Your Pitch
Hitting the Target with Your Business Pitch
Pitching, sometimes referred to as the “elevator pitch”, is a short and concise presentation designed to generate enough interest from an investor to enlist them in a more detailed presentation. The Founders Forum and Angels Institute business investment events provide a means for investment ready (or close to investment ready) opportunities to present to public and private investment forums.
The format of the Founders Forum provides for a very strict four minute pitch by the entrepreneur followed by six minutes of question and answer.
The four minute limit is important because if forces the entrepreneur to have thought very carefully about the items most important to attract the interest of the investor. Four minutes is very limiting and most cannot get everything they need across to the investor. The six minutes of question time is designed to get a little more across to the investors and to assist the entrepreneur.
The PITCH and a well thought out BUSINESS PLAN are required to generate support for your venture. Taking this seriously is one way to strengthen the potential success of your venture.
The Sample Business Pitch Outline
Below is a sample presentation outline which you may find helpful as you prepare your presentation:
INTRODUCTION
(15 seconds)
A single sentence on:
- Your name and company name
- The product or service you provide
- The uniqueness of your product/service
- What makes you special
INDUSTRY
(30 seconds)
- In what industry are you competing?
- Size, rate of growth and projected growth of the industry
- Industry trends
- Major competitors
PRODUCT/SERVICE
(100 seconds)
- What is unique about your product or service?
- How or why it serves a need?
- Competitive advantages
- Target customer profile
- Expected pricing and how it compares to competition
- Break even in sales/units
MANAGEMENT
(30 seconds)
- Your relevant experience (but not your life history!)
- Your management team's qualifications
- Recent company history
FINANCING
(30 seconds)
CLOSE
(20 seconds)
- How much money do you need?
- Do you want debt or equity?
- What will you use money for?
- Equipment, inventory, etc?
- Do you have a business plan available?
- How do investors get their money back with a return?
Tips for Your Business Pitch
Summarise in one or two sentences.
Many of the Four Minute Forum presenters run out of time and have to cut their presentations short. This is usually due to the speaker trying to cram too much information or too many introductions into a short period of time. The four most common mistakes presenters make are:
- not practicing their presentation ahead of time
- using time consuming audio visual materials
- spending too much time on management and company history
-
not tailoring the presentation specifically to the Founders Forum audience
Remember, the purpose of the presentation is to get the audience interested in your company – interested enough to want to get more information from you. Think about how you can present your company in the most concise, clear manner possible.
Keep in mind also that you will be asked a question or two from the Founders Forum panel. This will provide you an opportunity to present additional information on your opportunity if needed.
Good luck!
