How do I present to investors? That’s one question most entrepreneurs ask themselves. After building your dream for months, or even years, it all comes down to convincing your possible future investors.

The time is now! You prepared yourself to pitch your idea to investors hoping to land a deal. Within minutes, you need to either get their attention or lose their interest. Pitching to investors can be terrifying, but with the right toolset, the chances of reaching them are much greater. 

You might ask yourself, “How can I get my point across?”

“How can I make them feel as passionate about this idea as I do?”

In the end, it’s the investor’s money to risk investing in your business. Everything is connected to your ability to find the right words to make them trust you enough.

With the six tips in this article, you will create a pitch that will make your investors want to invest in you.

What Is The Best Method To Connect With Potential Investors?

For a successful pitch, you need to know about your potential investors. Everyone has different ideas and opinions on the perfect pitch. Researching what to say and what to keep out of your presentation is key when you want to get funding. 

Get To Know Them

You always want to know who you’re talking to, not just in a pitch to investors. If you do, you can avoid pitfalls when you explain why you want them to invest in your pitch. 

Ask yourself:

What other businesses have they invested in before?

What does their portfolio look like?

Could your idea be an excellent addition for them?

Has the investor previously given an interview where they explained their mentality?

Is this investor working alone, or are they working for a network? 

To find out more about your investor, you can visit Angelist Talent or Seedinvest for private investors. If you are looking for a network investor, Angel Capital Association has an extensive database. 

Remember to check whether your possible future investors invest in every industry. Some only invest in health or tech, while others are only interested in your industry.

Do You Want To Be Involved With Them?

You want to have a successful pitch to receive funding for your idea to make your dream a reality. However, taking money from anyone who wants to invest in you could be problematic down the road. 

After researching your potential investors, ask yourself if they’re a good match for you and your business. Building a brand that is environmentally conscious could be messy if your investment comes from a network that mainly invests in oil and coal. 

How Can I Impress My Investors?

Investors get pitched a lot. Some get pitched every day. To stand out, find a tone that will resonate with your listeners, while keeping their interest peaked. 

Be Humble

Starting your pitch with an arrogant attitude can hinder your chances of making a good impression with your investors. Be aware of your position when asking for investment. Show them you will listen and are willing to receive feedback.

Show Them Your Spark

What makes your idea special? Is it just another product in an oversaturated market, or does this product have a backstory? Investors don’t invest in just  your idea, they invest in you. Let them get to know you. Show them why you started this journey. Be passionate. However, try to not get overly emotional. It is a business meeting, after all. 

Show Them Benefits Outside Of Making A Profitable Product

Many businesses carry a message with their product. Save the environment, aid children in developing countries, educate people who don’t have the means for it. Getting them involved in a bigger picture of your idea can help to convince an undecided investor to give you a chance.

Can You Sell An Idea?

Time is money and your time to get your pitch out is very limited. It isn’t the person you are talking to that makes pitching to investors so stressful; it is everything surrounding it. You need to be as prepared as you can be when you enter the room. 

Know Your Ins And Outs 

Speak in facts; don’t use vague comments. Show them you know what you are talking about. Create a red thread throughout your presentation to keep questions to a minimum and the attention high. Practice alone. Speak out loud while doing so. Practice in front of friends and family, and take their feedback to heart. This will help you be prepared to present to investors.

Watch The Time

A pitch can be as short as a minute, where you just name your company, the tag line, who your product is for, and the benefits. Lucky for you, the most common pitch gets 5-10 minutes. 

This time can be more than tripled if you’re able to pique the interest of your investors. Then you can get up to 45 minutes to explain everything surrounding your idea. Often, a team representing the same business will present to investors when given this amount of time.

How Do You Grab An Investor’s Attention?

When given the time, talking alone, without visual backup, won’t allow you to get your message across fully. This is where your Pitch Deck comes in. Constructing a thoughtful presentation can be your saving grace or an untimely end for your pitch.

Here are some examples your Pitch Deck should have:

Find The Right Amount Of Information

You want to come across as knowledgeable within your field. However, every slide you use has limited space. Putting a wall of text down to give your investors a history lesson won’t grab their attention. Be concise with your explanation. Bullet points are great for a logical structure, which should follow a clear thread. Don’t start with the market size. Instead, talk about your product first and what solutions it helps to create.  

Easy On The Statistics

Statistics visualize data you could review and analyse in front of your investors. Sounds ideal for a pitch, doesn’t it? It really depends. 

Plastering your slides with diagrams and graphs may interrupt the story you want to tell, if you have to go into detail for each statistic. You should also be conscientious when choosing statistics. Make them large enough that every single number can be seen from the investors’ perspective. The fewer numbers, the better. Let the graph speak for itself.

Animations: Information With Little Text 

Remember the last lecture you went to? PowerPoint slides filled with text. After a certain point, your concentration faded, since you either lost interest or were overwhelmed with the information that was being thrown at you. This is where animations can help. Not only will it please your viewers, but help you present the best version of your pitch to investors.

Creating animations for your pitch will lend you a hand to keep the attention of your investors, and there’s the possibility to integrate your animations within the story you tell. One animation can do what two slides of text would do, which saves time. However, don’t go overboard using animations. Finding the right text to animation ratio is what a great pitch deck comprises.

What Does An Investor Need To Know?

You are most likely not the first to come up with the idea behind the solution your business wants to tackle. Others came before you. Some failed, while others succeeded. While you should focus on the solutions your product provides, ignoring the downsides during your pitch could let the investors think that you either don’t know them or that you are too confident in your business. Both won’t do well for getting investments.

Be Transparent

Show them you did your homework and know what problems lie within your sector. Maybe you found a solution to a problem, a fix, an upgrade to your product others haven’t thought of. Reassure your investors that you have your finger on the pulse regarding the industry you work in. 

Time Relevancy 

Not every product can be sold all year round. Some, for example, Christmas decorations, are sold for a very specific time each year. Where does your product shine during the year? Is it connected to holidays or festivals? If so, show your investors why your business is still a brilliant investment. Present sales (forecasted or real sales) during your biggest months, and consider whether you could branch out during the rest of the year with a similar product.

How Do We Evaluate A Company?

In the end, how you present to investors revolves around making a deal. Maybe the funding is for expansion, or it’s needed for the survival of your business. Either way, when you make your ask, know what you are worth. Finding the right number is tricky and can make or break your potential deal.

To find out where you would value your business, let people with experience look through your numbers, market, and competition. This will be your benchmark. Knowing this number is necessary when presenting to investors. If you don’t want to hire someone, there are websites where you can calculate your evaluation yourself.

However, the best way for you would be to become a member of EWOR! You will learn the ins and outs of building a business, not only will we help you come up with the right valuation for your business, but we will also accompany you from the beginning, starting with finding your idea, until you make your successful pitch in front of investors!

“I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter how many times you failed. You only have to be right once. I tried to sell powdered milk. I was an idiot lots of times, and I learned from them all.” – Mark Cuban

Presenting to investors is difficult by any means. But if you follow these tips, you can help put the odds in your favour. Practice makes perfect. The same goes for your first pitch. Don’t be discouraged when you don’t find the right investor for you on your first try. Every time you pitch in front of investors, every failed presentation makes you stronger for the next one.