To truly win the favor of venture capitalists, entrepreneurs need to examine their business from the investor’s perspective.

Instead of diving straight into your team background, business model, or target market, you should begin by answering the three core questions VCs care about most:

“Why is this project suitable for the VC model?”

“Why now?”

“Why you?”

Once these three questions are answered with clarity and conviction, you can then move on to the “how” — your development roadmap, execution strategy, and resource allocation. Finally, you should present a clear funding request and plan.

While many businesses in the market are generating revenue — some even profitable — that doesn’t automatically make them suitable for the venture capital model, which thrives on high-risk, high-return opportunities. When evaluating a pitch, we start by asking ourselves:

“Why is this project a fit for venture capital?”

VCs invest in the future. We look for businesses with exponential growth potential. Our evaluation usually focuses on three key dimensions:

1. Is there a sufficiently large and accessible market?

A “large market” doesn’t always mean an entrepreneur can capture it.

Take solar or battery sectors as examples. The overall market size may be huge, but if your innovation only addresses a narrow sub-segment due to limitations in performance, cost, or technological path, the real addressable market may be much smaller. It’s far more important to clearly define your commercially addressable market than to cite the size of the entire industry.

2. Is this industry a good business?

Potential ≠ Profitability.

Some recycling technologies, for instance, have undeniable environmental value. But if the value chain is dominated by powerful suppliers and customers, and pricing remains unstable, it can be nearly impossible to build a scalable and profitable business model. VCs prefer ventures that can establish a healthy and sustainable commercial loop.

3. Does the company have a strong unique selling proposition (USP)?

In large and mature markets, competition is intense. Without a clear differentiation, it’s hard for a startup to stand out among industry giants.

Truly competitive startups often have a technological, product, or service-based moat that enables them to build barriers in a niche and even define new standards.

If a business has a large enough market and a sound business model, the next question we ask is:

“Why now — and not earlier or later?”

This question is about identifying the inflection point for the industry or the company.

This inflection could stem from external factors — policy shifts, technological breakthroughs, market restructuring, or macroeconomic and geopolitical forces. Or it could come from within the company — product readiness, early customer validation, or a business model that is just beginning to scale.

For example, advances in AI are reshaping material R&D, data infrastructure, and energy systems. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions are accelerating global supply chain restructuring, opening historic windows for domestic substitution and regional innovation.

Even great companies can be lost to the market if they miss the right timing.

Once we’ve verified the feasibility of the business model, the size of the market, and the timing of entry, the next VC question is:

“Why you?”

This is your chance to showcase your team.

Make your team shine — tell your startup story, your motivations, backgrounds, and unique capabilities, and explain how they align with your USP.

Once VCs believe you’re solving the right problem, at the right time, with the right team — you can confidently move into the next layer of detail:

“How will you execute this plan?”

This is the heart of your business roadmap. It should cover:

• Technology development plan: What is your current Technology Readiness Level (TRL)? What is the target TRL, and what steps will you take to reach it?

• Scale-up and cost-reduction strategy: How will you increase capacity and optimize processes to achieve sustainable improvements in cost and margins?

• Go-to-market strategy: Who are your pilot customers? Who might be your first large-scale adopters? How will you bridge the “growth chasm” from 20 million to 100 million in revenue?

• Manufacturing and distribution model: Will you build your own facilities, outsource production, or form joint ventures? How will you build and scale your distribution channels?

Once you’ve clearly laid out the “what” and the “how,” the final step is your funding request:

• How much capital are you raising?

• What key milestones will this funding help you achieve?

As for due diligence materials, don’t overwhelm VCs with excessive data at an early stage. Beyond the basic company information, focus on materials that support your answers to “why this,” “why now,” and “why you.”

The more thorough your preparation, the faster you’ll receive meaningful feedback and move your fundraising process forward.