The first step is to define the required capital. This is derived from the planning that the founders have drawn up for the next 1–1½ years. As a rule, investors provide capital for the next 1–1 1/2 years.

You should also be aware of how many shares you want to sell. Of course, the fewer shares you have to give up, the better for the founding team.  At the same time, there is a natural limit. Investors who invest at an early stage know that their share level will be diluted over time and therefore tend to demand a stake of between 10–20%. For this reason, it is worth assessing this on a case-by-case basis and then deciding on the number of shares the investor may acquire.

The founding team should also determine whether everyone is willing to work full time for the start-up or whether only some members of the founding team will be working full time. This point will, of course, be very important to the investor because it indicates who is fully committed to the new idea.

Of course, you want to sell as few shares as possible. At the same time, there are certain hard figures that emerge from the start-up’s development situation. Especially at the beginning, investors often demand an amount between 10–20%. This is because they know that their stake will be diluted (if there are further financing rounds).

The founding team should not be too demanding or too stingy at this point – in the end, it is more important to be successful overall, and ultimately, not every percent matters. The maxim is: It’s better to have X% of a valuable company than 100% of an insolvent company.

To get investors on board, founders first usually send a teaser, and at presentations or talks, they deliver the pitch deck, also known as the “elevator pitch.” This means that you’ll have to be able to describe your idea and your project to the investor within 30 seconds.

This pitch deck should definitely include a description of the team, a description of the idea or solution, and a description of the market. You should also describe how much money you need and whether you already have partners in the pipeline who’ve agreed to invest.

The very fact that there are already other backers who have committed to making an investment usually boosts an investor’s confidence and willingness to invest money.

As all investors have their own personal strategy, you won’t necessarily get the same answer to this question from all investors. But one thing always applies: As a rule, it is the team, i.e., the founders and the personalities of the startup, that must convince investors. Only if they have confidence in the team and the individual people will they invest money.

Second, of course, comes the business idea and the market. The investor will only make more money available if the idea is plausible and the investor really believes there are opportunities for growth.

In addition, any investor will expect professionally prepared documents. If there are mathematical errors in the business plan presented, the investor is unlikely to invest.