Please feel free to utilize this template to create your very own investment memos on seed-

stage start-ups of interest to you. This could be ones in Aotearoa, New Zealand, or
somewhere else in the world! We’ve found that working on a short investment memo will
help you to really grasp and understand the start-up more from an objective lens, rather
than subjective.

When writing these, you can lay it out however you want that makes sense to you. Whether
it is all in bullet points or full-on paragraphs, there’s no single right way of writing these
memos. These memos are to serve as a reflection piece for you in your decision making to
choose whether or not you are going to “invest” in this company.

Reflecting on these memos will help fuel your conviction (or concerns) about your start-up
of choice. Enjoy!
START WRITING BELOW

Overall Decision
Proceed
Not to proceed

The problem

● What’s the problem this startup is trying to solve?

● Why is it a pain point to a specific target market?
● Is it really a problem people face or is it subjective?
● Is the problem common and is it a painful, hard to solve problem?

The solution
● How does this start-ups product address the problem?
● Does it solve it well? Moderately? Solve a small piece of the overall problem?
● Is this really the best solution out there to solve the problem?

How do they actually work?

● What’s the journey map of the start-up’s product?
● What are the steps involved?
● Who is using it?
● How is it being used?

Business model

● How does this start-up make money?

● Is this the most viable/effective way of making money?
● Is there another way they could make money better?
● Who are they selling to and is it the right people to be making money off?
Market size

● How big is the actual market for this start-up?

● Are they targeting just one country/market or are they thinking of global
expansion?
● How much revenue do you think they can actually generate if they hit “x” amount
of customers?
● Is the market big enough for you to generate a return off by owning under 10% of
the company?

Go to market strategy?

● Firstly, what is this startup's pricing strategy? Where are they situated on the
pricing matrix?
● Secondly, what is their distribution strategy, and does it sound legitimate and well
thought out to you?
● Is this G2M strategy the best strategy for this startup to get their product out there
or is there another better method?

Traction?
● Does this startup have sales/revenue?
● How much to date?
● Are there people hungrily awaiting the product?
● Is there solid evidence of key customer interest?

Competitors

● Who is in the market currently?

● Is this startup unique compared to its competitors?
● What do they do that this startup does differently?
● How does this startup stack up compared with its competitors? Is it better, faster,
cheaper?
● How replicable is this startup’s product? Can Google come along and make it with
their huge pile of cash or is it proprietary?
 ● Look at global competitors. If you’re an investor, you should think that this startup
has global aspirations. Assess all global competitors, big or small, and get a feel as
to where his startup is positioned.

The technology

● Is their AI Strategy adequate for the current technology stack?

● Is the data they are obtaining proprietary (Not public & unique to them)?
● Is the data they are collecting useful and high quality?
● (If Hardware) Are the materials easily accessible and competitively priced?
● Is their product using frontier technology?

The financials

● Is their financial model realistic?

● Are assumptions made realistic for the given start-up stage?
● How have they been using their funds currently? Are they spending in the right
places (New hires, R&D, Sales & Marketing)

The team
● Does the team have the x-factor?
● Are they subject matter experts in their startup’s industry?
● Does the team have individual skills and experience that complement each other?
● Do they work cohesively with each other?

The cap table

● Do they have enough skin in the game during this stage to be incentivized to see
this thing through? If founder(s) have less than 70% ownership of the business
before they even raise their seed funding, it’s a worrying sign that by the time they
reach Series B, C, D, or E, they’ll only own a small chunk of their business. You can
find NZ company cap tables here.
● Who is on their cap table? Are the current investors able to add value to the
startup?
● How can you add value to this startup?
Use of proceeds
● How are they going to spend the capital?
● Is their capital strategy realistic and going towards growth or into sunk costs?
● Are they using the investment capital to pay down loans and/or rent (building
rent)? This is not a wise use of proceeds and should be checked thoroughly.

Ending summary

● Are they good people (Big one)?

● Am I comfortable investing in this start-up and its founders?
● Are they ready for start-up life?
● Do they check most or all the boxes?
● Do I see this company being successful for years to come or only in the short term?
● Do you believe this company can innovate constantly to keep up with their market?
● What is my answer? Yay or nay?
● How much am I going to invest in them? Pure equity? A convertible note? Or
maybe a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE)