Surviving the Q & A Session

In all your rehearsing and preparing for the road show, don’t forget to prepare adequately for the question and answer session that follows your formal presentation. Experienced entrepreneurs try to anticipate questions that potential investors might ask and plan ahead for how they will answer. As the CEO, you have to be the person in the room who knows the most about your industry, your company, and your competition.

These are some typical questions investors are likely to ask:

1. At what rate have your company’s earnings grown in the past x number of years?
2. At what rate have your company’s revenues grown in the past x number of years?
3. What do you spend annually on research and development of new products?
4. What is your current market share?
5. How has your market share increased in the past x number of years?
6. What are the assets of your company worth today?
7. How much debt has the company accumulated?
8. What does it cost you to get a new customer?
9. How fast is the market for your products growing?
10. Who are your current customers?
11. Who are your target customers?
12. What does your sales process look like?
13. How long does it take to make a sale once you identify a customer?
14. What is your plan for increasing your management team?
15. What is required for your company to be more profitable?
16. What are the risk factors for investing in your company?
17. How do you plan to deal with your major competitors?
18. What stage of development is your company currently in?
19. How will the capital you are raising be spent?
20. How far will this round of funding take you

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