On returning from a meeting with a small biotechnology firm in which I serve on the advisory board, I was reminded of a novel strategy for attracting venture capital.
One of the challenges is attracting investment is finding an investor aligned with your company’s future directions. Venture capitalists may be interested only in large companies, in small companies, in diagnostic firms, in drug development, etc. One of the challenges, and opportunities, for small firms, is that their future is very uncertain. This makes it difficult to decide how to pitch the company to potential investors, but it also makes it possible to pitch more than one version of the company.
Using a shotgun approach, it is possible to craft several business plans built a common set of resources, each aimed at a different kind of investor, and simultaneously pitch these different plans to appropriate VCs. The reality is that most investors will realize that there is a great deal of flexibility in the business plan, because there are so many unknown elements in a young company, and pitching more investors increases the likelihood of attracting an investment.