Be well prepared for these questions:

• What are the company’s three-year projections?

• What are the key assumptions underlying your projections?

• How much equity and debt has the company raised; what is the capitalization structure?

• What future equity or debt financing will be necessary?

• How much of a stock option pool is being set aside for employees?

• When will the company get to profitability?

• How much burn will occur until the company gets to profitability?

• What are your unit economics?

• What are the factors that limit faster growth?

• What are the key metrics that the management team focuses on?

Financing Round

The investors will want to get a clear picture of how much is being raised in the financing round and related information as follows: