For a couple of founders, a pitch is a devil they can't do without for others it is a saint they cannot live without. Whichever category you belong to, a winning pitch desk is critical to getting funding for your startup. At the end of this, you will gain the confidence and clarity to pitch your ideas.

A pitch is a verbal presentation of your business plan to potential investors. A shorter summary of your complete pitch is an elevator pitch. Typically you are asked to present in 1-3 minutes. The odds? You will have a beautiful presentation but a hard time answering questions from attentive investors questioning everything before they put their money into your business, or a bad presentation which is often caused by (not-so-good speaking skills) and good a time answering questions.

This could be because you feel relaxed since it is open-ended and more of a conversation. You can overcome the former by practicing your pitch and sharing your idea with individuals that matter; your cofounder, family, or close associate, the more you talk about your idea the clearer it becomes and the better your sense of judgment and perception.

How to attract investors?

According to Crushbase, early-stage funding’s totaled 210 billion dollars across 8,000 startups in 2021. So right off the bat we know that money is not the problem, convincing investors is and this solely relies on your ability to sell without being sale-sy.

Investment is a crucial part of running a successful startup, it also makes sure you don't belong to the back burner (where startups that fails after a year stays). Investment helps you hire the right team and scale quickly.

A pitch deck is a visual representation of your startup and it should tell a compelling story, highlight market awareness from data and statistics, proper formatting (I have seen founders shows up at pitch session with slides almost impossible to read and distractive colours- this should not be). Include a clear call to action. A rule of thumb is outsourcing your pitch or ensure that texts are properly formatted and avoid too bright and too bold colours that distract.

How to convince investors

  1. Help them see the opportunity in the market speaking too much or grammar could ruin this.
  2. Make sure your idea solves a problem in that market.
  3. Show that you can execute.
  4. Build a strong team.

How to attract investors

  • Research.
  • Offer a competitive ROI.
  • Have a co-founder.
  • Join a startup accelerator.
  • Be keen on networking in the right places.

9 ways to pitch an idea that gets investment

  1. Begin your pitch with a compelling story that addresses the problem you are solving.
  2. Your solution; Keep it short and avoid industry jargon.
  3. Your target market.
  4. Your business models; succinctly narrate how you will make money.
  5. Traction; Static early achievement.
  6. Share your strategies for customer acquisition.
  7. Team: Highlights your team's experience relevant to the business.
  8. Show your exit options.
  9. Keep to time.