As part of the due diligence process, we screen and analyse potential projects for suitability under the selection criteria detailed below using a combination of the following business plan fundamentals and essential characteristics:

1. Founding TeamThe management team should consist of the key individuals that can execute and achieve the critical milestones to the next stage of funding with a passion for building robust technologies and long term value over 3-5+ years. It should ideally have a CEO that can lead the team even if the individual is not the long term CEO. In any case the team should be committed to building a company, passionate, accomplished, work well together, and be well referenced.
2. MarketThe opportunity to build a company really starts with the attractiveness of the market opportunity. The size and growth rate are the most important metrics but there are other factors that are also important. The industry structure, barriers to entry, customer switching costs, competitive landscape, behavior of incumbents, etc. all play into the attractiveness of the market. Small markets seldom deliver the opportunity to build big companies.
3. Product/ServiceThe product or service offered should be disruptive and unique and solve a customer problem or meet a need with strong robust intellectual property rights and protection. The value propositions should be clear and the product should not require significant behavioral change on the part of the customer – represent an improvement over the current _gold standard_ in practice, suggesting market uptake of the technology will be rapid.
4. Business ModelThe business model is the means by which you can develop profitable business in a repeatable manner – that is intuitive and compelling. While some investors will have an appetite for businesses that require large amounts of capital, Moksh does not. We prefer businesses and business models that are not capital intensive. We prefer businesses with high and sustainable gross margins. The combination of these two factors with a high growth market supports a high, internally sustainable growth rate.
5. CompetitionThe management team should appreciate the competitive landscape and understand both its present and future direct and indirect competitors. They should also have a grasp on the sustainable competitive advantage that it can build through various means.
6. Exit StrategyWe are focused on teams that wish to build a company that can independently thrive with a view to an IPO or disrupt with a view to M&A. We realize that most successful investor exits will be the result of M&A. However, we beleive a mangement team that has a company building mindset will achieve and attract better M&A opportunities as opposed to a single “build-it” to flip track. As an example, for Medical devices, Pharmaceutical and Health Care projects We like definable and visible regulatory, clinical and reimbursement paths.

A Word on Non-Disclosure Agreements

We respect the sensitive nature of new ideas and inventions. Our reputation is critical to our success, so we are careful not to divulge information inappropriately. However, for legal reasons, we are unable to sign non-disclosure agreements before you present your basic idea. We prefer that you send us non-confidential information at first, until we determine if there is mutual interest. If there is mutual interest and our diligence activities require signing a non-disclosure, we will work with you to assure we maintain confidentiality. For entrepreneurs who are concerned about protecting their idea, Guy Kawaski has an excellent summary of NDA’s in this article from Forbes magazine.

The process starts with your assessment of whether your company is a good candidate for Moksh given the specified criteria. In addition to the above, we also generally prefer companies that have defined problem-solutions, defensible technology, disruptive solutions, well defined product-market plans, and strong teams that have the demonstrated ability to execute.

If you meet our criteria, we encourage you to submit a plan for our investment consideration. This is accomplished by submitting a well written executive summary or proposal online or email. We evaluate every submission and endeavour to respond to every submission.

There are no charges to submit materials to Moksh. As is the case with most Angel Groups and Venture Capital Firms, we do not accept confidential information and do not sign nondisclosure agreements.

Preparation of Investor Materials

There are two key documents that you will need for consideration by Moksh — the Executive Summary and PowerPoint Presentation. You are well served by investing time in both of these documents. These two documents will be your workhorse documents for virtually any investor. They are usually very challenging to develop in a compelling, clear, and concise manner.

The following guidelines should be helpful to you in the preparation of these documents and embody best practices that we have come to appreciate in our own experiences as entrepreneurs and investors.

Executive Summary

You should think of the Executive Summary as just that — an executive summary of your business plan. It should have all the elements of a good business plan, however, just summarized. The Executive Summary should follow the outline of your investor PowerPoint presentation but in narrative form and with appropriate charts and tables.

