Entrepreneur Resources

1. A Business Plan - to allow us to understand your business model, and the strategy you propose to adopt to take the business to the next level.
2. The detailed financials behind your headline forecasts – to allow us to see the effect any investment raised from our members would have in scaling up the business. These should be in spreadsheet format and include P&L and Cashflow forecasts for a minimum period of 3 years.
3. A copy of the pitch deck you will use during your presentation.
4. Our one-page summary sheet template gives the Screening Committee a quick overview of your offer to our members.

Whilst URL external links to information and websites are useful background, your Business Plan, One Page Summary and detailed Financials should be in pdf or similarly accessible discrete files, for ease of access for potential investors to read.

Please note, we only invest in companies that are UK-domiciled because our members can then claim SEIS / EIS relief on the investment. “Domiciled’ in this context means they must have a presence in the UK i.e., a sales office, manufacturing facilities etc. If you don’t already have EIS, then we need to know if you have achieved advanced clearance from HMRC please.

This information allows each member of the Committee to decide, independently, if they think our members are likely to be interested in investing in your venture. The 5 companies with the highest scores are then invited to attend our next event which may be either ‘live’ or online.

If you are pitching to Angel Investors for the first time, your Accountant, Lawyer, Finance Director or other professional adviser may be able to offer invaluable guidance on the requirements listed above.

Our Pitching Checklist contains some useful guidance for entrepreneurs pitching to DBA. We recommend you read this in advance of submitting your pitch deck.

When you have assembled the above deck, please submit it to contact@dorsetbusinessangels.co.uk. You may also speak to our Director and General Manager Peter Eales on 01305 247202.

Plan submission deadlines

We receive a number of plans to consider for each event and run to a precise schedule. Entrepreneurs must submit their plans to contact@dorsetbusinessangels.co.uk by the latest:

• 1st September 2023 (5pm) for the October 9th 2023 event
• 29th December 2023 (5pm) for the February 5th 2024 event
• 12th April 2024 (5pm) for the 20th May 2024 event
• 23rd August 2024 (5pm) for the 30th September 2024 event
• 18th October 2024 (5pm) for the 25th November 2024 event

Some further guidance:

The main aim of your 10-minute pitch is to arouse the interest of our members in your Company. Frank Guinn, Vice-Chair of DBA and Chairman of our Screening Committee for Business Pitches says:

"From the perspective of Angel Investors looking to invest in your enterprise, the quality and accuracy of the information in your pitch deck, when combined with ‘polished’ delivery skills, is going to have a significant influence on their desire to learn more about your Company, its management, and its products/services.

Having delivered your pitch, the following Q&A session is equally important as it is your final opportunity to get them to proceed into due diligence with you. Remember that most of your audience are running or have run highly successful businesses of their own and will want to be assured that your business is ‘clean’ and is carrying no ‘baggage’ that would put them off, should they proceed to due diligence. Our Pitching Checklist will give you an outline of what you must include in your presentation. Addressing these critical points in advance means that your audience doesn’t have to raise them with you, which in turn allows you to spend more time on answering other important points about your business, they may wish you to clarify for them”.

If one or more of our members then express an interest in your business, you will enter into due diligence with them, where further information about all aspects of the business will be required, leading, hopefully, to an investment. 

We are part of the Government approved UKBAA network and any information disclosed to us is held in strict confidence by our members.

Further reading

The following links will give you additional information on writing a Business Plan – here – and suggestions for the slides you might want to include in your presentation here.