money
ask the money guy | vc viewpoint | your money | ECON
Karim Samakie
Karim Samakie
“1. I look for a complete team. That means they dem-
onstrate commitment, tech, business, equity division, ability to execute, and coachability. 2. The plan. Does the entrepreneur know how and where the money is going to be spent? No office furniture please! Lean and quick.
3. Market understanding.
Does the entrepreneur really understand the industry? The
HRH Prince Khaled Bin Alwaleed Bin Talal @khaledalwaleed “During a pitch I expect to hear more than I see… All the fancy graphics just distract from the business; I hate PowerPoint presentations. I’m looking for a few things. 1. How involved are the founders? I want to know if they are involved in the day-to-day operations or are they just handing things off to the CEO? 2. How much risk are they taking? Are they investing
personally and how much?
3. How much can I personally contribute to the business? Can I do any good, in terms of besides just being an
investor and injecting capital; can I help them grow and expand to other countries? 4. How long have they been up and running? I’ll need
to know where they are in their business- are they in the profit stage? And does the company have debt? 5. Can the business scale? Who is their target market?
Where do they want to expand?”
HRH Prince Khaled Bin Alwaleed Bin Talal
4. Scalability! Can I help
create an exponentially growing business? Regional at least, but global is preferred! 5. Drive and passion. I need
someone that will give it 110% minimum!”
“I look for a complete team. That means they demonstrate commitment, tech, business, equity division, ability to execute, and coachability.”
@reachhamdy
“1. Team. Domain expertise, technical partners. I don’t believe in outsourcing key development tasks. You outsource admin work, not development work. 2. Domain. If I am investing here in the region, I would focus on ventures looking to build a utility- basically infrastructure. Another domain I would look for is very specific verticals that are localized. This approach is time-relevant for the current situation. 3. Favorable investment terms. Overvaluation or
terms that are not reasonable for the investors make a great idea, but is not necessary feasible. Covenants and valuations are two variables I would look at here in the region; obviously terms get more complicated in the West.
or the startup to start their journey with some sort of a competitive advantage which is not assumed. Potential customers that make sense is not one of them, possible JVs also don’t count, until it’s actual and confirmed.
Entrepreneur may 2015
competition? The size? Has the homework been done?
Mohammed Hamdy
4. Unorthodox advantage. I would like the team
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@ksamakie
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Mohammed Hamdy
“I would like the team or the startup to start their journey with some sort of a competitive advantage which is not assumed. Potential customers that make sense is not one of them, possible JVs also don’t count, until it’s actual and confirmed.” 5. Other investors. I like
tagging along with other investors- only with angel and VC investing. In my PE career, that was not necessary especially if I was looking to implement activism across the board and operations. There’s comfort knowing other investors are getting on the same boat- smart ones, I don’t want to get in trouble and stuck with fools.”