Tips for Investor (or Corporate)Pitching

Overview

‘ I cant do this …’ is a refrain you hear from many budding entrepreneurs ( and many corporate executives too by the way) being asked to pitch themselves, their product and their vision.

After all public speaking rates above death as one of life's most feared experiences!

But presenting yourself to early stage investors or business partners as having a tool, technology or process  that is so unique and exciting that they will provide you some of their hard earned funds - and share in your dream - is something altogether different.

To do so needs an approach that enables you to give yourself every chance to deliver your story in the most interesting and effective way.

There is such an approach I have learnt over many years and it in comes in three steps:

• Know who you are and what you want to be
• Create a presentation package that allows you to tell your story - consistently - and a thousand times over
• Be able to deliver your story with conviction

Know who you are…

Whether you are asking an investor for funding or asking your corporation to invest in a new product or service you have to know clearly why you are pitching this, what brought you here, why you know this is important and why it is important for the listener to know this.

You also need to be clear on perhaps the two most important aspects of any presentation - what do you want to come out of the presentation and knowing what the audience wants in return. It is the ‘call to action’ for both sides. Without achieving this you can't move to the next stage and won't get the ‘call back’ in acting parlance!

Creating a presentation package

It is especially true for technology or any innovation pitches - but really applies to any disruptive activity - that you need three elements for a continuously available, easily replicable, capability presentation package:

• A slide/video pack that talks to the positioning, capability, uniqueness and business model of the technology, product or service.
• A White Paper that in 500 to 1500 words describes the environment you are in and the problem you are solving and in lay terms how you intend to solve it.
• A Technical White Paper that in 500 to 1500 words describes in ‘light’ detail ie without disclosing any intellectual capital or compromising patents/patent opportunities the technical aspects of your product and what it does( the investor won't read this but he will ask an expert to verify its efficacy and accuracy).

None of the information contained in these three elements is intending to serve any purpose other than to engender interest in a follow up from the target audience and enter into the next stage of detail.

All this information you are providing is more than a ‘teaser’ but it is not everything you know and is much less than an Information Memorandum( IM). An IM is a much more formal and comprehensive investor document that you will get a lot of professional support to generate when you reach that point ( and is outside the scope of this article).

Side bar: You can request interested parties sign a Non Disclosure Agreement at any point. Some investors resist at the early stage and if that is the case you should still present but decide which aspects of your capability you may want to provide less detail on.

What should be in a slide pack?

When you are introducing not only a new product but perhaps an entire new disruptive technology you need to begin at the beginning. You will have to assume that most audiences will have little idea or understanding of what it is you are about to tell them.

Slide 1: Who Are You?

Quickly let people know who you are - and or your key team members - and how you identified this opportunity and what qualifies you to come to this understanding and proposition.

Slide 2: Environment

Help position the audience by telling them what environment you are in e.g. “..we are in the Aged Care sector and we are delivering a low cost medical device solution to Asian elderly communities that remotely monitors an individual's well being’. Describe the size of the aged care market over five years.

Side 3: What is the Problem You are Solving

What problem are you solving in this environment/sector, why this market and why that cannot otherwise be done or  isn't being done today.

Who are your customers and what is the market size and revenue opportunity of your specific capability in this sector.

Slide 4: Why Your Capability Solves This Problem

Describe your capability e.g. “we are a aged care service provider. We have developed a smartphone application linked to an AI cloud based service” and why it is unique and what it offers to your target customer base.

Slide 5: Route(s) to Market

Describe what your exact product, service or technology is and how your propose to take it to a global market - including partnering, distribution or licensing  -  and in particular how you propose to scale it.

Slide 6: Business Model:

Simple. Where and how will your business  generate revenue and cost per unit or service. What are your estimated fixed and recurring costs. So high level revenue in, expenses out, profit and loss over 5 years! You also need to be clear on where the intellectual property is and how you both value it and will protect it.

Slide 7: What do You Want?

Important chart this one - the previous six have led to it so be very clear about:

• what you want in terms of funding, resources, support ,
• how that will allow you to move the business forward, and
• what you will offer in return.

Let the negotiations begin!

Know who you are…

And so back to the beginning. Preparing a cogent, interesting and persuasive package is critical to delivering your message..but it is not as critical as how you actually deliver it. We can't all have Elon Musk or Boris Johnson's skill  so here are some extra tips for the pitch( simple as they may sound):

• Having everything prepared and ready to go to your laptop and know where it is and have it fired up before you start your presentation( before you enter the room even!).
• Rehearse before you get there ( the day before is better!) so you are comfortable with the words you are using, the sequence and how to flick through the fidgety bits if you also are doing a demonstration. Remember Murphy's Law says that if something can go wrong it will go wrong( and it does!).
• Attend with a personal appearance that is audience appropriate.
• Drink plenty of water beforehand - not caffeine - and have water available. Having a dry throat is the first thing to cause a panic in your presentation.Why you should also rehearse - to get you through these moments.
• Talk about what you know and be confident with it. Two things: you are the expert on this subject and secondly they are not. If you forget the words to the song hum a few bars - they won't know the difference.
• Less is more. Make your point and move to the next chart in your pack. Often an audience will wait to till the end to ask questions and if they are a competitive audience they will want to ask their questions afterwards and privately. So the fact they don't seem to be responding is not an issue so don't fill any voids! Get up and get down!
• If they do have questions again just answer the question accurately and succinctly. I have seen presenters shoot themselves in the foot in question time because an answer may create new concerns the investor hadn't thought about before and you can dig yourself in a hole at this point! If you really don't know the answer just say so. Or offer to investigate and respond. But never make stuff up or pretend you know what the answer is. This is a showstopper for personal credibility.
• Be friendly and relaxed but definitely no jokes. This is a meeting about them handing over their money to someone they just met. If it was me I know the sort of character in an entrepreneur I would be looking for.

Thats enough!

You can do this and if only because you can follow some of the tips I have shown you here.

Most of all investors really do want to believe in you and are looking for/sensing your ability to commit and survive the turmoil you are about to enter( this is the bit they are the experts on!).

Be confident but don't be a try hard or over pitch.

Be yourself and demonstrate why you know what you know and why they should now too!

Good luck!

End