As I mentioned in my post The Objective Of The First Meeting, the objective of your first meeting with a VC you should not be to dive into every detail of your business, but to generate enough initial interest to get a partner to start spending time learning more.  To do this, you're going to have to convince the VCs that you are more than a competent manager; they will ultimately want to know that you are ready to translate your vision into a business.  Demonstrating this early on can mean the difference between gaining momentum or losing it. 

Proving you can execute is something that you 'show', not 'tell'.  Therefore, a VC is not going to ask you 'are you prepared to execute?'. Instead, you are going to hear one word over and over: 'how'.

'How will you build the site?'. 'How will you acquire customers?'. 'How will you advertise?'.  How? How? How?

The word 'how' will often be accompanied its good friend 'many'.

'How many programmers do you need?'. 'How many sales reps will you hire?'. 'How many geographies will you target initially?'. 'How many partnerships will you acquire?'. How many months until launch?'. How many? How many? How many?

Be prepared to explain all of the details behind 'how' you are going to create this company, but at this stage, only offer information beyond the top level when specifically asked.  Otherwise you could get caught up in details and not accomplish your goal of having the VCs buy into the bigger picture and want to begin putting time into learning more. 

Knowing the answers to the 'how' questions will not only help you ace the meeting, but also ensure that you are indeed ready to launch your venture.

Comments

[Jonathan Treiber]

Great points Mark. I think your point on answering the "How" questions are really based on one key principle the Entrepreneur needs to have. Be prepared. The how questions are very important and cannot be answered off-the-cuff. The team presenting to the VC has to be prepared with the right answers, plug back-up answers if those initial ones don't resonate. If you're prepared, I think you'll be able to handle the "how" questions.