8 THINGS YOU NEED TO ADDRESS IN YOUR INVESTOR PRESENTATION

by Cristina Muise, MBA, Ph.D. — President and CEO   

You have one chance to get that audience and tell your story to potential investors. Ensuring that you have covered and are prepared for questions and discussions in these 8 areas will be essential to a successful investor presentation.

1. Clear Description of your Product/Service

2. What Timeline Does the Fundraising Cover 

3. Detailed Use of Funds

4. Addressable Market for your Product/Service

5. External Factors Affecting your Plan 

6. Management Team’s Ability/Experience to Execute

7. Competition in your Market

8. Financial Overview and Forecast

In the Life Science industry, the science may be so complex that the simplicity of the problem it solves can be lost on an investor audience. Ensure that your overview and description of your development is as clear in the overview of your investor presentation as possible. Although pursuant discussions of the science and research may delve into the complexity of the development process, the overview and discussion of the main problem you are trying to solve should be carefully distilled to create an immediate impact of its importance without leaving behind any uncertainty due to unnecessarily scientific terms in its explanation.

Be clear in your progress to date with prior rounds of financing, and what point this fundraising takes the product or company towards. Whether you are a startup or a more mature firm, articulate the progress this fundraising enables the company to achieve, for example:

· moving through specific clinical trials,

· progress towards the next round of financing,

· getting to a point that a strategic sale of the asset is possible, 

· bring the product/service to the point of revenue generation, or

· a move towards the ability to generate revenue, or commercialization.

Make a clear request of how much you are looking to raise, and how the monies will be deployed. Whether the funds are used to fund the People, the Process or the Technology resources required to execute the plan, be clear in the articulation of how the funds will be deployed.

Understand who your product/service is relevant to. Whether you are looking to address a solution for a very large common market, or conversely, a very limited and rare market, have a clear understanding of how to articulate that quantitatively. It will be very important to an investor to understand what type of market will ultimately benefit.

Be prepared to have a discussion on the opportunities and threats that are present in your environment. Whether it is legal and regulatory issues, developments in technology, or demographic/social issues, external factors are an important discussion point in your process. Be prepared to address both the positive, and the negative, openly and transparently. Investors will have done their research and it will be important that they perceive your management team capable of identifying, evaluating and creating plans to execute around the factors as they present themselves.

Include your management team composition in your presentation, whether they are already on board, or whether your plan is to build one in your Use of Funds. Any investor will fully understand that execution is a significant piece of what they are investing in, and a clear discussion on what that looks like is essential.

Explicit and clear discussions about competitive forces will likely be some of the most direct and heavily covered topics in your investor presentation. Be prepared and incredibly thorough in your research and preparation on this topic. Understand who and what competition in your market represents and be very clear in your differentiation strategy.

A complete financial plan is essential to have in hand for your presentation. An overview in your presentation should include the following:

· Actual results to date

· Forecasted results integrating the plan for the use of funds

· Views from an operating statement as well as a balance sheet perspective

· Discussion of the existing equity structure

As you develop your presentation, consider whether you have integrated enough information from each of the above areas to address questions that investors will expect you to have researched and vetted as you developed your overall plan for the fundraising. Ensure that you appoint your presentation with the right team to help you articulate and address questions in areas that you may need the additional expertise and support. 

Precision Life Sciences is a consultative and strategic staffing firm located in southern New Hampshire. Our service offering extends from Organizational Consulting, Strategic and Consultative Support for the Fundraising Process, as well as Executive Search and Staffing Solutions. Feel free to contact us at 603-413-4440 or reach out for more information at INFO@PRECISION-LIFESCIENCES.COM.