Last week, I worked with one of my clients to put together an investor pitch. I thought I’d share some best practices based on feedback that was provided by various entrepreneurs and investors.
1. Make sure you are able to describe the “who” or “what” your company is on one slide – in 30 seconds or less. Make sure your audiences gets it right away.
2. Define your customer, their current problems and how your company solves those problems.
3. Identify who your competitors are and how your company has an advantage over the competition.
4. Make it clear as to how you will make money and what you will do with the investment funds (i.e marketing, product development, operational costs, etc.).
5. Explain who your management team is and what their experience has been to date – make it relevant to your business.
6. Provide an executive summary on one page, which highlights the key elements that your potential investors will want to know.
Overall, make sure the presentation is clear, concise and that you stick to around 10 slides. Get to the point early and continue to edit your slides down until there isn’t a lot of “fluff” left over – you can always speak to the fluff instead of having it on the slide.
In addition, here is a video of Guy Kawasaki speaking about what he, as a potential investor, would want to see from a pitch: