How do you differentiate your pitch?

-Find the ones who have invested in similar industries If this is your first round, find investors who invest in angel or seed rounds -Research which product stage mostly they invest in (beta/GA). -Based on that pitch those investors.

Once you have found the VCs that have invested in similar industries, also check out: - They have an active fund they are investing from (so you don't waste time chasing a VC that cannot invest) - Check the fund size and make sure to have your market size and metrics relevant for them - in other words, if you cannot show market big enough for your potential exit, relevant to the fund you are talking about, this can lead into a no before you even get to talk about your solution - Be focus on who you reach out and even better, have a targeted list of VCs ready before you officially launch your investment round.

You can only differentiate your pitch from others when you know what differentiates you from your competitors. So ask yourself the questions: - What is the strength of our team, skills, backgrounds, and approach? Why do you think that is?-> pitch it. - What is the weakness of our team, skills, backgrounds, and approach? Why do you think that is? -> If there is something important for you, but you are weak at it, strengthen it and make it a part of your pitch. If it is not important, don't throw resources on it, better improve your strengths further to differentiate yourself even more from your competitors. It is enough to have "only" 3-5 USPs. Focus on them, and don't be afraid to point them out repeatedly in your pitch.

Dont just know your audience, pitching to right investor or VC interested in your field, sector, etc is also important. Mostly, the VCs do mention on their website which all sectors have they invested in before or are they sector agnostic. If you pitch a proptech solution to a VC looking to invest in hard tech product, you have less chances of getting through.

Always a good idea is: -Avoid any description that includes, bigger, faster, better, and similar. -Share what you believe is wrong with the current state of things and why you think it works. -Forget about the "problem" and focus on JTBD. -Invest in having a well-designed deck. It creates a great representation of "how your company do things" -Triple-check your numbers.

All the above are good and what is great is VC today are not just looking for a good story with projections and probabilities but rather profits regardless of size to show proof of concept. So as much as you can do the due diligence 1) first impression counts 2) don't look to get funded but rather focus on visibility while you build your credibility. Visibility + Credibility = Profitability 3) traction vs momentum 4) most pitches are logical and visual. Try to include other elements like emotional and physical... 5) Don't go wide and join all incubators and accelerators you can join bur rather be strategic and go deep to build connections

The VC will generally not take a meeting with you (by zoom, most likely) if your pitch is not in her area. Besides area, there are other aspects of the VC that you would benefit by knowing. Does the VC like to take on market risk or technical risk? Does the VC take a quantitative approach to valuation, or is a "large" market with a good story enough? What size is the fund -- the VC will want the possibility of returning the fund with her investment in your startup, so your potential returns dictate what size VC fund you should be pitching.

No Please... This is not shark tank. Do not be dramatic about your pitch. Just be straight and clear about your vision. At best you can be like "Just Imagine if XX Problem can be solved... it would result in XX saving, XX effectiveness, XX productivity, etc" Do not drag your passion and vision into a theatrical play. Be mindful of the fact that these VCs are going through 1000s of pitches everyday.

Depending on time allotted stories can have adverse effect because of culture, experiences, understanding... unless you show a short and simple video with a clear message. In any case, do these first before pitching your story is both an art and science. 1) can you eradicate a big global problem 2) read Don Miller book on "Building a story brand" and "Pitch Anything" by Oren Klaff 3) Practice does not make perfect, it becomes permanent

As someone who sees a ton of pitches, crafting a compelling narrative matters (it's the mechanism to covey the information in an interesting way). This narrative should not only succinctly present the core problem at hand but also clearly convey why you are uniquely positioned to solve it. For those beyond the Seed or Series A stage, the focus shifts towards tangible aspects—the current state of the business, its near-term trajectory, and the vision for the future. The ability to masterfully tell the story of your business is important but the "meat and potatoes" the tech, the business model, the metrics need to be there to back it up.

“The most powerful person in the world is the storyteller" - Steve Jobs In my last startup, I pitched to over 400 investors, but it took me a while to realize just how powerful storytelling is. That is because stories add a personal dimension to your pitch that is otherwise difficult to communicate. More importantly, stories make you more relatable, so it's easier for investors to empathize with the problem that you experienced, and how your startup plans to solve it.

