Valuation
How much will they cut my valuation?
Deals close at a median valuation 47% below the ask (from 40% to 50% by stage). Founders give about 2× the equity they planned.
Insights
Answers to founders’ questions, based on 245 pitches. Charts update when the data changes.
Valuation
Valuation
How big an ask is too big?
Asks of EGP 1M or less closed 94% of the time; asks over EGP 10M closed 47%.
Valuation
If I offer less equity, will I end up giving more?
Offers of 5% or less closed 37% and ended at 3.0× the equity; offers of 15–20% closed 85% at 1.75×.
Valuation
Will I get the amount I asked for?
Almost always: in 99% of deals the founder got the full amount or more. The negotiation is about equity.
Valuation
Should I pitch next year’s numbers?
Pitches that quoted projections closed 65% of the time; those that stuck to actual figures, 74%.
Valuation
What revenue multiple do investors pay?
Founders asked for a median 2.5× their yearly revenue; deals closed at 1.0×.
Valuation
What do investors say when the valuation is wrong?
They question how the number was built more than the number itself: projections, multiples and what it is based on.
Investors
Investors
Why do investors go out?
Valuation comes first (105 of 457 exits with a reason), then competition (84) and business model (81).
Investors
How far below my ask will each investor open?
Most regulars open about half below your valuation (median 50%). El Sewedy opens lowest, 60% below.
Investors
What advice do investors give for free?
702 suggestions, mostly on the business model (152), marketing (112) and operations (82).
Investors
What do investors offer besides money?
Contacts (112), space (50), shop shelves and distribution (48), production (40) and mentoring (38). Farouk offered help 109 times.
Investors
Which investor should I pitch to in my industry?
Food: Khalil closed 14 of the 34 pitches he saw. Fashion: Abbas, 9 of 26. Fintech: Sallam made no offer in 8.
Investors
They loved it. Why did they go out?
112 times an investor liked a pitch and still went out: over competition (13), valuation (12), or no clear reason (58).
Investors
What will each investor ask me?
Khalil asks most about operations (23% of his questions). Ghabbour and Mansour ask about margins; Sallam about revenue.
Investors
What makes each investor say yes?
Abbas offers for the founder (29 times), Farouk for operations (13) and growth (11), Khalil for the founder (14) and operations (10).
Investors
Why does each investor go out?
Abbas over valuation (25), Farouk over the business model (22), Sallam over competition (17).
Answering questions
Answering questions
Do clear answers win deals?
Clear answers are about as common with or without a deal (86% vs 82%). Contradictions are not (0.25 vs 0.37 per pitch).
Answering questions
What if they ask the same question twice?
Pitches where no point came up twice closed 84% of the time; with three or more repeats, 46%.
Answering questions
What is the first question?
Product quality opens one pitch in four (62 of 245); revenue (26) and operations (24) follow.
Answering questions
Which questions do founders fumble?
About a quarter of answers on market size and valuation were vague or missing; on company history, 6%.
Answering questions
What does “I don’t know” cost?
After “I don’t know”, investors pushed back 21% of the time; after a direct answer, 7%.
Answering questions
What happens when they ask for a number?
Exact figures came in 54% of answers. Pitches that answered most number questions closed 72%; half or fewer, 53%.
Answering questions
Can I recover from an objection?
An investor who raised one objection went on to offer 16% of the time; one who raised none, 61%.
Answering questions
What will they ask in my industry?
Fashion founders hear most about operations (113 questions in 27 pitches); food founders about the product (160 in 44).
The opening
The opening
What goes in a winning opening?
93% of deals stated the ask in the opening and 86% included numbers. Numbers set deals apart more than the ask does.
The opening
Should I bring the product?
Pitches that handed out samples closed 83% of the time; those with nothing to show, 53%.
The opening
How long will I be in there?
A typical pitch runs 22 minutes on air: 3 for the opening, 11 of questions, 6 of offers and 1 to decide.
The opening
What belongs in the opening?
Deals came more often when the opening had the team (77% vs 59%) or a personal story (75% vs 57%).
The opening
Does my background matter?
Repeat entrepreneurs closed 96% of the time and medical founders 86%; when no background came up, 36%.
The opening
Solo founder or a team?
It makes no clear difference: 69% of solo founders closed a deal, 66% of pairs and 68% of trios.
Negotiation
Negotiation
Does negotiating help?
Founders who closed a deal made 1.3 counter-offers on average. Those who did not made 0.4. Correlation, not cause.
Negotiation
What do founders choose an investor for?
Expertise and wanting several investors (30 mentions each), trust (17) and distribution (11). More money: 2.
Negotiation
Do competing offers get me a better price?
With one or two offers, deals closed a median 50% below the ask. With three or more, 40%.
Negotiation
What does a deal actually look like?
100 of 167 deals were plain equity. 30 tied the terms to targets, 14 added a royalty and 11 a loan.
Negotiation
What happens to founders who say no?
33 founders turned down every offer, mostly over equity (21). The best offer they refused was a median 69% below their ask.
Negotiation
How far should I counter?
Founders countered at a median 1.5× the first offer’s valuation. Half were turned down, but the offer stayed.
Negotiation
Will I end up with more than one investor?
54% of deals had two or more investors. Farouk and Khalil closed 30 deals together.
Negotiation
Who joins someone else’s offer?
87 times an investor joined another’s offer. Khalil did it 27 times, Farouk 21 and Abbas 19.
Negotiation
What do founders do once they have an offer?
Asking for a moment went with deals 86% of the time; naming the investor they wanted, 96%; rejecting an offer, 43%.
Negotiation
How much does negotiating move the price?
51% of deals closed above the first offer. After a counter-offer, the median gain was 17%.
Negotiation
What do pitches with no offer look like?
They asked for more (EGP 40M vs 30M), ran shorter (17 vs 23 minutes) and drew most concerns on valuation.
Negotiation
When does the first offer come?
Around minute 16, about 71% of the way through. 73% of investors who go out do so before any offer.
Negotiation
Why do offers change?
A founder’s counter-offer (97) and an investor joining another’s offer (87) explain 66% of revisions.
Industries
Industries
Which industries get deals?
Food (35 of 44) and fashion (22 of 27) close often. Fintech (1 of 8) and logistics (4 of 11) rarely do.
Industries
Which business models close?
Marketplaces closed 88% of the time (16 pitches), consumer brands 77% and business-to-business sellers 58%.
Industries
What margins do investors want to see?
Founders stated a median 50% gross and 26% net margin. Net margins from 20% to 40% closed 74%; under 20%, 53%.
Industries
Does selling abroad help?
Not on its own: pitches already selling abroad closed 64% of the time; those that mentioned no foreign market, 69%.
Industries
Where do my numbers stand?
The typical pitch came with 5,500 customers, 6,500 units sold, 3 branches, 15 employees and EGP 12M a year in revenue.
Industries
Does the customer I target matter?
Products for children closed 80% of the time; for teenagers, 58%. Upper-middle-income buyers 75%; low-income 55%.
Seasons
Seasons
Are pitches getting longer?
Yes: season 1 pitches ran 15 minutes; in later full seasons 23, with 22 questions instead of 17.
Seasons
Have the investors become easier to deal with?
The median valuation cut fell from 57% in season 1 to 38% in season 5, and offers per pitch rose from 0.9 to 1.9.
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