Ready to raise money for your startup? You’re going to need a pitch coach and perhaps a good pitch deck template to go with it.
Whether you are an introvert creative type who has never been able to stand public speaking, or you just love talking on stage and may have even raised some money in the past, you will benefit from a pitch coach. In fact, in today’s startup and financial environment, you cannot afford to go without one.
Here are just some of the reasons you’ll benefit from it, or will be kicking yourself for years for not getting the help now.
Pitching For Startups
Pitching is vital for startup founders. It is an inseparable skill from successful entrepreneurs and companies. Fortunately, it can be learned, and it can always be improved on.
Even if you never ever raise any money for your startup company, you will need to become a master at pitching your venture.
It will make all of the difference in being able to recruit the talent you need, sell your product and secure customers, unlock its real value, manage your company over time, and eventually achieve some type of positive exit, other than just closing the doors.
There are two main parts to the pitch for startups.
1. The Pitch Deck
Even to be able to get the chance to possibly present verbally you will almost always need to lead in with a pitch deck. You might squeeze out your tagline or elevator pitch before being shut down, but before people consider giving you any more of their valuable time than that, for any purpose, you can expect them to ask to see your pitch deck first.
You’ll often be sending this via email, or a link to it via text message or through social channels like LinkedIn.
If you nail it with the slide presentation, you have a much better chance of being able to win the opportunity to deliver your actual presentation and verbal pitch.
Still, even then, unless the tech completely melts down, your pitch is going to be greatly judged and evaluated on your slides. Perhaps even more so.
So, make sure you have a winning pitch deck that follows the formula for success before anything else.
2. The Verbal Pitch
If your slide presentation is a hit, then you may get the privilege of giving your verbal pitch and full presentation.
Note that you cannot just wing this and hide behind your slides. You can’t count on your tech and slides working all of the time. In fact, you need to expect problems, and be able to cover that verbally and with your presence instead.
Often you’ll need several varying lengths of verbal pitch. This can range from your one sentence elevator pitch, to short two to five minute overview, as well as your full 20 minute investor presentation.
Why You Need A Pitch Coach
No matter how confident you are, you need a pitch coach. Here are just some of the reasons you shouldn’t even consider skimping by without one.
It’s Crazy Competitive Out There
The data really doesn’t do it justice. You may have heard that venture capital investors may only invest in 1% of the startups they evaluate. Yet, there are thousands more that don’t even make it into that pile. They are filtered out by assistants before that, or messages never get through or seen in the first place.
The most desirable investors can receive thousands of pitches and decks each week. They can’t possibly even make it through all of the ones they’d really like to.
You can also bet that those that do get funded are really nailing it on every factor, from the slides to verbal pitch, and the introductions they get to those investors. Not to mention all of the fundamentals and boxes to check on the investor’s list of criteria.
The bottom line is that it is crazy competitive out there. If you want to stand a chance of getting funded you need every tool and edge that you can get, including a pitch deck.
Limited Opportunities
There are only so many startup investors out there. When you funnel that down to the number of investors who fund startups at your stage and round it is even fewer. Then narrow that down to those who invest in your type of venture and industry. Then to those actively looking to fund and can provide the capital right now. As well as those you’d actually want on your board. You probably aren’t left with that many.
This isn’t like blasting out online ads to billions of potential customers, and knowing that most probably won’t remember that you blew it the next time they see your brand.
Odds are you will be hit with a lot of ‘no’s for a wide variety of reasons. Even from this tight target group. So, you really can’t afford to burn your chances. Don’t expect to get another shot with an investor. Unless you are 200% sure you are going to walk out with a check, then it just makes sense to see what extra benefit you can get from a pitch coach.
It’s Probably Not Your Area Of Mastery
Given what it takes to get through all of the hoops, then the presentation and to close a round, pitching for fundraising requires a certain degree of mastery.
You may be the person in the room with the highest IQ, the master of your industry, talented with designing slides in Google and Powerpoint, and comfortable with public speaking. Yet, do you have mastery of fundraising pitching? Not just in general, but with these types of investors, in this type of setting, at this round and amount of money? If this is your third time raising a Series C round, with two exits under your belt, and you’ve put in those 10,000 pitching in this format, then you can probably get away without a pitch coach. Otherwise, it just pays to get that elite level of expertise on your side.
Your Pitch Needs To Be Natural
A successful verbal pitch isn’t just about remembering your lines and not choking up in the process. It needs to come out naturally. Just like you are delivering a sales pitch or having a conversation about a subject you’ve talked about 10,000 times before. You want to get to the point where you can adlib depending on the response you are getting, and no longer need a script, index cards or a teleprompter. Practice, practice, practice.
Practice In A Real Environment
Practicing with yourself in the mirror, to your dog, or with your best friends or grandmother is not the same. They will take it easy on you. You need to be prepared to handle pitching to strangers, who will test you and ask hard questions.