We figure out how to properly present your startup to investors, and what types of presentations are In the previous parts, I wrote about the necessary steps to test the idea of a startup and about online resources that any startup needs.
We figure out how to properly present your startup to investors, and what types of presentations are In the previous parts, I wrote about the necessary steps to test the idea of a startup and about online resources that any startup needs.
Today, we will talk about the types of presentations that a young company should have, and how to make sure that these presentations are exactly of interest to potential partners or investors.
Presentations in the startup world are called by the English word " pitch". This term was born in the early to the mid-20th century and was often used in the combination of “ sales pitch”, that is, the pitch of the seller.
The essence was simple - in a short time to convince the buyer that the service/product is better than competitors and that it is necessary to buy it. At the end of the 20th century, with the advent of Internet companies and start-ups, this term began to sparkle with new colors, gaining new types and even new techniques.
A pitch for a startup is the most important thing that can be in the early stages. Without investors or partners, a young company will die with a probability of more than 99%.
Therefore, the first thing you can hear when networking or preparing for a business meeting in the US is “ send me your pitch”. Sometimes it is also called " pitch deck".
Types of Pitches
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There is another erroneous judgment that the pitch should be as saturated with technological terms as possible - this is also not the case.
A conditional example: “Our company is a unified technological algorithm that will change the world by aggregating data in the artificial intelligence industry,” it may sound beautiful, but there is no specificity here for either clients or investors.
The principle “ simplicity is the key to success” usually works in startups. One of the partners of the legendary startup accelerator Y Combinator once advised me that the mother should understand the pitch, whether it be the founder of the client.
If mom understood, the investor will understand. Mom’s example is ironic in itself, but it has a sound grain: the pitch should be such that it is understood by the person farthest from the specifics of technologies or startups.
After spending several years in the US startup industry as a company creator, mentor and independent speaker at various conferences, I learned to distinguish three main types of pitches. The latter, depending on the context, has several subclauses.
Let's try to parse all of them in detail.
Tweeter Pitch
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In this pitch, you can use comparisons. For example, sometimes about my startup CruiseBe, which helps plan cruise trips, I say: “It's like Google Travel, but for cruises.”
Most Americans immediately understand what my company is doing, because the example of Google Travel is clear to them.
Possible options for such pitches: “This is Uber for dogs,” “This is the union of Amazon and Facebook,” and so on.
Elevator Pitch
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The next type of pitch can be literally translated as “ pitch in the elevator”. Its roots go back to the mid-1970s, at the time of the boom in the development of pitch salesmen.
The essence of this type of presentation is also very simple: it is often difficult, sometimes even impossible, to arrange a personal meeting with an investor or the owner of a large business. But meeting them, for example, in the elevator is quite likely. This is an ideal time to briefly talk about your startup.
In essence, this pitch is an extended version of the pitch in one sentence. It is important to understand that elevator-pitch should not take more than a minute, ideally 30–45 seconds. Sometimes the time frame expands to two minutes.
A similar pitch is built according to a strict formula:
- greeting;
- Capturing a person’s attention by some fact that will dumb him. The fact must be associated with a specific problem;
- a brief description of the problem;
- The solution that the startup offers;
- final part.
The final part depends on what the startup needs from this meeting. Often a simple rule works: "if you want advice, ask for money, if you want money, ask for advice."
Therefore, it is ideal to end this pitch with a short open-ended question that cannot be answered unambiguously yes or no.
The formula for such a pitch can be a tweeter pitch with a 15-30 second fill or, for example, the phrase: “Hello! Did you know that N Ukrainians / Americans / Japanese spend hundreds of dollars/hundreds of hours every day / once a week / once a month on * a description of the problem *? My company has created a solution that will help them. * Description of the solution *. Question or suggestion. "
The second option for elevator pitch may not be oral, but written text. Then it should fit into several sentences, preferably up to one paragraph. Here the question is no longer needed and a few facts can be added.
Presentation Pitch
Photo: ethos3.com
This is the only type of pitch that needs a pre-created presentation. Depending on the goals, it can be divided into several options: pitch for partners, pitch for customers ( actually sales-pitch), pitch for investors, pitch for speeches.
In general, all these pitches share common rules, so I usually refer them to the same kind.
The main feature of these pitches is a pre-designed and created visual presentation, which is developed according to a clear formula. As a basis, you can make a pitch for investors and add or remove slides in the future, depending on the context.
First, abstracts are created, then a presentation is made, and on the basis of this, a full-fledged speech is written.
The main temporary presentation formats are usually presentations of 3, 5 and 10 minutes. Sometimes there are two-minute formats, but in practice, these are truncated three minutes.
A minute presentation is an elevator-pitch. All that is more than 10 minutes is most likely a presentation at the conference or an extended version of the pitch with going into financial details.
Most importantly, the presentation format in all these pitches is often no different. Many investors recommend investing up to 10 slides - this is almost unrealistic.
Most often, a presentation of up to 15 slides will be considered adequate. Most likely, the presentation of 20+ slides will not even be watched.
Typically, presentations are built according to this formula:
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1. Greeting ( company name, sometimes the names of the creators)
2. Problem (a description of the problem that exists and that the company is ready to solve)
3. Solution ( description of the solution to this problem)
4. Product ( which product the startup creates based on the solution from the previous slide)
5. Market description ( potential market size, number of potential customers, market turnover)
6. Competitors ( sometimes they can be divided according to certain parameters)
7. Competitive advantages ( common phrases are not enough here - specific facts about advantages over competitors are needed)
8. Business model and monetization ( how a startup will make money)
9. Market entry ( how is a startup going to capture the market and become a leader, at least in its own niche)
10. Various indicators, KPI ( for example, the number of downloads, visits, registered users, but best of all, when it is the data of completed sales, and with growth)
11. Various forecasts * ( for the next year / three / five years. These may be forecasts related to KPI, but financial forecasts work best)
12. Partners * ( existing customers or partners are described. If this is a B2C startup, you can describe the number of registrations, downloads of the application or customers)
13. Team ( most investors primarily pay attention to the team, and not to the idea or, even, startup indicators)
14. Contact information ( final slide with information on how to contact the creators of the startup).
Paragraphs 9–12, which are marked with an asterisk, are not required for a normal pitch, but their presence can improve the chances of a startup.
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| Photo: slideteam.net |
In addition, slides with information about how much investment is needed and on what conditions, as well as a slide about where the invested money will go, are sometimes added for investor pitches.
In the case of a pitch for speeches, financial slides and projection slides are usually hidden. In pitches for partners or clients, you can also replace these slides and pay attention to the problem. Perhaps paint it on a few slides.
General rules of presentations: the text should be readable and it should be exactly enough to understand the essence; better picture than text; for salespeople, there is a 30/20/10 rule, which means a font size of 30, a maximum of 20 minutes of time, and no more than 10 slides.
This is, of course, an exaggerated option, but it is worth a closer look.
It’s not worth repeating and copying the pitches of other companies, but it definitely makes sense to study the presentations of those startups that have turned into global giants - they can notice general trends that lead to the formula described above.
Presentations and pitches are extremely important for a startup, but, in fact, making them is not as difficult as described in various " motivational" books.
Following simple rules and formulas, and founder of the company will be able to create these presentations in less than a week, and then focus on product development and attracting investments.
