People can often be won over with a smile, does the same count for investors?

It goes without saying that entrepreneurs make for interesting people to speak to, after all it takes a lot of courage to pack it all in and go it alone.
 
Some of the most successful business builders in the UK are incredibly outspoken and have no problem jumping up onto the soapbox to share their views.
 
However, it is often this persona and magnetism that has allowed them to get as far as they have and build successful businesses and empires.
 
Whether it be the likes of the mercurial Errol Damelin, founder of micro-loan service Wonga, or the forever frowning Dragons’ Den panelist Duncan Bannatyne who has taken his chain of fitness leisure centres across the country, no one can say they aren’t interesting people to observe.
 
The topic of entrepreneurial personality is explored this week in our feature ‘The perfect pitch’ which looks at how best to present oneself when looking for investment.
 
Besides the need to have a solid grasp of the financials and being able to explain what hole in the market a business is going to fill, one of the prevailing themes encountered is that ultimately investors like to back people.
 
Venture capitalists like to meet the odd-ball two person team which has come together bringing with them their contrasting technological and sales skills to create a viable proposition.
 
It is hard to believe that entrepreneurs such as Richard Moross of customised business card venture Moo would have had quite the fundraising success he has had, and become such as cult figure in East London’s Tech City, if he’d been a boring individual.
 
Backers of early stage businesses want to see the personality behind the business. At the end of the day it isn’t them who is going to make a success of the business, it’s the peculiar entrepreneur who hasn’t taken no for an answer.