Developing a sustainable value proposition for effective investor communication

This presentation describes a tool for developing a convincing value proposition for investors, one that is explicitly connected to the SDGs. The tool is specifically developed for deep-tech venture teams that are facing extremely long product development times and thus require substantial amounts of investment capital long before the first customer can be served. This tool extends and integrates various existing tools, such as the Value Proposition Canvas, Theory of Change, and KPIs. Schutselaars et al. (2023), “Designing and testing a tool that connects the value proposition of deep-tech ventures to SDGs”, published in Designs (vol. 7, article nr 50) describe how this tool was designed and tested; see: https://doi.org/10.3390/designs702005

Developing a sustainable value proposition for effective investor communication

This presentation describes a tool for developing a convincing value proposition for investors, one that is explicitly connected to the SDGs. The tool is specifically developed for deep-tech venture teams that are facing extremely long product development times and thus require substantial amounts of investment capital long before the first customer can be served. This tool extends and integrates various existing tools, such as the Value Proposition Canvas, Theory of Change, and KPIs. Schutselaars et al. (2023), “Designing and testing a tool that connects the value proposition of deep-tech ventures to SDGs”, published in Designs (vol. 7, article nr 50) describe how this tool was designed and tested; see: https://doi.org/10.3390/designs702005

Designing and testing a tool that connects the value proposition of deep-tech ventures to SDGs

Deep-tech startups have enormous potential to solve major societal challenges, but their failure rates are quite high (above 90%). In this respect, deep-tech systems and products have long development times and thus require substantial amounts of investment capital long before the first customer can be served. Moreover, potential investors increasingly expect that the value proposition of a deep-tech venture has a clear sustainability dimension. We therefore designed a tool that serves to develop a convincing value proposition for investors, one that is explicitly connected to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. We adopted a design science approach to develop and test this tool in the context of a deep-tech venture builder located in the Netherlands. The final tool arising from this study extends and integrates various existing tools with an explicit connection to the SDGs. As such, this tool enables deep-tech entrepreneurs to develop a value proposition that is more likely to attract early-stage investors