Making a Winning Startup Pitch

Hey guys and girls! Let’s talk about how to wow investors and secure a multi-thousand or even a multi-million deal.

Most of us have had an amazing idea dawn on us but no money or resources to bring it to life. Don’t worry, thousands of successful entrepreneurs and innovators start that way. In such a situation, mastering the art of convincing someone to invest a fortune in your idea, equity-free or with equity, is imperative— this is where a startup pitch comes in handy.

The first and most important quality of business pitches is their brevity. Most pitches last between 3-5 minutes. An elevator pitch can run from as little as 30 seconds to as long as 3 minutes. Studies have shown that the average human concentration span is 2.7 minutes—so roughly 3 minutes. Therefore, your goal here is to make yourself and your idea/organization memorable while capturing the interest of your investor/audience in that span of time. A high level of abstraction has to be applied in most business pitches. This means that you have to present only the most important aspects of your business.

Like any other good presentation, research is necessary in order to create the flesh of your performance. To create an impeccable pitch, you have to carry out extensive research on your problem, target customers, competitors, technology being used, financial aspect and everything else that pertains to your business. Having little time to pitch does not allow one to present all of these details. However, good research is helpful during the Q&A session that normally happens immediately after the presentation. Not only does this practice boost your confidence during the presentation, but it also allows investors to develop a level of trust and confidence in you. The level of success of a business is directly related to the dedication of the owner in being well informed about their business. Consulting from more than one source bolsters the quality and amount of information you gather. Consequently, it is advisable to seek information from as many sources as possible including articles, news feeds, interviews, customers and so on.

Making a persuasive yet succinct pitch seems like a daunting task…it is, but not impossible. To deliver an impeccable pitch you have to practice as many times as possible; I’m talking about at least 2 hours every day. It is okay to carry a piece of paper with notes to aid in your presentation, although it is a little unorthodox. Let this be a last resort. That being said, make it your goal to deliver your pitch naturally without referring to a piece of paper, especially if you’re pitching to your audience face-to-face. This is achieved by hours of repeating a presentation over and over while making improvements until it becomes the best pitch you can possibly deliver. Pitch in front of a mirror, in front of your friends, family, your crush (if you have the balls, haha), an imaginary audience, record yourself in videos, audio etc. The point is you have to work on your pitching craft while taking into account both your verbal and non-verbal cues, and revising your presentation to the maximum.

Lastly, have at least one presentation tool with which to engage your audience. This can be a power point presentation (also called a pitch deck), a demonstration, video and more. It is important to understand that your presentation aids do not make the essence of your presentation, rather your pitch does. This is because, your presentation tools may fail to function during the presentation. Say your power point slides fail to project on the screen or there happens to be a blackout or the device you want to demonstrate with fails to work. This shouldn’t be a cause for panic. You can still deliver a successful pitch without the help of your presentation tools and secure a million-dollar deal (ka-ching!). This just goes to reiterate my previous point which is that your pitch must be the best it can possibly be. But of course, if you have an option of using visual aids, which is the case most of the time, do so. Make your presentation aids a complement and not the core of your pitch.

On to my parting-shot. Try to be as relaxed as you can during your pitch to avoid panicking. It’s okay to slip up and forget your pitch in the middle of your presentation; don’t beat yourself up, it happens. Just take a second to breathe and pick up right where you left off. Carry short notes if you have to and remember to practice often. Remember to be polite while you answer questions from your audience, judges or investors. In the next post, we shall get into the details that make a startup pitch.

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#businesspitch #investors #howtosecureadeal