How to prepare your startup pitch in 5 days
Pitching your startup product or service is no easy task. One day you may explain your idea to a friend at a coffee shop, and feel like you’ve hit every unique selling point and articulated it in the best way possible.
Other days, you’ll be rehearsing your investors’ pitch in front of a mirror and ideas may keep escaping your mind. So, here’s how you can make sure you’re pitching your business in the best way possible for investors:
Day 1
Create a skeleton. Before you attempt to build a presentation, brainstorm and note down everything about your startup, then get organizing and create an outline that you can build on the next day.
Day 2
Prepare your presentation. Now that you’ve got your business on paper, you can begin your presentation. Here are the key points your presentation should have:
- The vision: Summarize your business mission and vision in a sentence or two.
- The problem: Explain the issues your business aims to solve.
- The story: Tell your startup story. The storytelling method keeps your idea memorable for investors in a sea of pitches.
- The market: Identify the size of your market and demand, to reflect opportunity.
- The USP: This is when you prove that your startup has an edge compared to its competition.
- The business model: Clarify how your idea can generate revenue with data.
- Validate your business: Showcase a prototype or examples of your product being used in the real world, the demo stage, or any evidence that supports your pitch.
- Marketing: How will you market your startup and reach your target audience?
- Build credibility: Your team members reflect your startup, so back up your product by introducing the people behind the idea.
Day 3
Take a break. Your second day was a busy one, and although most of the ideas were based on the initial brainstorming session, you need to take a step back to have a clear overview of your pitch. This assists in identifying any missing points. On this day, you need to do anything that is unrelated to your startup pitch.
Day 4
Edit to perfection. Now, you can go back to your presentation and begin writing your speech. It’s a good idea to add pointers to the ‘notes’ section of your PowerPoint presentation, if that’s your preferred platform. This can help you glimpse through important points while you’re presenting.
It’s also best to read your speech out loud to see if the flow is fluent. Add in a joke or more to keep your startup pitch light yet professional, so that the investors can see the human element behind the business.
Day 5
Repeat, repeat, repeat. On day five, your speech and presentation would be ready, and you’ve already read the speech multiple times the day before. Now all you need to do is keep reading, and perform as if you’re on stage. You could also present in front of your business partners so they can give you pointers on where to improve.
Prepare a list of answers to possible questions that you would expect from potential investors. You should be ready for the hardest questions; preparing ahead of time allows you to present yourself in your most confident form!
Most importantly, end your startup pitch with a memorable statement. Because you may be pitching during a Demo Day against many competitors, it can be difficult to stand out against other startups, so ensure you reiterate unique selling points or highlight your story at the end of your startup pitch to shine!