Ideally, when entrepreneurs go to professional conferences or venture fairs, they will have an idea of who they’re going to see there. But realistically, that doesn’t always happen.
Chris Sklarin, an investment manager at Edison Ventures, offered this piece of advice to entrepreneurs attending events where they may have to give a quick pitch to investors they don’t know: Ask them to give their elevator pitch first. Once an entrepreneur knows what industry and stage a particular investor is most interested in, he can tailor his pitch to have the most meaningful interaction possible with that investor.
“Likely it will be that they’re not the right stage or the right sector, but they know someone who is,” he said. “At a conference, there are a ton of people and you need to find those people that actually you connect with or really can fund you at your right stage and your right niche at the right time.”
