Be wary of some of the advice you hear.
The goal is not to get a “coffee”, or just to “learn”.
A VC intro call is a sales call. Your job — if you want funding now, or later — is to move the opportunity down the pipeline. Not play games (usually).
So:
- Spit it out. Get to the point — fast. Make the VC wants to invest in the first 120 seconds of the call.
- Speak with data.
- Send over the deck ahead of time. The best investors will do their homework and read it before the call.
- Ask what they’d like to learn more about. Get to the point, then ask what they’d like to dig in on.
Finally, try not to do a call. Try to meet face-to-face. 50% of what a VC invests in is the founders and CEO in particular. It’s much harder to get a sense over a call.