It's always ALL about the story. I find the Feynman Technique for storytelling a wonderful and time-tested way to go about it, so here are the 5 steps: 1) Choose a story you want to tell. 2) Identify the key elements of the story: the characters, setting, plot, and theme. 3) Explain the story to yourself in a simple way, using analogies and examples. 4) Fill in any gaps in your knowledge. 5) Practice telling the story out loud, paying attention to your pacing, tone, and body language. I've seen companies "make it" with a very good story and story teller and not very compelling value prop; on the flipside, I can't remember a good example where there was a great value prop but lousy story/telling.

>Why have you picked this idea and which founder is domain expertise in that area? >Mention who is the technical founder in the team ? one who is responsible to write codes. >Who are your competitors? What do you understand about your business that they don't? >What is your cost of customer acquisition or projection? >Revenue projections

It depends how you tell your story. I see some skepticism around storytelling, but the reality is that sometimes your story isn’t storytelling. That’s why it doesn’t work. The ideal recipe is personal + struggling + emotional + a little sense of humor + clear & structured. VCs don’t invest only in products anymore, they invest in people and teams.

A clear vision and a pathway to get there and a call to action - an investor needs to be confident that you are the one to reach the goal, walk the path with all its forks and are able to take the necessary hard decisiions and ACT to bring it all together.

You want your pitch to clearly convey your message without being boring. Start with something unexpected or funny related to your work to wake up your audience. Explain how it's linked to your personal story and why you are so motivated and able to solve this problem. End your pitch with a call to action or asking for a contact to keep your audience with you.

Try to weave together the different segments of your pitch. Try to mention your (huge) market by slide 2. Try to describe your technology (in a way that the VC can understand and repeat it to her partners in the partner meeting). And try to describe your pipeline by slide 5. Describe why your solution is unique. Details can come after this framing of your company's great solution.

How do you get traction without funding? how do you get funding without traction? I think, that given today's rough VC environment, the best answer to this chicken-n-egg conundrum is to redefine "traction". Investors are really looking for some form of validation that you're building something people want. So at an early stage, you can show users on your beta. If your product has a long sales cycle, you can show signed LOIs. Other forms of traction is who is on your team, or if you were able to raise (even tiny $) from industry folks. Remember it is all about showing investors enough proof points, so they're not the first ones to take a leap of faith on you.

Too often we think that gaining traction is to convince investors to fund your product. NO. First and foremost it's to convince YOURSELF that your idea is worth the crazy amount of life energy that a startup demands. You are the first investor in your startup and to know if it's worth investing all of your time, traction is a non-negotiable. Get that traction and conversations with investors become less about pitching and more of...a conversation.

Traction is sales. Customer’s money is cheapest money in your business. That is why you should have traction. And some of the other reasons mentioned here.

Demonstrating traction is important in almost all pitches (very early stage pre-seed might be an exception). The important thing to remember is that there are multiple ways to illustrate traction - revenue growth is the most powerful but by no means the only method. Providing metrics such as app downloads, trial sign-ups, customer pipeline, key partnerships etc can bring additional credibility.

By showing traction, you can demonstrate your credibility, potential, and growth. Here are some ways to show traction: >Customer acquisition: How many customers have you acquired? What is your customer acquisition cost (CAC)? >Revenue: How much revenue have you generated? What is your monthly recurring revenue (MRR)? >Milestones: What milestones have you achieved? Have you launched your product? Have you secured partnerships? >Roadmap: What is your roadmap for the future? What are your key goals and objectives? >Business model: How do you make money? Is your business model scalable and sustainable? >Competitive advantage: What is your competitive advantage? What makes you unique?

Not only show traction, but also show that you understand the market. The more you can give specifics about the size of the market, how it is changing, and how your product is likely to work well, the more convincing you will be. The VC will want to see that you recognize there are competitors and that you have a strategy for achieving sales.

One way to think about it is this: what is the next big milestone I am setting out to achieve with this investment and what data can I show my potential investor to prove/lower the risk that I will likely reach it. For early firms without and MVP, you could show results from your customer discovery data. For example: Called 550 potential customers, X said this, Y said that etc. This gives the investor a reason to believe in funding your MVP since it's not just an "idea". Another method is setting up a landing page and driving folks to "Get on the list". You can report website hits, emails, etc. You don't need capital to show initial traction and investors at each given stage should understand that and react accordingly.

