Your investor relations strategy should be dynamic and adaptive to all stages of your startup’s funding rounds, growth, and evolution. With regular course corrections, you can ensure that your approach to investor relations aligns with your developing goals and changes in your startup’s priorities. Finding the right strategy for your brand takes time, and no one gets it 100% correct right away. Working with a legal advisor specializing in startups can help you articulate and implement a successful investor relations strategy in New York.
There’s a temptation to always be out there at investor conferences and roadshows, both visible to current shareholders and attracting future investors. Spending too much time at conferences doesn’t leave a lot of time for the hands-on running of the business. Be selective about the meetings you attend. You’ll show you don’t have endless time to spend courting investors. When you focus on running your vibrant startup, it’ll build anticipation for when you do attend.
When investors reach out for a meeting, move mountains to be available to them. Even if you’re not 100% ready to pitch a deal, it’s better than totally missing out on a funding opportunity. Go the extra mile to respond to everyone who calls, texts, emails, whatever. Many investors move quickly, and in such a competitive environment, you don’t want to miss out because of a missed text.
Research potential shareholders based on their portfolio and investment metrics. Because converting investors into shareholders takes a series of meetings and ongoing relationship building, target potential investors early in the year. By strategizing face-to-face interactions with your targets, you’ll make better use of networking events. You won’t have a perfect success rate each year. But you’ll be expanding your contacts, building valuable relationships, and landing even a few new shareholders justifies the effort.
No matter how eager you are to land a particular investor, a balanced pitch will do more for your company than only talking about the good things. Not only will a biased pitch raise the suspicions of the potential shareholder, but you’re also failing to build trust with potential advisors and sources of guidance.
Your investors will have been through the startup process before. By sharing the struggles you’ve encountered, you’re demonstrating transparency, developing trust, and can get experienced insight into the process.
The last year has shown that there’s no way to plan for or anticipate everything that might come your way. The biggest asset a startup has is its ability to pivot and find what works. Don’t stay married to an idea, an investment fund, or even an industry that isn’t working for you. Instead, learn to chase what’s successful and embrace the unexpected.
Develop multiple strategies for the upcoming year. Regardless of what comes your way, you’ll have already thought through various contingencies and will be ready and able to maintain momentum in securing new investors.
We’re an experienced legal team brought together by the belief that legal services don’t have to be complex and prohibitively expensive. We provide transparent pricing and specialize in working with creatives, entrepreneurs, and startups to give them the legal advice and services they need to succeed.
If you’re just beginning to develop your investor relations strategy, meet with Savvy Esquires first. We’ll help you establish the legal protection your startup needs and offer experienced investor relations advice.
