I do not normally have a rant in a blog post but I have spent the day assessing business pitches with companies who are looking for venture or angel funding.

Everyone has their own ideas on what a good investment pitch should be but for me it should include:

• What is the customer problem?
• How you will solve it?
• How you will defend your position in the market once you have launched?
• Sell yourself and your team – a lot of investors back the team as much as the idea
• Have a clear business model (preferably tested and validated by customers)
• Make sure you have a clear long-term strategy

You want investment and you only have an idea?

It amazes me in this day and age that people are looking for investment without a minimum viable product or prototype. The cost of developing one is so low that you really have no excuse, if you cannot spend a few hundred pounds of your own money then why should an investor give you their hard earned investment money?

But what if you have no money and you cannot code? Well there is still no excuse, you can use a wireframe tool such as Mockingbird or Balsamiq or you can design the pages and workflow in Photoshop or even draw it on paper. But honestly this is not enough you need a working product that ideally you can take to market quickly. The pre-internet bubble days of just having an idea are long gone you need to show commitment by investing in a prototype.

In addition you are much more likely to get investment if an investor can see and touch your idea rather than trying to imagine what your idea will look like.

I have built and developed hundreds of prototypes over the years that I would be happy to answer any questions. Drop me an email, leave a comment or contact me on Twitter. So now you really have no excuse!