I attended the Lisbon Investment Summit in June and wrote about my experiences here. One of the best sessions was with Boris Golden called "Understand Investment". These are my notes:

1. VC's are seeking to identify high-potential startups, and then support and fund them.
2. They are looking for something that is innovative and unproven.
3. A startup is not a company but an organisation searching for a business model,
4. Whilst executing and discovering a scalable way to grow.
5. Startups need money for ambitious but credible growth plans.
6. A typical stake for a VC could be roughly 20%.
7. VC's want an exit price of at least 100m, otherwise their business models don't work out.
8. $10m can seem a lot for a founder with a 30% stake, but it's not enough to attract VCs, so aim higher.

How to pitch

• Identify specific people with real needs
• Size of market
• Why now?
• What is your clear competitive advantage - why can no-one else do this?

Market

• Find a large and attractive market…

Management

• Build a smart, skilled and cohesive team
• With a strong ability to deliver quickly and to learn quickly
• That is ready to go big whatever it takes
• With a unique vision and project-fit

Model

• Valuable and differentiated products
• Efficient go-to-market and growth channels
• Profitable monetisation strategy
• Scalability and defensibility

Momentum

• Show traction and that you've cracked the important problem
• Show ambitous and credible growth plans
• With a capital-efficient growth model
• And a clear strategy to scale and win