Ryan Daniel Moran (Capitalism.com) explains what entrepreneurs must show to attract investors: (1) personal commitment (‘be bought in’), (2) a clear path to victory (well‑thought strategy and product roadmap), and (3) a strategic advantage (relationships, partnerships, distribution or advisors). He emphasizes building toward something (playing to win) rather than trying to escape a job, and recommends a clear product roadmap targeting a specific customer. He promotes free cliff notes for his book "12 Months to 1 Million" at capitalism.com as a resource to build a seven‑figure plan.
Questions this video answers
(1) Be bought in (personal commitment); (2) Have a clear path to victory (well‑thought strategy/product roadmap); (3) Possess a strategic advantage (partnerships, relationships, distribution).
The book "12 Months to 1 Million" and free cliff notes available at capitalism.com (referred to as the free "then 12" cliff notes).
Chapters
I run an investment fund, which is really a fancy way of saying that I invest in entrepreneurs and I invest in entrepreneurial ideas. What a lot of entrepreneurs don't realize is that there is no lack of money in the world. There's a lack of good entrepreneurs and really good ideas. So one of the members of the 1%, which is 1 of my mentoring communities, asked a great question about what does it take, what does it require to have an idea and to have momentum enough that it would attract an investor? Because she knows that she's got a great idea and she wants to know what else needs to be in place to ensure that I can get the capital that I need to be able to make a splash at this and build a multimillion dollar business. Here's what I told her. One, you have to be bought in. Cause I've already told you it's a good idea. Yes, we already know that there's a market for it. I went and got a job to finance this thing. Good work, good work. So, like, that's a huge step.
Number two, you need to have a clear path to victory. Okay, clear path to victory looks like. So looks like a well thought out strategy. Okay, we're going to launch here, partner with these people, roll out these three products, here's what the market looks like and here's where our strategic advantages. Simple as that. And number three, you need to actually have a strategic advantage. One of the biggest fallacies that entrepreneurs fall into somewhere at the beginning of their career is that they have to figure everything out themselves. They need to be great at operations and sales and hiring and Amazon and the cutting edge stuff and how crypto is going to affect business. And part of the entrepreneur's job is to stay ahead of the curve. But it is not the entrepreneur's job to know everything and to do everything. Instead, that's why we build teams or at least have partnerships or mentorships or relationships with people who can advise us. That's so important, especially at the beginning of a business. And so one of the things that is vital to ensure that a business is worth putting money into or your own time and attention into is do you have a team of people that can support you? And team doesn't necessarily mean employees. And in fact, it often doesn't. It just means do you have the partnerships and the relationships to be able to ensure that you have a strategic advantage? Most strategic advantages do not come from what you know or even your market timing. They come from the relationships that you have. Do you have the Ability to call upon people who can help you get ahead in the marketplace. And when you have a good team in place, almost any project can be successful. A strategic advantage can look like an influencer that you've partnered with, an audience that you've built, an advisor on board who has some sort of distribution in retail. You need to have some sort of edge over everybody else. You have a. You've given 20% of the company to somebody in the 1% who is an absolute Amazon ninja, right? And there's a bunch of those in the 1%. You are not the operator of this business. You don't want to be the operator of this business. Right? You need. So you need to have some relationships with verbal agreements that when you go with this, you're going to bring these people on board. You need to have some sort of strategic advantage that wins in the marketplace. Again, that could be somebody who has huge distribution or a retail presence or is whiz bang on Amazon. And I don't care if you use Amazon or Kickstarter or go retail or build a funnel, I don't care. I just, as an investor, need to see that you have a plan to win and you have a partnership with someone who actually has experience executing that strategy that you've chosen. Okay? So you need to be bought in, you need to have a plan to victory, and you need to have partnerships with people that give you a strategic advantage.
When it comes to money. And whether or not a business deserves money, the entrepreneur has to be playing to win something, has to be playing for something. But a lot of people who get into this game, especially those who are teaching entrepreneurship on YouTube or social media, are often teaching how to get out of something, to get out of your job, to get out of being broke. And of course, there's lots and lots of ways to make money so that you can have a little bit of freedom. But in order to build something that is going to scale and sell, you have to be running towards it, not away from something. When you're trying to build something to quit a job, you're in an avoidant mindset. You're trying to avoid losing money. So you're playing hedge, you're playing scared. Neither I nor any good investor invest in entrepreneurs who are playing tense, who are playing scared. Entrepreneurs have to be building something, creating something, casting visions, moving towards something. And so I told Debbie that in order for her to win and to be ready for capital, she's got to be playing to win at something, not just to leave something behind. You have to actually like what you are doing. And then it doesn't, it doesn't matter to you what these short term results are. And it doesn't matter that you have to work it from 6pm to 10pm five days a week because you actually like it. This is one of those things that like, you don't know until you actually experience it. But I have to tell you anyway, if you do the business that you like, it's the one that will open up doors and make you money the fastest to get you out of the job. But when you're operating from this place of I want to quit my job, tell me what to do in the business to quit my job, you're fucked. And the reason you're fucked is because you start pursuing the short term profit rather than doing the things that are actually meaningful in the business. And that just keeps you in a trap that you never get out of. If you're at the beginning stages of your business, the most important thing that you can do at the very beginning is have a clear product roadmap for that very specific person that your business serves. When you know who, who you serve and what those core few products are going to be, you have the beginning foundation of a plan that can take you to seven figures and beyond. If you want help with that, if you need clarity over who your person is, what your business is going to look like and what that roadmap to seven figures is going to be for you, then I want you to go get the free resources over@capitalism.com then 12. Those are the cliff notes to my book called 12 months to 1 million. This will help you put together a plan for a business that you can grow to seven figures and beyond. And if you want to go further after going through those cliff notes, then we have some other options. Or you can get the book as well. But that's the free place where you can get the Cliff Notes and get the foundation for a 7 figure business that I might want to invest in one day. Thanks for watching this video. If you found value in it, please let me know in the comments and I'll see you on the next video.