Keep the words to a minimum. Try to get the message across with simple text and images. If you capture your audiences interest, they will ask the questions you want. Be open to refining the approach as you go through your pitch. It can always be improved.

Invest in visuals BUT be sure to have your narrative in place first. Never let your visuals drive the pitch, rather use them as a tool to reinforce your message. In addition, be mindful of the type of deck you are preparing. Is it for presenting on stage or sending via DocSend. Just like tailoring your pitch to an audience, the visuals must be adjusted to the medium as well.

Choose a specific style and color palette and keep it for the whole pitch. Take a look at what's trendy. Keep it simple. One visual = one idea/information.

Story telling with data is the New New thing. We retain much better what we see than what we read. But is has to be congruent. If the data is no good, your visuals will not tell a good story or holes will be poked in it. If the visuals are no good, you can forget about it even if your data is pristine. The best (and biggest) companies out there know that visuals are key - just ask Apple. And if you want some help with the basics, go and check out the work of Edward Tufte, aka the Leonardo da Vinci of Data, as per the NYT. And admire Minard's data map on the French army losses during its invasion of Russia in 1812! Elementaire, mon cher Watson...

Visuals can help you to: Capture attention: Visuals are more likely to capture attention than text alone. Convey information quickly and easily: Visuals can help you to communicate complex information quickly and easily. Make your pitch more memorable: Visuals are more likely to be remembered than text. Connect with your audience on an emotional level: Visuals can evoke emotions that can help you to connect with your audience on a deeper level.

The first version of your deck might too many details and be too long. Try to make a second version (with 10-20 iterations!) that is short and clean, 10-15 slides. If you have visuals, keep them simple to understand and ensure that they add value. It is perhaps best to leave out visuals that are only a distraction. You will have roughly 12 minutes or so to pitch the VC, because there will be intros and then questions during the 30 minute meeting.

Please be careful with the visuals that are used within your pitch. VCs get tired of seeing the same 2 by 2 matrix with your startup in the top right without any real justification!

Asking questions is a powerful way to engage your audience, spark a dialogue, and build a relationship. When you ask questions, you are demonstrating that you are interested in their thoughts and ideas. You are also giving them an opportunity to participate in the conversation and feel like they are part of the process.

100%. You don’t have to wait to start a dialogue, lead the conversation yourself. Ask what you really want/need to know, get the feedback, use every opportunity to make your product better and learn from others.

You also need to try and leave the door open for future followup. Just because someone doesnt want to invest now, doesnt mean the conditions may change.

If an investor informs you that you align with their values and similar investments however, you’re at top of an early stage for them then do not see this as a rejection but as an opportunity. Please update potential investors with your successes, metrics and challenges you have overcome. This shows resilience and it becomes more enticing to join the journey!

In my venture days, I've seen entrepreneurs really nail their post-pitch interactions, while others... not so much. There's indeed a fine line to tread. While it's imperative to keep VCs informed, bombarding them with constant updates can be counterproductive. My perspective is to remain concise, prioritize key updates, and ensure they align with the VC's interests. Treat each interaction as an opportunity to solidify trust and provide value. So just keep it real and relevant.

Founder/Market fit: Show investors how you have personal or professional expertise in a market that 99% of other founders don't. This will give you a unique insight into the problem and make you sound much more confident about how you're going to solve that problem. This is the approach I took to start my first company, Arcus, before we eventually sold it to Mastercard.

Talk about exit also in the pitch. Make the investors feel that you will feel responsible for providing an exit to them. Give examples of exits of similar businesses in other countries. Tell them that you will proactively cultivate relationships with potential acquirers and list them down. Some may say its premature to talk about exit at this stage but it the largest prism that investors hold to look a deal through irrespective of the stage of the company.

Some businesses are meant to be bootstrapped. One of the worst things you can do to a lifestyle business is toss funding underneath it. You can take a $5 million a year, 30% EBITDA business and destroy it by raising capital at a high valuation.