Blackbird

Here are the questions we ask before we meet each company at our partner meeting:

Blackbird Investment Questionnaire

Founders

• Describe the founders.
• Do the founders have a clear mission to guide them and attract people? Is this their life mission?
• How well do the founders know each other?
• Are these product founders?
• Can these founders lead a tech team?
• How do you think the founders will develop as leaders?
• Do the founders have grit and ambition? How will their ambition change in response to success?
• Are the founders good at fundraising?
• What are the weaknesses of the founders?
• Do you think you can build a good relationship with the founders?
• Do the founders have enough equity?

Team

• Describe the team.
• Is the team exciting enough to attract great people to join?
• How will the team grow with this investment?
• Is this team in the weeds with its customers?
• Describe the culture and leadership style in the team.
• What are the gaps or weaknesses in the team?

Product

• What is the product and the problem it is trying to solve?
• Is the problem acute?
• Who has the problem? Are they good customers?
• Is the problem misunderstood? Has the team discovered something that makes this idea possible today?
• Is the product 10x better than the existing solution?
• Describe the product roadmap. Why are you excited about it?
• What are the tech risks? Can the team build the product?

Market

• Describe the market and its size.
• Is the market global?
• Are there explosive market forces at play?
• Who are the competitors? Why would you back this team to beat the competitors?

Sales Model

• Describe the sales model. Is there a new or efficient customer acquisition strategy?
• How long is the sales cycle?
• Who makes the buying decision?
• Is there room for upgrade/expansion revenue?
• Is this business global from day one?
• How will the sales model scale?

Traction

• Describe the traction to date. How did they achieve the traction?
• What are the most important metrics for this business (growth, engagement, conversion, churn)?
• What is the NPS of the product/service? How does the team react to NPS?
• If the product is not yet in the market, why do you think people will love the product and flock to buy it?
• What milestones does the company forecast for 12 months from now?
• Are the current customers early adopters? Why might customers fail to take up the product at scale?

References

• What did we learn from references?

Environmental, Social & Governance factors

• What are the environmental, social or governance elements which might amplify and/or compromise the generational value of this company?

Funding

• What has the company raised prior to this round? Who are the other investors?
• Describe the proposed funding round transaction.
• How will the team use the capital from this round?
• Where will this round get the company? What are the milestones for the next round?'
• What are the future funding requirements?

Transaction

• Type of security.
• Currency.
• Suggested valuation and round size.
• Why is this the right valuation and size?
• How much equity will each Blackbird fund own before and after the round?
• Suggested Blackbird investment.
• Allocation between Blackbird funds.
• Do you expect any interesting terms?

Potential Returns

• What are the potential returns for the fund from this investment?
• What is the return the fund (RTFE) for this company?
• Blackbird forecast: Pick the most applicable financial or business metric and forecast what it will be 1 year from now and then 2 years from now?

Investment Thesis

• Summarise why you really want to do this investment. What's the magic?
• What's the most likely reason this investment might fail?

After the partner pitch meeting, your lead partner will collate any other questions we have into a single doc.

Once these and any other questions are answered, we'll share the document with you. Each member of the partner group will vote on each one of the points above on a scale of 1-7 (1 being completely don’t believe and 7 being complete belief). We then hold an investment committee meeting, review all of the above and reach a final decision about whether we will issue a term sheet or not.