Before your startup gets up and running, it will exist as a simple idea. To go from an idea to something bigger, you need money. Unfortunately, we’re not all blessed with enough cash to start a business from scratch. So, we go looking for potential investors, which means we need to pitch our idea to them.
Not only that, but a startup pitch is necessary for explaining what your business does to other people. When you’re hiring a team, you need a pitch to encourage the best talent to take a risk and come to you.
It doesn’t matter how you use your pitch, what matters is how effective it is. If you want the perfect startup pitch that will dazzle and amaze, then follow these steps:
Source: pxhere
Be innovative
The people you pitch your business to will probably see dozens of pitches every week – maybe even every day. So, how can you make yours stand out from the rest? To start, you need to be innovative. Present your pitch in a way that other people might not have done before – this will immediately intrigue everyone in the room.
Typically, people rock up to a pitch with a standard PowerPoint presentation. There’s nothing technically wrong with this, but it’s a bit bland. We’ve all seen this slide layout before, and it shows that your company isn’t that forward thinking. Instead, you could explore different and more innovative presentation software. Software like Beautiful.AI simplifies the process of making presentations and provides you with something different. Or, you might scrap the presentation idea altogether and create a video animation that explains your pitch. Straying from the norm will instantly set your company apart, which piques the interest of your audience, making them eager to learn more.
Explain your purpose
Every startup pitch must begin with an explanation. Inform everyone what your business is all about. What do you do? What will you provide? Simplify things as much as you can, so it’s easy for everyone to understand what your startup idea actually is. Avoid loads of jargon; imagine you’re explaining this to a random person on the street. In fact, that’s an excellent way to test that your explanation works; go to people on the street beforehand and explain your business, then ask them if they understand what you do. If they do, then you know the explanation is simple yet informative.
Furthermore, explain your goals in the future as well. Tell everyone what you hope to achieve with your startup. This shows them you have a business plan and are thinking about the future, rather than just being concerned with getting money to start your business.
Define your target market
People need to know who your business is aimed at as this helps them understand whether or not it will work. You could have an incredible idea, but if you don’t know who to sell it to, then you’re stuck. Or, even worse, if you present a target market that just doesn’t fit with your idea, then you’re doomed from day one.
So, make it clear that you have done the market research and understand who your business is aimed at. Don’t just list off a load of stats like age and gender – explain why this audience is perfect for your company, and vice versa. This inspires confidence as it’s clear you understand your market, and how your products/services will benefit certain people more than others.
Explain why your business will work
At this point, you’ve already made a good impression with your innovative presentation or pitch setup. Explaining your business idea helps everyone understand what you’re pitching, and defining your target market lets them see who the idea is aimed at. Now, your audience will probably be thinking something along the lines of this; what makes your business so unique?
Let’s be honest, no idea is a new idea. There will be other companies like yours, and they’ll be more established than your startup. So, why will yours work? Here, you need to explain what makes your business different and how it fills a potential gap in your chosen market. If you can’t think of anything, then this tells you a lot about your idea! In reality, you should be able to list a few critical elements of your business plan that shows you’ve given a great deal of thought to the competition. Show your audience that your startup will do things that other businesses are perhaps lacking.
Source: pixabay
Explain how they will benefit from your startup
Next, you need to explain to the audience how they benefit from your startup. For investors, you have to show them why your business is worth their money. What can you do for them? Here, you need to have some projections that show them your estimated growth and how much money you believe you can make. As such, it lets them know that investing in you will help grow their own personal wealth!
If you’re pitching to potential team members, then explain how they will benefit from joining your company. Perhaps you offer personal development that no one else can match. Make it seem like this is a once in a lifetime experience; that they’ll be part of something big and special.
The bottom line is that, if your pitch ends without anyone really knowing how they benefit from your startup, then you won’t get much attention. At the end of the day, people really only care about themselves. Sure, your idea sounds fantastic, but investors don’t invest in things that seem cool. They want to know your plans, they want to see your goals, and they want to understand what they’ll get from investing in you.
To conclude, your startup pitch needs to hit the right mark. So many people have incredible business ideas, but they never turn their dreams into reality. More often than not, this is because their pitch sucked. If you want to get the maximum investment and help kickstart your company, then you need to devise the perfect pitch. Follow these five steps, and you’ll undoubtedly be on the right path.
