Pitching to Investors: 11 essential tips

Biggest rookie mistake(s) made by people pitching to investors?

Founders take too long to make the first pitch. Practice the “elevator” pitch. Three minutes. Three key issues. Who we are, what we do, what do we want.

If you present a document to investors do not make it a 40 page Information Memorandum in Word. Make it 20 slides in Powerpoint. Graphics, not text.

You must include your market size (one slide) your financials, your valuation, your use of funds. (all in one slide)

How does a pitch blow you away?

The obvious ones are the short presentations you can find for AirBnB, LinkedIN and Uber.

 The best pitcher I have seen recently is a young founder called Jared Kristensen from Audience Republic, a very smart B2B ticketing platform. A real case of backing the jockey and not the horse. He was smart, concise and understands the sector and key drivers.

In order to pitch to you, I would need to….

Be smart, funny and brief.

Best advice to prospective “pitchers”

Research the people you are meeting to be able to connect personally in 60 seconds. Know where they have worked what they have invested in and do not mention sport or politics or the weather.

A great pitch…..

Is fun, fast and passionate

How many people should be in the “pitch team”?

No more than 2 founders. No sales people. No finance people. No lawyers.

During a pitch, I am really looking at…..

Getting a “yes” to the enter the next stage with the investor; that is sharing more detailed information with them, with a view to securing a deal term sheet.

Ventures/ideas I like best……

Global, B2B, SaaS.

A Pitch deck should be no longer than….

24 pages and take 30 minutes.

Score out of 10 (10 being extremely important) how significant is a well presented, high quality pitch deck?

8

Don’t bother pitching for funds if you….

Still have a “day” job elsewhere and don’t have a product in market

This Blog was first published as an article by PITCHN in March 2017.