How to pitch your perfect pitch

The four core elements of a strong pitch for your start-up idea

In any business, you must prepare and continuously maintain a disciplined schedule to keep up with your competition. This also applies when you are doing your pitch on your start-up idea to potential investors.

If you have ever been drafted to the British Army you have been thought what is generally referred to as the “7 Ps”.

"Proper Planning and Preparation
Prevents Piss Poor Performance”

Basically, it goes without saying, that the same rule can be applied for your pitch. Pitching to investors is probably one of the most nerve-wracking parts of being an entrepreneur. This is true whether you’re raising your first angel round or you’re a seasoned pro looking for series A or venture capital.

For approximately 45 minutes, you put yourself and business out there to be scrutinized from every angle and appraised for monetary value. And those 45 minutes can mean the difference between a successful startup launch and a business idea that never gets off the ground. Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

As an advisor to a number of start-ups, scale-ups and corporates I have seen a lot of pitches. Some good. Some not so good.

Therefore, I have tried to collect what I believe are the fundamentals in pulling together a strong pitch. I have focused on 4 core elements, which in my opinion are essential to master.

1. What makes a good value proposition?

2. What are the investors looking for?

3. How to write your pitch?

4. How to pitch your pitch?

1. What makes a good value proposition?

A good value proposition is in essence what defines all the benefits of your product. In order to have a good product (or service), you must address a key problem that you are trying to solve. A problem that is a major pain for the potential customer. 

Without a pain, it doesn’t matter if you have a solution. You need a pain, that you can rewrite as a concrete problem your product will solve for the customer. Then you have a strong value proposition. 

There are many ways to go about how to flesh out the problem you are trying to solve, but it always starts with a profound understanding of the real-life pains you are addressing. I have used the Value Proposition Canvas many times over the years, which is a good framework to work with a team and/or the customer to flesh out what the pains are. But there are a multiple of ways to do this. That is not the point here.

The point is you need to understand what the customer’s pains are.

When you have a clear picture of this – and who the customer will be – it should be fairly easy to write down your value proposition. In short, a good value proposition

• Identifies all the benefits your product offers.

• Describes what makes these benefits valuable.

• Identifies your customer's main problem.

• Connects this value to your buyer's problem.

• Differentiates yourself as the preferred provider of this value.

Naturally, the value proposition needs to be clear and easy to understand, and as your “elevator pitch” possible to deliver in 30 seconds. To test this, try writing down your value proposition, and test it on as many as possible before pitching to potential investors.

2. What are the investors looking for?

Once you have fleshed out the value proposition of your company, you are ready to build the complete story for your pitch.

But before we do that, let’s look at what the typically criteria VCs are looking for when being pitched for.

• Value proposition. – Yes, one of the key elements at top of the list is if the company addresses a clear problem and offers a significantly better solution than what’s available today.

• Vision – What is the long-term play at stake. Will the pain remain in the (near) future and thus continue to of value to potential customers?

• Timing – Is the market and customers ready for the product and/or service now? Timing is everything.

• Attractive market – Is there an attractive market that we can address given the competitive situation, entry barriers etc?

• Revenue model – What are the current and future revenue streams, and what is required to accelerate these

• Scalability – Does the business scale?

• Team – Does the team have the right competences and motivations (skill and will)?

You don’t need to ace all of the above, but you need to have a point-of-view on your strengths and weaknesses.

3. How to write your pitch

Think of your deck like a visual business plan. Your objective is to illustrate your value proposition, market knowledge, business model and team qualifications.

The best pitches are short, well-structured and to the point. They don’t dwell on the details, but they do provide the overview. A fine and difficult balance to strike. The most common mistake made by newcomers: Providing too much detail, too soon.

 Do:

• Use large fonts

• Structure your presentation (e.g. problem, solution, team)

• Use a consistent format (colors, fonts etc.)

 Don’t:

• Go too much into details…

• Include unsubstantiated growth projections

• Inflate your capabilities

I normally follow this little cookbook:

A standard deck consists of 12 to 15 slides. Draft the structure up front and build your storyline around it. You might have a “long” version in your own drawer, but that is not for sharing up front.

4.     How to pitch your pitch

Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

You need to prepare for the pitch. And you need to learn. The second pitch if probably going much smoother than the first.

Just a top-of-mind checklist for your preparations.

• Know the audience - Read up on who you are pitching to– do they know your industry, what is their focus areas, and who are you actually meeting with?

• Story - The point of a pitch is to inspire and excite, not put people to sleep. But that can be difficult to do when so much of a pitch focuses on numerical data, trends, and forecasting. What is your story and narrative – something they will remember.

• Details – As already mentioned, the more clearly and more frequently you can present this data, the more confident the investor will be in a decision to partner with your business and finance its operations. Don’t kill the audience by detailed PowerPoints.

• Be specific – Have a plan for what the ask is for your meeting. Is it an introduction to others, an investment or just plain feedback? Be specific.

• Rehearse – It is all about communication. Yes, the content needs to be in place but if you do not rehearse how you and your team will deliver the communication, forget about it. Write down your “voice-over” for the slides – who is saying what when….and how?

Good luck with your pitch – and remember what good old Winston C. once said.

Success is going from failure to 
failure without loss of enthusiasm

Winston Churchill