Need advice for attending a meeting for the first time playing role as the investor.

First off, its great to see there is a team. That means a couple things, but mostly it means that the idea isn't awful. You can convince yourself something, but its much harder to sell other developers to lend their skills.

Secondly, 5k - 20k is not a lot of money. Of course you are curious as to where your money will go and should question everything, but its sounds like they would need the money for tangible services (like legal, marketing, etc) rather than development. That's also a good sign. I would hope to see an MVP, or at at the minimum have an expected date for one.

As for what they are presenting, look for at least a 6, 12 and 24 month Sales Forecast, Income Statement, and Runway Cash Flow. They will really hype the value of their app, but you need to focus on the value of the app to the user. Who is their biggest competitor? There will be one, and they should know about it. They should have at least some sort of UI/UX build. Be wary if they don't have an idea of how the app will look and function at least on paper. A suggestion, think of the app's functions ahead of time, and interrupt them with gaps or weak spots you might see. You need to put them on the spot and see how strong, cohesive, and thought out the idea is.

I would also really question each member where their greatest talents are and especially where their greatest weaknesses are. That will also help you figure out where your investment will go if they are needing to hire additional talent.

The magic number for return on investment for mobile apps are generally around 5x. If the app really solves some problem and does something new or better, it shouldn't be a problem.

My personal point of view, if the team are not the ones actually developing the app themselves, and want the money for outsourcing the apps production, I would walk. It either means they have no clue what they are doing, couldn't get a developer interested in their idea/team, or both.

/r/Entrepreneur Thread