*This article was taken from the May issue of Wired magazine.
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Daniel Waterhouse, 38 (Wellington Partners)
Portfolio includes: Spotify, Livebookings, Qype
Currently investing in: "We are seeing more businesses using the 'freemium' model. We also really like the local area, where local businesses are successfully exploiting the power of the internet."
How to pitch ideas: "Explain what your business delivers quickly -- I want to understand what the end user does and experiences, and why this is a good thing. The first five to ten minutes are critical. And don't leave the [management] team to the end."
**Saul Klein, 39 (Index Ventures)
Portfolio includes:** MOO, AlertMe, LOVEFiLM
Currently investing in: "I find data businesses exciting -- the cost is low for billion-dollar global markets. New ways to aggregate, leverage and analyse data have changed media, telecoms and retail. They will soon change even more basic industries like energy, food and security."
How to pitch ideas: "Show us the product, and if you can't do that, at least show us search data about potential demand for your product. Spreadsheets are not interesting."
Dharmash Mistry, 39 (Balderton Capital)
Portfolio includes: Bebo, MySql, Betfair
Currently investing in: "The next generation of online and mobile payments, the future of entertainment and information -- online and social gaming, web and TV convergence, e-readers."
How to pitch ideas: "Keep it simple, focused and supported by a few facts -- ideally less than 30 minutes. We want to know how strong the entrepreneur is, what is the problem they are uniquely trying to solve, and how big the addressable market is."
Harry Nelis, 46 (Accel Partners)
Portfolio includes: Gameforge, Kayak, Check24
Currently investing in: "We look for companies that have the potential to dominate an initially small market that subsequently experiences explosive growth."
How to pitch ideas: "Cover the basics -- team, problem, solution, business model, competition, financials.
Ideally, you convince your audience that you are solving an important problem in a superior way and that you are one of the few who can do so. Success is agreeing on the next meeting."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
