After the first point of contact, pitch meetings are essential to validate and discuss a potential partnership and investment. The main purpose is to get a feeling on who the founders are and assess their ability to execute on their ideas. Elements of business development skills can be transferred when approaching pitch meetings, although as an investor, it is more likeable to have a genuine conversation with a founder rather than feeling like you are in a sales pitch.
Having an investor onboard is a long-term engagement to stick through the thick and thin together for the next 2 to 5+ years. It is therefore important to get started on the right foot and take the time to get to know your potential investors during the process.
Taking some time (10-15 minutes) to research and understand who you will be having a pitch meeting with is an useful exercise to do in order to make the most out of the first meeting, especially considering that it is usually a brief 30min call.
Some things to look at:
As an outcome, you can better position yourself in the meeting by understanding how to approach your pitch narrative as well as what kind of value the VC can bring as a strategic partner. For example, reviewing portfolio companies can provide additional insight to VC positioning and investment decisions. In addition, if there are similar startups in their portfolio, you can focus on areas of synergy.
This also allows you to be prepared to have relevant questions to ask about the investor and their process.
Having gathered the above information, you can now refine your narrative and adapt your pitch presentation to cater directly to your audience (i.e. present relevant use cases, highlight and focus on key areas that match their interests).
Storytelling is crucial in a successful pitch; great story tellers have the ability to convert their audience to customers and draw people to want to be a part of your mission and vision.
This should not feel like a sales pitch - please don't start by directly presenting the product. Give a reason for your audience to care and understand your solutions by presenting the key existing problems; if anything, sell the problem and not the solution itself. Utilise realistic data and figures to back your narrative, making it clear that you have the ability to build a successful venture fundable company.
If after more than 5-10 pitch meetings with different investors, you are constantly receiving a “no” - it may be time to reflect on your narrative and work on adjusting the overall pitch presentation.
Many times the pitch may need slight visual update to help provide additional clarity on the business model / revenue streams, future growth potential, or a simple demo.
Small details go a long way to making a good first-impression; make sure you have good network connection, audio set-up, in an environment without background noise and distractions, turn your camera on, etc.
Practice how to briefly introduce you and your co-founders as well as preparing a short elevator pitch (60 seconds) covering; what is it, your mission, problem, solution, and traction. This opens the discussion and allows for enough space for investors to ask their questions.
Don't be afraid to ask more details about internal processes, expected timeline, as well as the value-add and level of post-investment support. It is good to discuss what are the next steps so that there is a clear conclusion and action plan in place. I also advise sending a short follow-up message, which can also be a great opportunity to share any additional information that was left-out during the call.