Insights

Send us a presentation or executive summary on contact@sapphireprojects.vc.

We receive hundreds of emails per year from startups that want to meet with us. We’re definitely interested to hear from you but to get a meeting we first need to get a feel for your project. Include a presentation; executive summary or short business plan.

Concisely describe the problem you are looking to solve; your product; competitive positioning and differentiators; go to market; status (product; customers; KPI’s…); your team and how much money you are looking to raise. Don’t send us a 40-page business plan – we will not read it.

If this matches with our investment criteria then we will invite your for a first meeting.

If not, don’t despair; only one in three contacts results in a meeting … and there are probably other funding sources for your project.

In the following video GP Frank explains what he looks for in a pitch (in Dutch).

In case you don’t speak Dutch: a couple slides that explain the Problem, Solution, Market, Competition, Team, Traction, and Vision.

No.

We intend to stay a trusted party in the startup community. From the very start, all email, verbal discussions, and other information we receive from you is treated as confidential. We do not sign NDAs because this would limit our business opportunities and expose us to unnecessary legal issues. We receive so many business plans each year that taking the time and resources to review NDAs simply isn’t productive. In the case of a conflict of interest (e.g. you send us a business idea that has some overlap with an existing or imminent investment) we will disclose this to you while respecting confidentiality.

If and when initial discussions and preliminary investigations result in a Letter of Intent / Interest or Term Sheet then they will include confidentiality clauses. As part of the due diligence process that starts after having signed these documents, we will expect to learn about your “secret sauce” and you should be protected for that.