Six things you must do to deliver a more impactful investor pitch.

Over the past four weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to work with 36 companies preparing their pitches as part of InterTradeIreland’s Seedcorn Investor Readiness Competition. It is a role that I view as a privilege, being able to help businesses on the next step of their growth journey.

36 pitches is a lot in short space of time, but it gives me the opportunity to see different businesses, different sectors and very different propositions and to be able to identify some of the reoccurring shortcomings when it comes to making the killer pitch.

A good business does not automatically make a good pitch. You may know your product inside out. You may have spent years developing it. You may have a great team, impressive technology, customers and ambitious plans for growth. But the investor needs to understand all of that — quickly.

So, after 36 pitches, here are the things I find myself saying most often.

1. Don’t make the investor wait

Get to the point.

Introduce yourself and the business. Tell the investor how much you are looking to raise and briefly signpost where you are taking them over the next 10 minutes. And bring your team in early.

Who is behind the business? What relevant experience and expertise do you have? Why should the investor have confidence that this is the team that can deliver? 

You don't need everyone's life story. A few relevant points can establish credibility very quickly.

Too many pitches make the investor wait for this information. The ask appears halfway through the presentation and the team arrives near the end.

2. State what problem you are solving – once.

You need to make the problem clear, but you don't need to keep proving it. This has probably been one of my most repeated pieces of feedback over the past few weeks.

Presenters are understandably passionate about the problem they are solving. But spending four or five minutes explaining it can leave too little time for the part the investor really needs to hear.

What is your solution? Does it work? Who is buying it? What have you achieved? How big could this become?

Give the problem enough time to land. Then move on.

3. Don’t give me a tour of your product

This is an easy trap to fall into. You know every feature of your product and understandably want to show what it can do. But the investor doesn't necessarily need that level of detail.

Sometimes one good example, a short demonstration or a simple customer story will communicate far more than several slides explaining how something works.

Ask yourself:

What does the investor need to understand about the product to believe in the business?

That's very different from telling them everything the product can do.

4. Bring your strongest evidence forward

If you already have customers, tell me. If sales are growing, tell me. If you’ve completed a successful trial, secured an important contract or have customers coming back, don’t bury that information towards the end of the presentation.

Evidence gives weight to what you are saying.

Think about the information that makes someone sit up and take notice. If you’ve achieved something impressive, don’t make the investor wait until slide 15 to hear it.

Your strongest evidence deserves to be heard.

5. Treat every slide like a billboard

This is probably the analogy I've used most often over the past four weeks.

Can I look at your slide for three or four seconds and understand what you want me to know?

If I can't, there is probably too much on it. A slide is there to support you, not compete with you. If I'm reading paragraphs, studying a complicated diagram or trying to decipher a spreadsheet, I'm no longer listening to you.

And think carefully about your headings. “Market Opportunity” tells me the subject of the slide. A heading that tells me the size or significance of that opportunity gives me the message.

Don't just tell me what the slide is about. Tell me what you want me to remember.

6. If you are running out of time, don't speak faster

Speaking faster isn't the answer to having too much content. If you consistently overrun, something needs to come out. I've seen presenters spend too much time on the problem and product and then have to rush through customers, growth plans, financials and the investment opportunity. Those may be some of the most important parts of the pitch.

Work out what the investor needs to hear rather than everything you would like to tell them.

So, what should the investor remember?

A strong investor pitch isn't about showing how much you know. It's about making it easy for someone else to understand the opportunity.

By the end of the presentation, the investor should be clear about:

What problem are you solving?

What is your solution?

What evidence do you have that it works?

What is the opportunity?

Why are you the right team?

What are you asking for?

What will the investment enable you to achieve?

And perhaps the simplest test of all:

If the investor walked out of the room and had to explain your business to someone else in 30 seconds, what would you want them to say?

If that isn't clear, your pitch probably isn't finished yet.