The Art of Convincing Investors; A qualitative study on how entrepreneurs convince investors to provide funding when being in a position of financial dependence.

Sammanfattning: This thesis explains how entrepreneurs in Stockholm, with personal skills and strategies, convince investors to provide funding. Ten semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs who all have received funding serves as the basis for this qualitative study. The theoretical framework consists of The Resource Dependence Theory and Cialdini's Theory of Influence. Alternation between collection of empirical data, theory application, and analysis is used to understand how entrepreneurs can persuade investors when being financially dependent. The findings demonstrate the importance of: Successful personal skills: being an effective communicator; being empathetic; and being trustworthy and honest. Successful strategies: reaching out to many investors; being introduced by someone familiar to the investor; not explicitly revealing financial desperation; creating a vision of future success, uniqueness and a common goal; and acting on the investors' flock mentality. This study serves as guidance for entrepreneurs seeking funding by illustrating examples of personal skills and strategies proven successful, and how those are enacted in practice, when convincing investors. Additionally, as this study takes the entrepreneur's perspective, it serves as a complement to previous research which is currently dominated by the investors' point of view.