How to craft the right forwardable blurb.

SDS 002: Clarifying Forwardable Blurb

Hey! thank you for reading issue 002 of Startup Definition Sunday (SDS).

SDS is the newsletter for founders, bringing you clarity so you can read the startup newsletters in your inbox.

SDS arrives every two weeks (you guessed it) on Sundays.

In every issue you can expect:

• 1 Definition of startup jargon

• 1 actionable tip you can implement right away

• 1 article on Africa tech that you should read

• 1 gift for founders

Let's dive in:

What is a Forwardable Blurb?

Forwardable blurb: short description of a company's highlights that makes it easy to refer fundraising startups to potential investors

Why is having the right blurb necessary?

There is one thing, Africans have always known to be true: the power of the right referral.

The same thing is true for fundraising startups - perhaps even more so. In a continent where there is so much information asymmetry, the right networks is the difference between success and failure in fundraising.

Unfortunately, most advisors, ecosystem stakeholders and investors are meeting hundreds of fundraising startups annually. Unless you have the benefit of the right connections, a forwardable blurb is a focused message that can get investors to take a follow-up call with you.

Most startups I meet don't have a compelling description of their company in an easily shareable way. Over the years working with startups, I have crafted a template for forwardable blurbs that has helped many companies I work with land follow up calls with investors.

What makes the right forwardable blurb?

A great forwardable blurb has 5 elements that makes it stand out:

Request for the Referrer: The first line should be clear to the referrer how to support you. It is a great point to quickly let the referrer know that you have already done the work in making it easy on them to refer your startup.

Brief explanation of the business: Every startup should have a 1 - 2 line description of what the startup actually does. This is not the place to use industry jargon or technical terms. It is always a good idea to write at the reading level of a 10 year-old

The highlights of the business: This is the place to strut your stuff. Let investors know the traction you have reached. Some good examples of traction are revenue, signed contracts, pilots with clear path to commercial, and regulatory changes. Pick the 3 most compelling parts of your traction - any more than that can be distracting.

Founder-Market Fit: In the early stages, success often depends on the capability of the founders in building and selling this solution to customers. Too often team pages in pitch decks are logos of founders' past experiences. The forwardable blurb is a great place to show why this team is the right team to build this solution - has the team done extensive research into the problem? worked in the industry? experienced the problem personally? All of these are great ways to showcase the USP of the team.

Deck and clear CTA: The point of a forwardable blurb is to compel a potential investor to take a follow-up call with the founder. After you have done a great job of setting up the highlights of your company, close out with your pitch deck and contact information so they can reach out to you directly if interested. (Founder tip: Using a pitch deck link allows you to see the backend analytics of which pages investors are spending time on).

Here is a forwardable blurb you can edit as you see fit:

Hey Jasiel, thanks for agreeing to share our fundraise with Joan. Our startup could be a strong fit for their portfolio. I have drafted a note below to make it easy for you to forward. Thank you! - Karla

Startup XYZ is building the fintech layer for beauty and hairdressing shops that source inventory from international suppliers to service their local customers. Our solution meets our customers where they are by digitizing the large distributors that service these shops with the fastest onboarding process in the market.

Since launching 8 months ago we have:

• Signed two multinational hair distributors to a pilot with potential to become multi-million dollar contracts in 2 years

• 100 beauty & hairdressing shops purchasing from our platform

• We have a pipeline of $100M GMV at various stages of agreement

Our founding team has ran pan-African startups with extensive operational and technical experiences. Additionally, we spent 6 months speaking with 1000 beauty and hairdresser shops and distributors in Ghana before building our product giving us unparalleled insight into the market

Here's our teaser deck with more information on our company. We would be happy to chat some more about the opportunity. Here's my email: [email protected]

Cheers,

Karla

If you only read one thing this week, read this...

TechCabal insights released their Q3 2022 "State of Africa Tech Report" (free to download) with data-backed perspectives on startups, innovation and technology in Africa.

My takeaway: As VC funding is slowing, we should expect to see the trend of acquisitions and consolidation in Africa tech continue.

Founder's Corner

As 2023 rolls around, the long shadow of venture funding slowdown is expected to continue. If you're not sure how to find investors, here's a database of investors that have done deals in Africa.

Max and Max have been updating this database since 2019 for deals done in Africa. It's a fraction of the cost of Crunchbase or Pitchbook (Disclaimer: I use it myself).

Thank you for reading to the end of issue 002.

If you enjoyed reading this, you will enjoy following me on twitter. I share daily insights on the Africa tech, startups and gender-lens investing.

Let's chat again in two weeks,

Jasiel