Raising Capital During a Pandemic: Investors
During “The Current State” webinar, presented by BrownWinick, LWBJ and the Greater Des Moines Partnership, panelists discussed the ongoing challenges of raising and deploying capital during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first post in a three-part blog series covering the August 13, 2020 event that specifically focusing on the investor panel. View this portion of the event at timestamp 00:11:15-1:02:00.
Investor panelists at the virtual event included:
Impact of Pandemic
Maters discusses the differences between the pandemic and the downturn of 2008. With the pandemic, everything shut down in the course of a weekend and contingency plans came into play almost immediately. Maters says that one size doesn’t fit all with solutions. Some companies are seeing accelerations due to the pandemic.
Dhawan points out that startups are very capable of identifying opportunities for pivoting to take advantage of the changes of the time. He says this is where opportunities for investors will also become available.
Ibsen says he does not believe that 2021 will be a return to normal. We will see tradeshows and business travel continue to be impacted, including sectors such as commercial real estate.
Diligence
The diligence process hasn’t changed that much. Like most of us, Maters says that he is spending more time on Zoom. Dhawan mentions that if the pitch is around five minutes, you’re not going to stand out and suggest diving deeper to showcase the flavor of the company to potential investors. Ibsen says deals are processing at a quicker speed due to less travel and recommends using connections to your advantage.
Gain more advice from these experts by watching the entire webinar below:
You can count on The Partnership to continue to share accurate and fact-based updates. See more on COVID-19 here.
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Mike Colwell
As executive director of entrepreneurial initiatives of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Mike Colwell leads works with startups to build their business model, financial model, marketing strategies and capitalization plan. He is also co-manager of Plains Angels, a group of Iowa-based Midwest angel investors. Mike spends his days coaching, mentoring, consulting and asking tough questions to help entrepreneurs reach their full potential. Mike assists with business strategy, business planning, business plan execution, business model development and capital acquisition strategies.