Founders ask me all the time how to improve their pitch. Here’s what I tell them…focus on the Big 3: Vision, Team and Traction.
Every day, I see lengthy decks and memos that get mired it detail. Exhaustive market analyses, 10 year projections, and long lists of “advisors.”
Ditch all that. Instead, structure your pitch around 3 key points.
1) Vision. You must be able to express the vision for your company in 1 sentence. It must be clear and compelling.
Here’s an example:
“Uber makes it easy to get a ride from anywhere to anywhere, any time.”
That’s simple and clear. I know exactly what Uber does.
It’s also a compelling vision. Just think how many rides people take…this could be a huge company!
If I don’t know exactly what you do from that 1 sentence, try again.
No jargon. Don’t democratize, supercharge, or provide anything “in a box.”
I have a whole post on how to nail your vision here.
2) Team. Tell us why your team is the perfect one to take on this problem.
I cannot tell you how often founders bury the team slide in the deck. Sometimes they don’t include it at all!
Sell the team, and sell it hard.
At this stage, you probably don’t have much traction. So team is the main thing you have to offer.
Let’s say you’re building an AI tool to help lawyers draft contracts. Your team is you and a co-founder. You could pitch your team like this:
“I’m Jim, Founder & CEO of Legally. I was a contract lawyer for 8 years before starting this company. Every day, I spent hours drafting similar documents. I was sure there must be a better way.
Mike is my co-founder and CTO. He built AI tools for Superhuman which have been used by hundreds of thousands of customers.”
That’s a heckuva team! We’ve got a guy who knows the problem intimately, and a strong builder.
These fellas could actually pull this off!
3) Traction. You have a clear and compelling vision. You have a team that is uniquely qualified to make it a reality.
But where is the evidence that things are beginning to work? That’s where traction comes in.
Growing revenue is the best form of traction.
If you can show that, definitely do so. Put it on a big chart that we cannot miss.
If you’re growing 10% a month or more at the early stage, investors will start to get excited. If you don’t have much growth yet, at least tell us how much revenue you have.
If you don’t have revenue, you can show traction in other ways.
Maybe you have a bunch of unpaid users. Or perhaps you’ve built a huge waitlist that you plan to convert to customers.
Use whatever you’ve got! And work on getting that revenue as soon as possible.
Cash is king.
Wrap-Up
There are other useful things to include in a pitch, like a bottoms-up TAM. But if you can nail the Big 3, you’ll have a great start.
Never forget, investors see 20 of these a day. You have to stand out.
Keep it brief. Keep it clear. Make it compelling.
You can practice below…what’s your vision for your company?
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