u/Constant_Fig_232

I have a lunch booked with a potential investor and would love your guys advice.

I cold messaged an 80+ successful entrepreneur who sold his company back in the 90s, and now owns a group of companies that's bought, developed, and invested in real estate, luxury hotels, franchises, etc. Also a philanthropist and founded some foundations and shares the same interests as me.

We bonded over travel since I'm well traveled and so is he. I brought up I'm building my own company, and he told me to email him any questions or advice I need as well as anything he needs to know as a 'potential investor' and that we'll chat once he's back in the country.

My company is a relatively early stage hardware startup, especially with all the Al and SaaS ones. I actually only just messaged him for advice and mentorship since he's done some work in my space, and didn't see him as an investor at all (other than real estate), but he himself mentioned sending him some info over to look at as a 'potential investor'.

I sent him my company info and questions for advice and he replied, was really nice, and commended me for being a founder and going out there and getting things done as someone in my early 20s. Also gave lots of helpful advice.

I'm flying out to the states for visiting family and he was not too far of a drive away, so I asked if I could meet him for a coffee chat sometime. He instead said let's meet for a nice lunch and blocked his calendar off for 2 hours.

Is there anything I should prepare? I don't want to ask him for money, but rather advice and then if he wants, he can give me money. But im not expecting a cheque. Really looking forward to building a good relationship cuz he said he'd be pleased to make introductions to other successful founders for me.

Any advice would be appreciated :)

I would love to talk to more people in the building but with repairs going on and community board gone, I can't seem to talk to people unless I meet in the elevator lol. Please reach out it you live in this building!

I would love to talk to more people in the building but with repairs going on and community board gone, I can't seem to talk to people unless I meet in the elevator lol. Please reach out it you live in this building!

Im curious, is it typically just off limits or is there something that would make you invest in consumer hardware? I feel like no one wants to invest in this space and that everyone would just rather invest in AI/SaaS no matter if some VCs say they invest in all industries.

I had an inbound investor call from a US VC firm. The guy reached out to me on linkedin (we're a canadian company) wanting to learn more about our startup. We're not raising rn and focused on gaining more traction so we hadnt started reaching out to VCs but took this call cuz why would I reject someone reaching out to me lol.

It was our first call and we knew going in we'd probably bomb it but I think it went okay? We definitely rambled more than we should've and thought it didnt go too well, but at the end of it, they said they'd reach out to us in 3 months to have another call or we can reach out earlier if we get more traction (we knew rn our traction wasn't the best).

They haven't ever invested in our space (we're consumer hardware) so it was interesting seeing they reached out. The guy said he saw my linkedin, looked at my website, thought it was a cool product so wanted to reach out. I'm definitely sad there weren't more meetings immediately set up. But idk, what are your guys thoughts?

Also one of them put a deposit down on our website for our product immediately after the call (he fit our ICP).