Mostly thanks to COVID-19, the venture capital industry is going global. Which means that VCs are increasingly willing to invest across borders. Some implications for investor pitches.
VCs get the confidence to invest further away partly because of increased specialisation. They know exactly what sort of deals to look for, have a very deep understanding of technology in that particular field, and as a result can size up opportunities easily, even at long distance.
[P.S. Something similar happened in my bespoke presentation design business, where I specialised in a very specific type of presentation which is highly similar across borders, and usually have very similar type of clients. This was both important in terms of deciding whether you can do the project, winning a pitch for a project, and making the call whether this unknown client in a different country would eventually pay my fees].
Even more than before, as a startup, you need to do your homework and select potential investors carefully. The upside of this extra work is that if your company fits a specific investor profile, you are very likely to make it through the first investor screen, people will actually look at your deck. “Hmmm, these guys are not from Palo Alto” is no longer relevant. The cost of a brief Zoom call to check you out in person is much lower than a “coffee chat”, so you might score that one as well if the field is relevant.
For a highly knowledgeable investor with an office 5 time zones away, that first deck might have to be more specific than a nice mysterious teaser inviting her to schedule a phone call. You can cut slides with general industry background, but probably need to add data that investors in a specific technology segment are expecting to see (experience from looking at hundreds of other companies in your specific sector).
“How are you to work with on a Board?” already was an important criterion in an investor due diligence. Now the question becomes “how are you to work with on a Board remotely?” Pay attention to cultural differences. I have seen many local Israeli startups make English typos, use English phrases that have an interesting double meaning in street language, try to plan meetings during US holidays or 3AM Pacific Time, make politically incorrect jokes, etc. etc.
The net net of all of this is very positive for both startups and investors.