Stressing about your startup pitch? We’ve got you covered. These 5 crucial tips will help you win over investors and get your startup up and going.
The success of your startup is directly connected to your persuasion skills. In other words, your startup can sink or swim based on the quality of your pitch. If you can’t attract investors, it’s likely that you will have trouble attracting customers, too. This happens either because your startup idea is not feasible or because your pitch is poorly crafted.
If you’re suffering from a case of the latter, here are some of our top tips to increase your chances of attracting investments:
Practice assertiveness
One of the main characteristics that a presentation of this style must-have is assertiveness. With the right attitude and stance, you will be attracting the attention of a large number of investors. Therefore, it is important to avoid details and unnecessary bits of information that are not interesting.
The beginning of a presentation is the most important moment that will determine success or failure. Also, you should not worry, as there will be time to continue deepening your idea.
So, every presentation should be a combination of conviction and attraction. To do this, it is advisable to study and analyse other startup pitches, such as those in Shark Tank. Examine how the experts react in the first 30 seconds. In this short period, investors will determine whether they are interested in and attracted to the idea you are presenting.
Estelle Liotard, a custom dissertation writing service provider, says that “writing an investor pitch is truly a new art form. It’s a combination of many different skills, and it really takes a lot of effort to get it right.”
Along with that, you also don’t include all the information at the beginning. You should only comment on the most attractive and convincing points of your idea. In this way, you will be able to arouse interest so that investors will want to know more.
Detecting the target market correctly
Every investor will wonder exactly what the target market is for your startup pitch. That’s why you’ll need to identify exactly who you will market to. It is also important to keep in mind that these investors analyse how big and how much potential that market is.
A lot of ideas don’t succeed when they can’t detect exactly who the product is aimed at. So, you need to describe what the main characteristics of the people who will buy the product are. However, that is not the end of the matter.
Next to that, you must determine the best way to implement your idea. At this point, you should consider that all investors want to decrease costs and, at the same time, increase the rate of return. In this case, a difficult procedure to carry out your idea is not desirable.
In turn, you should include this information at the beginning of your presentation. While it is not a matter of giving all the information at the beginning, this does not include the main information. You should leave the more secondary aspects for later. Therefore, the implementation of your idea is the main piece of information.
Strengthen the team
The vast majority of the best, most profitable ideas are not carried out by one person. Instead, there is always a team of experts. Therefore, you can take advantage of the skills of your team to improve your presentation.
On the one hand, it is a matter of consulting each member of your team to optimise your presentation to investors. In this case, it is a matter of each one of them providing their best opinion about the topics they handle best.
On the other hand, it is recommended that you mention your team during the presentation. When you endorse your team members in the right way, you are giving a strong message to investors. Each investor will be able to detect the good functioning and performance of the team.
Also, this is essential and ensures an excellent return on investment for those investors who listen to you. On the contrary, a disorganised team cannot show the necessary confidence to achieve the best success.
Proper preparation of the presentation tools
You should study efficiently which audiovisual elements you will rely on. The main objective at this point is to avoid the embarrassing technological errors of the moment. So, if you use a website that does not work properly, you will be negatively impacting the overall impression of the presentation.
So, financiers listen to a lot of presentations all the time. In turn, a lot of these presentations are really good or have something positive about them. Therefore, a minor error, in this case, is reason enough to discard your idea. Of course, it is efficient to hold on to pictures and videos, but you must know how to do it.
One of the most efficient ways is to have a formal presentation of your idea in video format. When you present your product in a video, you can add a voiceover for more professionalism.
Another classic way is to have a slideshow with text and images. So, the best presentations will be those that do not lose the attention of investors at any time. So, it should be an interesting dynamic process and not a long one.
Don’t just ask for the exact money
Perhaps the most important factor for a successful launch is funding. In turn, every presentation has a negotiating aspect generally. On the other hand, there are always certain contingencies that you will need to take into account in the final amount.
That is why it is advisable to ask for exactly twice the money you need. So you will be able to cover all the expenses you might need. Also, you will have the possibility of solving each of the contingencies that arise over time.
Conclusion
Creating an awesome startup pitch is not easy. If you’re an expert in what you do and you believe in your idea, but you don’t have the writing and presentation skills, it’s smart to consider outsourcing this part of the work to experts.
Always set aside enough time for creating a pitch. Don’t rush it and don’t be satisfied until it’s A-grade. Unlike many other things, this really is a part of the business where perfectionism pays out.
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