In reality, there are two kinds of executive summaries in use today. The “One-Pager” and the several page document. The One-Pager is usually in template form and has a summary of all the key information. These are somewhat useful for a cursory assessment. However, the several page document is much more effective for discussing the opportunity and plan. You should prepare both documents because you will be asked for both by various investors.

Investor Presentation

There are a number of excellent resources on preparing presentations for prospective investors. A well prepared presentation and great delivery are critical to your financing success. You should plan on no more than 20 slides for your first presentation. You should plan on a 20 min – 30 min delivery with the balance of your meeting for Q&A. Your ability to manage the meeting time is an indicator or your management capability. These guidelines will serve you well for a meeting with virtually any angel group or venture capital firm.

While the specifics of your presentation will differ with the nature of your business, the following guidelines will address what virtually all early stage investors which to assess. Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of building what is primarily a product presentation. You should force yourself to keep the product discussion to just a couple of slides. This presentation needs to be focused on the building of a company — of which the product is a foundational element. This is often a difficult mental transition for entrepreneurs to make — see the company building opportunity, not the product! You can’t go wrong with this outline:

1.  Company BackgroundOne or two page summary that profiles the company, product, sales & marketing, market opportunity, and financing overview. The object is to provide a snapshot of the company and to “tell them what you are going to tell them”.
2.  Vision/Mission or Elevator PitchThis should be a very simple several sentence statement of why the company has been formed and how its going to change the world.
3.  Problem/Solution ScenarioAll products start with the definition of problem; a pain point. A well articulated problem and a well articulated solution will set the stage for the rest of your presentation.
4.  Market OpportunityAll good company-building opportunities start with an attractive market opportunity — in market size and growth. The pain you articulated earlier should translate into a market opportunity. Quoting analyst market numbers that are not particularly focused will not convince an investor that you understand the market opportunity. You should challenge yourself to try and build a bottoms-up analysis, with assumptions, that builds an attractive market opportunity. Other issues you may wish to address are customer switching costs, willingness of customers to buy from startups, power of incumbents, etc. Competition can be addressed at this point but is more meaningful after a product context has been established.
5.  Product/Technology DescriptionThis is the opportunity to talk about the product. Talk about what’s disruptive and innovative. Define the value propositions. This section does not need to be half of the presentation. Plan on no more than just a few slides.
6.  CompetitionDirect and indirect. Current, future, & framework for analysis.
7.  Current & Sustainable Competitive AdvantageIP is helpful, but usually not sufficient. Strong know-how, network effects, high switching costs, long term contracts, learning curve benefits, and capturing key distribution channels can all be used to build powerful competitive advantage and entry barriers for others. First mover advantage in itself is usually not sufficient unless it can be used to accomplish some of the above mentioned entry barriers.
8.  Business ModelManner in which you develop repeatable & profitable business. Discuss capital efficiency. Discussion of supporting models — operating, product development, and sales and marketing will demonstrate your command of the business and the business model.
9.  Go-to-Market StrategyThis slide(s) should be dedicated to how you plan to cross the chasm, obtain your first reference customer(s), first 500K users, etc. Discuss target market strategy, sales & distribution, partnering, pricing, & promotion.
10.  Customer Traction/PipelineShow your pipeline and that you have an organized process for developing customers and know how to advance them through a sales process.
11.  Team & Human ResourcesBrief Bio’s; companies, specific positions, key accomplishments, and education.
12.  Execution TimelineBring realism and believability to your plan. Discuss risk factors. Human resources. Spend rates. Key milestones, etc. How far will the money you are raising last? What reserve will you have if key milestones slip? Have you built adequate time margin into your next round financing? Does the financing timeline interleave with your key milestones?
13.  Five-year Product Market/Technology RoadmapWhat does the future look like? Do you have follow-on markets. How big? Competitors? Technology and product development requirements? Risk factors? Etc.
14.  Five-year Pro-formaHighlight the key metrics. While the Pro-forma will often get cursory review in an early stage company, it still makes certain statements about your command of the business, your vision, the size company that may be built, your expectation on cash breakeven, capital required to reach breakeven, etc.
15.  Financing Requirements & Financing ScenarioProvide a timeline of your expected financing rounds, and how large you expect those rounds will need to be.
16.  Investment ThesisMake the potential investors job easy and summarize why we should invest. How would you summarize the deal and compelling reason to invest if you had to do it in one foil?

