The first conversation with an investor is not a pitch — it is questions and answers. No slides, fifteen minutes, seven questions. If the answers are ready, the conversation leads to a second meeting.
The seven questions
- What do you do? — one sentence, in the customer's words
- For whom? — not "everyone", a specific person
- Why now? — what changed, why this year
- Why you? — does the team know this problem from the inside
- What grew? — a number, month by month
- How much, and for what? — a 12-month plan, three milestones
- What is the biggest risk? — if you do not know, the investor will find it
An investor buys the rate of growth, not the idea.
What not to do
- Do not hide the risk — it surfaces anyway
- Do not round — not "about 1,000", "847"
"$1 million revenue this year"— when it is $2,000 today
After the conversation
The same day, one message: thanks, three numbers, the next step. What an investor remembers is how fast you reply.
The companies in our portfolio — uzcombinator.uz/portfolio.