For Entrepreneurs
For Entrepreneurs
What Do We Invest In?
New Markets invests in Series A, Series B, and restructuring rounds for growth stage education and workforce technology companies with demonstrated efficacy addressing critical gaps in the education and labor markets.
We pursue investments with:
Management teams with a track record of success
Sustainable competitive advantages
Disruptive technologies
High gross margins and scalable business models
Large market opportunities
Strong value proposition with large return on investment to customers
Companies that have referenceable customers and proven solutions
Positive outcome data
Capital efficient operations
Credible exit alternatives
Preparing to Meet with Us
Questions We Ask
These are the key questions we ask of entrepreneurs seeking funding.
- Do you measurably improve human capital outcomes?
- Is the company addressing a major problem preventing economic mobility (e.g. “loss points” within education/workforce journey)?
- Are the company’s solution(s) based on evidence-based research, and/or committed to efficacy, such that the company can achieve and measure scaled impact?
- Does the solution improve outcomes for underserved and historically disadvantaged populations?
- Can the company grow to serve a high percentage of its target population at a national scale, with improved profitability, with a reasonable amount of capital?
- Once scaled, could the company’s solution(s) serve as infrastructure or a platform to catalyze broader systemic change as part of a collective impact ecosystem?
- What is the history of your Company?
- Provide a list of your key accomplishments.
- List the Management track record including successes, broadly defined.
- Describe any important and exceptional skills that the team possesses. Describe the level of industry knowledge and contacts.
- What is your business model? How do you make money?
- What are your specific near and medium term milestones? What is the timing and cost to achieve them?
- What do you do/make? Describe the key product(s) and its features.
- Describe in detail your intellectual property?
- How many man hours went into developing your technology? How much time and money?
- What are the specific barriers to entry? How long/how much money would it take a large competitor to recreate the technology?
- What are your competitive advantages over the competition? What specific product feature addresses the greatest customer need?
- Describe an existing customer. What pain are you solving for them? How large is the problem? What is your value proposition? What is the customer’s ROI?
- Who is the customer (job title)? Do they have budgetary control? Who else is involved in the buying decision?
- What are customers currently using that competes with your product?
- What is the bottom-up size of your most narrowly defined addressable market?
- List all existing customers and a pipeline of potential customers with current status.
- What is the size of your target total available market (top down)?
- What is your distribution strategy?
- What are your immediately adjacent markets?
- Who are your strategic partners and what is your exact relationship with them?
- Who are the buyers of your business? What similar companies have they bought and at what price?
- Show financial projections and detail key drivers/assumptions.
- What are your historical and projected revenues by product and customer?
- What is your funding history? Include a cap table.
More About Us
We Like to Meet Entrepreneurs
While we invest at Series A (generally, when a company is over $2M in revenue), we like to meet founders before they’re raising their Series A – to build a relationship, learn more about the company, and allow them to get to know us. Please do reach out.