Backup Information

Your backup information should include evidence of whatever key facts you are claiming. If you claim you can definitely design something for $1M in 12 months, you might support it with schedules, engineering analysis, comparison to similar efforts and 3rd party expert opinions. If you claim there is a $100M unserved market opportunity, you might support it with market data and verifiable customer testimonials.

Your backup material should also include an operating plan, including detailed milestones and monthly financials for the period supported by the funding you are requesting, plus key milestones and quarterly financials to the exit point. The financials should generally include an income statement, balance sheet and funds flow statement.

Your backup info should also include resumes for all key team members.

High quality backup material will allow your deal to move ahead much more quickly.

Pre-Screening

If your Executive Summary is of interest, we will schedule a pre-screen meeting. Deals are evaluated on multiple criteria, including quality of management, market opportunity, product concept, competition, go-to-market plan, financial projections, the investment’s potential returns and whether the deal fits the investment our objectives.

The meeting generally will include your presentation of your PowerPoint pitch, as well as a Question & Answer period. Depending on the nature of the deal, additional pre-screening meetings may be required.

Presentation to Moksh

Plan on a 20 minute presentation and a 15 minute of Question & Answer period.

Followup

In the days following the meeting, Moksh decide whether the deal is of interest and whether they wish to participate in due diligence for the purpose of an individual investment. You will hear back from us within 5 days of your presentation. If the deal attracts interest, we will form a due diligence plan to work directly with your company to address any outstanding concerns and to negotiate the investment.

If a project meets the initial selection criteria, Moksh undertakes detailed due diligence to confirm that all of the investment criteria are met. Upon satisfying all further screening requirements and successful Terms Sheet negotiations, successful projects, as part of the value adding process will benefit from our experiences in the following areas in which we would play an active role:

• Product research, design and development
• Product Launch and Company branding
• Customer Care – including clinical applications
• Clinical trials – installation and training
• Team management and team building
• Designing and implementing solid regulated quality systems
• Developing solid business plans and value propositions
• Developing and planning execution of value creation strategies
• Negotiating deal agreements
• Ensuring appropriate intellectual property protection strategies are in place
• Ensuring R&D milestones link to budget and Key Performance Indicators
• Developing capital raising strategies
• Ensuring proper corporate systems are in place
• Liasing with and securing broker support

Entrepreneurs who wish to contact Moksh should fill out the online form below. Moksh recommends reading the ‘Investment Criteria‘ section on this website to ensure that Moksh’ project and investment criteria are understood and met. If you are unsure or require further information please email or include as much information as you can on the online form.

All submissions are treated with the strictest confidence and will not be disclosed without your permission. Moksh will not disclose any information to third parties without your permision.

A Word on Non-Disclosure Agreements

We respect the sensitive nature of new ideas and inventions. Our reputation is critical to our success, so we are careful not to divulge information inappropriately. However, for legal reasons, we are unable to sign non-disclosure agreements before you present your basic idea. We prefer that you send us non-confidential information at first, until we determine if there is mutual interest. If there is mutual interest and our diligence activities require signing a non-disclosure, we will work with you to assure we maintain confidentiality.

For entrepreneurs who are concerned about protecting their idea, Guy Kawaski has an excellent summary of NDA’s in this article from Forbes magazine.

Recommended reading:

1. The Art of the Start, by Guy Kawasaki
2. Winning, by Jack Welch
3. The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton M. Christensen
4. Starting Someting: An Entrepreneur’s Tale of Control, Confrontation, & Corporate Culture, by Wayne McVicker