This is an inherent trait in most founders, but doesn’t speak to the ongoing traits needed to maintain relationships with those closest to your business.
Confidence can mean a lot of things to different people, and should be rooted in other key characteristics:
- Authentic – Investors want to work with founders that are truthful and upfront about all aspects of their business. With an emphasis on data and facts, you will immediately gain the trust and respect of investors. They don’t want to be sold to, especially if it’s not the truth, and much rather prefer to work honestly with you to find success.
- Convincing – Founders that use confidence and charisma in tandem to present their case will leave a lasting impression.
- Driven – This goes without saying, but investors will want to feel your ambition, passion and commitment to the business and ultimately, their investment. Actions speak louder than words here. Do the right activities day in and day out and good investors will take notice.
- Receptive – Confidence is great, but being humble and open to feedback is also important. Building a business is hard, and constructive criticism can be incredibly valuable at all stages of growth.
Investors want to work with good people who understand how business works and respect the nature and balance of business interactions. In essence, understand and listen to social and business cues to know how and when to ask for help.
Here are some more specific best practices:
Get access to resources you need
The biggest step you can take to get access to the right resources from your VC is doing research on what they actually have access to. Make educated requests by knowing who and what they know based on past portfolio companies, experiences they’ve had on the board of companies similar to you, etc. Knowing your investor inside and out, and referencing their experiences, is highly recommended and will be impressive to them, as well as it shows you respect them and took the time to educate yourself on how they can help.
Understand when to pull in your investor for help
You are the founder of a business because you have the smarts and hopefully the hustle to get access to the resources and people that you need. Y
via thenextweb.com