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Any startup needs substantial capital to start its own business. Otherwise, they won’t be able to survive that long until they hit their success. For that reason, entrepreneurs are doing various pitch techniques to win over potential investors’ trust and get sweet capital investment.
Pretty much every entrepreneur knows that, right? But not many knows how they should conduct a business pitch. Not many wins the required investment plan and continue the struggle of a constant fight.
So, how do you succeed in winning the battle of the many? What should you talk about? How to pull yourself together? All of that and even more was explicitly prepared to assist you, young entrepreneur, to understand how you can perform a successful business pitch!
What does “business pitch” mean, and why is it important?
A pitch deck, startup pitch, or “pitch an idea” is a short presentation done by young entrepreneurs for attracting potential investors. The main point of a business pitch is to let your investors know what your business is all about.
Surprisingly, most of the startups think that the main point of pitching is to secure a good amount of funding. Along with prolonging the life of your startup at least for another year. This indeed is one of the final outputs that one can get from a successful business pitch. However, the main goal of any business pitch prepared for initial investors is to make it out to your next meeting.
The most notorious and biggest issue that haunts entrepreneurs during the presentation is that you won’t have time to cover everything about your business. That’s why you need to create a presentation that covers only the most important topics inside a PPT slide deck.
For now, let’s explore what exactly do you need to prepare before conducting the business pitch.
Pitching Essential Points
There are tons of things that should be considered when you are presenting your business idea to the group’s potential investors. Starting from your presentation font size and ending with the sharpened speech. However, we want to highlight three essentials that every entrepreneur should know about and should get right.
Make it Short and Concise
As we mentioned, time is a very limited resource when you need to pitch an idea. Once you start to present your business idea the investors can tell you whether they want to continue on or stop immediately. This happens during the very first 30 seconds when you start the presentation.
Make every second count and make your business pitch short and concise to win the interest of your potential investors. The simpler and faster the pitch is, the easier it is for the investors to understand your business idea. By the time countdown is up, your audience should understand the market need, your solution, and the product’s target audience.
A small entrepreneur tip: make your speech clear and valuable. Don’t throw your business pitch examples on the investor’s desk. Set a flow for your business idea, be bold and simple. Don’t try to tell a story to investors. They’ve lots of them, and they are interested only in the value of your startup.
Highlight your Team
The majority of startups who present their business idea tend to either do it by themselves or with another co-founder. However, what’s missing is to show an inner insight into your team’s value during your startup operations. As it can significantly impact the first impression for your investors.
Try to highlight the key aspects where your team excels and demonstrate how valuable it is for the target audience. For example, say you took along your technical CTO and are describing his work in a few sentences. Avoid sentences like “Bob has developed a new feature that allowed users to open the app faster”. Say: “Yesterday Bob has found a few client reviews that were complaining about the app speed. He immediately rushed and fixed it, which significantly boosted our brand image for our customers.”
All of these small things makes your team look credible and valuable during the presentation. Each comment for each employee will provide a realistic insight into the members’ work and what kind of role do they fulfill. Another thing is, you will affirm your leadership skills and resolve to lead your company.
Light up your own market spot
During the pitching session, you’re going through the market size slide, which identifies the potential market for the product (or TAM). Many entrepreneurs are showing confidence in their eyes when they are saying that they can take over an identified market segment.
It might seem like a very solid decision to actually go ahead with this path many have walked through. However, nearly 95% of space consisting of bigger and stronger companies are occupying this space. Therefore, you need to show something that none has yet encountered, since targeting a broad market is futile for a beginner startup.
The investors are expecting you to show a target market that is very specific for your solution. Which can pick your business ship onto higher tides with slow and constant uplifting. That way, you’ll show the right path of market occupation for your given solution.
We’ve seen the important aspects of a business pitch that you should take note of. Now let’s finally look at the breakdown of your presentation slide.
What should your presentation look like?
You’ve traveled through many startup stages. Now you are wondering: “How should my product pitch deck look like?” and “How do I gain the attention of my investors?”. Listen carefully, as this simple advice may play a good card in your favor.
First, let’s focus on the optimal number of slides on your presentation deck. We suggest having at least 10 pieces. Less and you won’t be interesting. More and you’ll be boring. Number 10 is a good one to portray and present the essential information to your potential investors.
To have a practical demonstration, we’ll demonstrate to you one of the best product pitch deck examples that our startups have shared with us.
The Product Slide
The first slide should present what is your product and its short description. If you want to make it more attractive, add the images of the companies who have tried your product and support it.
The Business Problem
The next slide that should come is the actual problem that your business is trying to solve. You need to state where your business plays a key role in solving identified problems. Who is your target audience and show the demandable level of your topic as of right now. A word of advice, try to use a more simplified example during your presentation, like infographics or bullet points. Highlight your problem and make it feel like it is a big one that requires attention to your target audience. That is a trick to make your investors believe you.
