What Investors Look For

A hard thing for entrepreneurs is to strip down their presentation and keep it short, said Karina Halstensen Birkelund from Farvatn, as she shared how investors assess early-stage companies.

According to Birkelund, Farvatn’s process always starts with a quick screening — a short exercise using a traffic light classification system to see whether the company fits the investor’s mandate.

She pointed out that Norwegian companies often include too much technical information.

– What investors really need is to understand how it works — not how it’s built. If they want to move forward, there will be time to go into more details later, she said. – Add the information we ask for — but nothing more.

The only real competitive advantage is continuous improvement and development, Karina Halstensen Birkelund.

Karina’s key advice to entrepreneurs

Do your homework:
Do your research before sending your case to investors. It’s a waste of time if it’s outside their mandate. All investors publish their mandates on their websites.

Tailor your message:
Adjust your pitch to the investor’s focus area and make it easy to see the potential fit. If a founder can’t explain clearly and concisely what they are doing, that’s a red flag. Some say you should never invest in a company where the founder can’t do that.

Build a strong team:
The most important part of the screening is having a good team. If you have a good team, most things can be made work — to put it bluntly. But it’s really hard to find out if a team is good, Birkelund stated with a smile.

Solve a real problem:
Farvatn looks for teams that complement each other, share the right mindset, and build scalable business models — with concepts that address real needs, not just interesting ideas.Birkelund also highlighted Noteless, one of Farvatn’s portfolio companies, as an example of a strong value proposition. Noteless uses AI to assist doctors by listening to patient consultations and helping write medical notes.

Part of the ScaleupNow program

Karina’s presentation was part of the first gathering in this year’s ScaleupNow program, where seven Norwegian companies are refining their scaling strategies before heading to Boston for the next phase — a week of workshops and mentoring at MIT’s Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship.

If you would like to learn more about how to join the ScaleupNow or ScaleupNext program, don’t hesitate to contact Owe Hagesæther.