Pitching for new investment is a chance to go to the next level and for early-stage startups, scaleups and larger SMEs, success hinges on getting it right.
So, what does it take to produce a standout pitch?
When you arrive on stage, you should be primed to deliver a clear, lean, enticing pitch. The ‘how to prepare for your Dragon’s Den pitch’ workshop held in Brussels earlier this year, at the European Innovation Council Summit, offered tools to help.
In this article, I present the workshop’s ‘six tools to elevate your pitch’, and want to thank and credit: Eleonore Venin, Volker Hirsch and Jose Martinez, for agreeing to us sharing this content.
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Six tools to elevate your pitch:
- 1: Pitch in investors’ language
Work on framing your pitch, and remember, you control the narrative, so be a good guide of your storyline, then adapt it to an investor’s perspective, and into the VC’s investing framework.
Spend time learning about portfolio construction, risk and return. The creators of the workshop also recommended this book.
Find out about the people you’re pitching to and their portfolio priorities. Analyse: who decides what, when, and how? Do some deskwork, get on Google, find out the details of the fund size, vintage, stage, and also ask: “Do you actively deploy capital right now?”
They invest in the plan – so make it credible.
Define your approach. Will you use a ‘Top Down’ approach based on achieving a percentage of market share, or a ‘Bottom Up’ approach multiplying price by number of units sold?
Look at your expected sales segmentation. Consider which geographies, industries, sectors you will focus on and start to build a plan based on this. Make educated projections about how you expect sales in each area to look and use a spreadsheet to start visualising this plan, for example: in Swizerland, we expect to sell X units in X months into the X sector. Once you have made these projections for each of your areas of sales focus, you can start to estimate annual costs and revenues and build a credible plan.
The frontline leader has such a crucial role to play. So be very careful in choosing who makes the pitches. Make sure they reflect the strength of the team and inspire confidence, commitment and determination. And keep in mind: the team’s skills that brought you to this point may not be the team you need for the next stage. Show the projected evolution of the governance and the team.
- 4: Product: Show me the hook
Be careful to balance the content of your pitch correctly. For example, if you have five minutes to pitch, make sure that you don’t spend all of it talking about the technology. Keep this detail to around a minute and ensure that you give a holistic impression of your business in the time you have. Remember that the objective is to inspire them, and to leave them wanting more.
- 5: Competition: use it to set the landscape
The competition element is a vital part of any pitch and people often make mistakes here. They can fall into the trap of suggesting that there is no competition at all, or may also just forget to reference it at all. But just remember, this section is a huge opportunity to lay out the landscape and show what you know. Use it to talk about the market dynamics, as well as your tech differentiators and future developments.
And turn it into the slide that lays out your vision!
Make a consistent request for the amount you want, based on facts and figures, and built on a sound strategic plan that is relevant to your industry sector.
Make it a reasonable, clear and well-thought out request that will achieve your plan. Stick to your request and don’t get drawn into negotiations in your initial pitch – these discussions can take place later. It’s also good to distill in a ‘one-line shot’ what it is you want.
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