The Solution
Solution slide has to be both simple and constructive, especially if you are developing a digital app. Apart from that, it has to be scalable. That aspect will show the investors that your product won’t be left on the forgotten shelf of yet another store. But it will evolve and envelope into something much more revolutionary.
Try to forge the right moment in the global world when you should present your solution. If you do it early, you’ll be rejected. If you do it late, you’ll be outnumbered.
The Market Size
Third slide focuses on the market sizing of your solution. The territory that you prioritize. Demonstrate the power of your TAM, SAM, and SOM research. Give lots of evidence/citations/reviews to support your claim for the chosen to market size.
The Team
One of the no less important pitch deck slides is the startup team members. It will define who is at the wheel of your business ship and how they are sailing across the ocean. If you are confident in your own team, it’ll be no issue to guarantee your startup growth and win the investment plan. Although, there is a workaround for that situation that JetRuby is trying to bring up and that is the Product Development Strategy Session. Where our experts will assess your idea, your plan, correct your development path and even suggest various enhancements. All of that for free! So, if you are worried about the uncertain results that you might produce, we can guarantee that with us your chances will rapidly increase.
On the other hand, if you are a first-time startup trying to get its funding, it’s quite opposite. When someone invests in a startup like that, they will also invest in the errors and mistakes that may appear on your way unexpectedly.
The Early Adopters
The adopters or better first testers of your new solution who have given their feedback and are supporting your startup. This could be both the big, famous companies or simple user reviews. Both will show that your solution is valuable and is desirable for your target market.
The Competition
The slide above demonstrates one of the best pitch deck slides where your product is being compared to your competitors. Make a diagram or infographics where it simply shows what kind of benefits you have and what others have done. What value do you hold and what others are missing.
It is optional, but you can include the amount of money, which was invested by your competitors. This will give an insight into how much the market is paying and could become your trump card when negotiating for an investment plan.
The Business Model
The business model slide is basically the core slide for your presentation that you must have. It plays a critical piece of your business that you should present in both simple and accurate terms. Here, the group of investors will understand how will you get the revenue from the generated sales and how will your customers pay you. If you put the estimated pricing plan, that will help too.
Anything that can imbue confidence in your business model into the minds and hearts of your investors will be a big bonus. Including the market validation. Which is direct evidence stating that your product is demanded by the market (aka sales as maximum, or client’s reviews as a minimum). If you want to research more on that topic, you can check the materials that can assist you in our article.
The Revenue Projections
The projection’s slide purpose is to let the investors know that their invested money won’t go to waste. To prove that, you need to explain why the investors’ money will attract more customers. Since, before you even asked for an investment your sales were growing slowly. Once you’ll get the right capital amount, your sales will grow rapidly. Since you’ll be spending this capital as fuel for your growth engine (marketing, salespeople, etc.). The diagram from the slide above can be projected from your startup financial model.
The Ask
Obviously that right at the end of your presentation, like the ending credits for your movie, you’ll be asking the investment. Thus, do be very strategic and don’t smash that bold number tag right on the slide. As demonstrated above, put a range between your minimum investment number and the maximum amount as desired. This will allow other firms to have an opportunity to invest in your idea and become a part of your main supporters. Try to gain as many supporters as you can, go with ranges rather than numbers.
To be ultimately prepared for presenting your potential business idea, the JetRuby team highly recommends going through the Design and Discovery Phase. This is a crucial step for any startup beginner. Not to solely prepare for the business pitch, but to develop a solid ground for your launch. Worried that your aimed results won’t be fulfilled? That’s not an issue, since JetRuby has successfully launched lots of other startup projects that are continuing to grow and scale! Go ahead and see how we can assist you with your project!
In addition to the highlighted slides, don’t forget to come early for your meeting. At least 5 minutes earlier than your investors. Come a bit later, then forget about winning investment for your product. If the meeting is going to be conducted online, email your slides 10 minutes before the actual presentation. That way the chances of your meeting being canceled are low. It might be stupid to say this but be prepared with a physical backup of your slides version. Since these days, you don’t know what to expect from the investors.
Final Words
All in all, the key for a successful business pitch is to be straight with investors and tell a clear vision of your company. Use the allocated time for your presentation to wisely deliver the major value of your product.
JetRuby has extensive experience with a vast number of projects completed in various business industries. If you need to implement your idea within a concrete time and a limited budget, we can assist you with that. That’s why we help young businesses to connect both the business part of their company and the technical one, providing a bulletproof foundation! See what we can offer you with the Product Development Strategy Session and how you can benefit from us!
Be ready to answer some hardcore questions from startup veterans. Since they have passed through difficult times, they do know what is a success. So try to expand their vision with how your business can become part of their own successful chapter of their own book.
If you have succeeded in pitching your business idea and securing your first investment plan, congratulations! Your next step is to place your neat idea plan into the hands of a confident and strong technical partner.
