Ashton Kutcher explains how to get him to invest

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• Ashton Kutcher is a prodigious tech investor: He has a
  stake in companies like Uber and Airbnb, and has funded many
  more through his firm Sound Ventures. 
• At TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Kutcher
  explained what it takes for an entrepreneur to pique his
  interest in a pitch meeting.

As an early investor in companies like Uber and Airbnb, Ashton
Kutcher is used to entrepreneurs hitting coming to him, or at
least his firm Sound Ventures, for some investment capital. 

At TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Kutcher explained onstage
the key to piquing his interest — and it largely has to do with
how well an entrepreneur can spin a compelling narrative. 

“One of the critical tests that I try to run when I’m sitting
across from a founder is: Can you sell me your idea?” said
Kutcher.

For Kutcher, the ability to convey a company’s mission determines
whether or not they’ll be able to snag the best talent in a
competitive job market. 

“If you can’t sell me, how are you going to sell your first hire,
your second hire, your third hire?” Kutcher asked. “How are you
going to create the capacity for the rest of your team to sell
those next hires?”

He continued, “For early stage companies, generally the CEO of
the company has to hire the first 40 people … If you’re
competing for the best talent in the world and you can’t sell
your idea to the best talent in the world, how are you going to
get all A players around you to turn this into an explosive
company? If at the end of the conversation [you] can’t sell me to
work for you, how are you going to sell your first 50 employees?”

Kutcher described this ability to tell the story of an early
stage company as integral to its future growth. 

“I think the storytelling piece has to happen,” he said. “You can
refine it and make it better and improve it and figure out how to
communicate it to a consumer over time, but [for] early stage
companies, that person has to do all of those things.”