Necessary conditions for attracting investments for a startup in the United States. The look of a former compatriot

Fate brought me to Eugene a couple of years ago. Then I tried to get money to finance my next project through Kickstarter, but it’s worth it to tell separately and in more detail . Almost immediately after our acquaintance, he immigrated to the United States and today, for the second year, he masters Selikonova Valley.
I want to share his vision of what conditions an innovative project of domestic and not only developers should satisfy, for a successful search for investments in the USA. I think many novice teams will be interested in his personal experience.
At once I will make a reservation that I myself do not agree with all his theses by 100 percent. Thoughts are presented in the form of brief theses and will not take too much of your attention.

Direct speech.

Today, I can state the total and deep misunderstanding of start-ups from ex-USSR in the process of obtaining investments in the United States. Only a few who have written to me about their projects have an idea of ​​how American investors and funds work. And only one project (which has already raised decent money, and raised it very intelligently!) Has a very clear idea of ​​what is required and in which direction to dig.
And therefore I decided to do a quick educational program, summarizing the main important points at the stage of presenting the project to the investor:
1) Pitch - the idea should be described so simply as to fit into one sentence. Variants of structures:
- We make X for Y through Z
- We help X get / solve / eliminate Y through Z
- We are an analogue of X in the sphere of Y, only by means of Z
2) A package of documents - explaining on your fingers the idea of ​​your project is extremely inefficient, unless it is connected with the anatomy of the hand. You will not be spoken to without a full package of documents, which includes:
- Executive summary (no more than 1 page)
- Project presentation (up to 10 pages)
- Business plan (up ti 10-12 pages)
Documents are reviewed in order from Exec. Summary to Business Plan, and written in reverse.
It should be clearly and clearly described not only about the project, but also about the business model, the team, the product, and financial indicators (how much has already been invested, how long ago, at what percentage, how many investors, for how long).
3) Opportunities - remember this word! This is the most important word in your appeal to the investor! It is not enough for him to know how much money you need (and by the way, for what?). The most important thing is that he should understand, what are his opportunities to invest in you, and not in someone else, and how will he return at least x10-x20 from his investments in 24-36 months?
4) Geography - it is very important to understand that American investors invest only in American companies, whose teams are not only physically located in America, but in the region of the investor. I work with Valley investors, and the rule is this: a startup should be within 50 miles or 2 hours drive from Palo Alto.
If not, no one will even consider the application. Are you in Boston, Moscow or Bali? Wonderful! There and look for an investor.
5) “I also have such a project for you and I also need investments ...) - you cannot have several projects! Your project is the only one in your life at the moment. You live for them, fall asleep with him and only dream about him all the time. If an investor finds out that you have, besides your main project, there is at least one other project for which you are looking for investments, interest in you instantly disappears.
And yes, it will not be superfluous to have: a working prototype, a community, especially paid users, a good dynamic of user base growth, profit from sales and a team. No one will give money to a lone dreamer who has everything in his head so far, nobody knows about the project and pays nothing.
This, of course, is very brief, only the tip of the iceberg in the general theses. But without all of this, there is no point in referring to the topic of investment - only you will steal something for a while without any result.
Good luck to everyone with your projects.

PS

Even if your project does not fit the above requirements, but you are keen on them and consider it very innovative you should not despair - firstly there are no rules without exceptions, secondly, investments can be found in Russia, at least in a volume sufficient for project output to international markets. The main thing is to have a cohesive team and not give up after the first failures!