In this episode of the Talking To Investors podcast, I'm speaking with Geet Kalra, investment associate at Advantage Capital.
We discuss:
- The craziest founder statement Geet ever encountered - NEVER say this to an investor
- The 3 essential empathy skills that make investors believe you’ll be successful
- And one simple technique to show them you’ve got those skills
- The single most important switch you have to flip in your head - doing this gets you 95% of the way to aligning with your investor
- The one contract clause you cannot fight as an impact startup
- How to get past confusing investor jargon
- A little tactic to get investors to finetune your financial strategy for you
- What to do when an investor holds a gun to your head
- Why sending an email when negotiating a high-value term sheet is a BAD idea - and what you should do instead
- What to do when you get a term sheet with a “WTF!?-type” clause
- Which 3 criteria are make-or-break factors for assembling a great board of directors
- What to do when you DON’T want to give someone a board seat, but your investor insists
- How getting too excited about closing the deal can harm your startup in the future
- The atmosphere great founders create vs. the vibe that’ll kill the deal
- Which platform makes investors more likely to respond when you’re doing a cold outreach
- And loads of other insights Geet brings to the table.
Want to know more about Geet Kalra?
If you think Geet Kalra would be a great investor for your startup, you can reach out to him here:
- Geet's LinkedIn profile
- And as a special bonus, more insights from Geet on coursera: "Strategy and Finance for the Lifecycle of a Social Business"