Your startup pitch is everything and knowing how to pitch a startup is essential to your success.
It doesn’t matter how innovative, well thought-out or potentially profitable your product idea is – if you can’t attract investors to your idea, your business will face serious difficulty scaling up and achieving wide-spread success.
Of course, raising capital presents a unique set of challenges that many students struggle with. Your prospective investors aren’t going to just take your word that your business is going flourish; you need to demonstrate to them that investing in your startup is likely to provide them with a good return on their investment and good benefits for society.
Successfully attracting capital requires putting together a strong, compelling pitch that convinces investors to back your startup. As the competition for investors’ attention continues to grow, here are 14 key tips to follow in order to maximize your chance of winning over investors when pitching your startup.
Successfully attracting capital requires putting together a strong, compelling pitch that convinces investors to back your startup. As the competition for investors’ attention continues to grow, here are 14 key tips to follow in order to maximize your chance of winning over investors when pitching your startup.
1. Keep your startup pitch simple
Start out with a brief explanation of your business idea that immediately conveys your vision and purpose. Explain the problem that your startup is attempting to solve and why your business offers the solution.
2. Manage the timing of your startup pitch
Optimizing the time you’re given to present your business pitch is critical. Little else frustrates investors more than a pitch that goes too long; at the same time, you don’t want to waste the time you have by running short. At Startup Forum of MiniBoss Business Schools the time-frame for everu team pitch set by 3min.
3. Tell your startup story
It’s easy to get bogged down in facts, figures, and spreadsheets when making a pitch, but this information will almost always fail to capture your investors’ attention. Rather than approaching the opportunity as a sales pitch, use the occasion to tell your investors the story behind your business - why do you do it.
4. Reading the room.
Know when to tell a joke and when to take things down a more serious path. Creating something that is memorable and uniquely singular to your startup.
5. Stay focused
When developing your pitch, make sure that its core elements are clearly developed and emphasized to avoid getting lost in irrelevant tangents.
When developing your pitch, make sure that its core elements are clearly developed and emphasized to avoid getting lost in irrelevant tangents.
6. Convey the unique value of your startup’s product or service
One key component of winning investors is showing them why your product or service is different from anything else available on the market. Highlighting any patents or licenses that your product has or any significant purchase orders or distribution deals can help support your claims.
7. Let potential investors experience your product first-hand
Another effective way to show investors the distinctive features of your product is to let them see it and experience it first-hand. Pictures or screenshots of your product can help make it more tangible for investors, but if possible, letting your audience actually handle the product or try out a live demo can increase your impact.
8. Be clear on who your target audience is and why
Paint a picture of your ideal customer that will help convince investors that there’s enough of a demand for your startup’s product to justify their involvement.
Use demographic data and psychographic features to pinpoint your target audience. Explain why these individuals are your target audience. Use relevant data points to back up your claims and show the profitability of targeting the specific group.
9. Be grateful and enthusiastic about any startup opportunity
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how well-crafted and professional your pitch is: if you aren’t passionate about your business and aren't grateful with investors won’t be a good parnter either.
10. Make sure you have a strong close
Remember to keep the end in mind as you are telling your startup’s story. The conclusion of your startup pitch should contain a brief, clear summary of your argument as to why investors should put their money in your startup.
11. Build a strong support team
Particularly if your startup has not yet had time to establish a clear successful track record, the strength of the experience and background of your startup’s employees is a key part of convincing investors that you’ll be able to carry out your business plan–especially if your team has prior experience working together on past successful projects. Highlight the successes of your support team and how their individual track records will help bolster your business’ own success.
12. Dress professionally
It may not be completely fair, but how you present yourself will influence how investors perceive your startup. The most polished presentation can be undermined by a sloppy, ill-fitting suit. A relatively small investment made in a new suit can go a long way to establishing your credibility in front of investors and helping you secure the capital your startup needs.
13. Study, study, study & Practice, practice, practice
No matter how well you think you know your business, practicing your presentation and getting feedback from those you trust is an important step in ensuring your pitch is as convincing as it can be.
14. Cooperate with professionals to help you refine your startup pitch and presentation
You may be an expert in your particular business area, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll naturally know how best to pitch your startup to investors. While you certainly need to create the core business idea yourself, hiring a professional to fine-tune your pitch can help you better convey your business to others (for example, a good graphic designer, IT-manager).
GOOD LUCK!
