Pitching 101

1. HOW TO PITCH
OVERVIEW

2. DISCLAIMER
• Every investor sees the world differently
• Every business is unique
• Pitch decks are more art than science

3. TYPE OF PITCHES
• 30 - 60 seconds pitch
• 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 minutes pitch
• Email pitch

4. 30 - 60 SEC PITCH
• Audience: people who want to give you money, or who don’t
want to give you money, parents, friends, teachers.
• Can be used for setting the scene in a longer pitch
• We solve [problem] by providing [advantage], to help
[target] accomplish [target’s goal]. We make money by
charging [customers] to get [benefit].

5. 2-3-4-5 MIN PITCH
• Audience: people who you might raise money from or people
who want to work with.
• Each slides should drive home one point / one concept
• Again, don’t follow template, every business is unique
• 10 slides is standard practice. A normal human being cannot
comprehend more than 10 concepts in a meeting

6. COMPANY PURPOSE
• Objective: explain the high-level objective of the company
• Key questions:
ü Why does the company exist
ü What’s your mission?
ü What’s the vision?

7. PROBLEM
• Objective: to clearly articulate the pain point you are solving
• Key questions:
ü What problem are you attacking?
ü What led you to that problem?
ü Any key insights into the issue?
ü Why don’t existing solutions work?
ü Who is feeling this pain? How do you know?
ü What does the problem look like to day?

8. SOLUTION
• Objective: describe your company value proposition to make
the customer’s life better
• Key questions:
ü What are the key features?
ü What are the benefits?
ü What is the use cases?
ü Why hasn’t it been possible before?
ü Which tech advancements enable you?

9. MARKET SIZE
• Objective: prove there’s a large and worthy market
opportunity
• Key questions:
ü What is the “actual” size of your target market?
ü How do you think about your segment?
ü Are you creating a new market?
ü What is the growth rate and why?
ü What are the characteristics of this market?

10. COMPETITION
• Objective: demonstrate your understanding of the competitive
landscape & articulate your competitive advantage
• Key questions:
ü Who is your direct & indirect competitors?
ü What are the alternatives for your product?
ü What are their strengths and weaknesses?
ü How large are these players?
ü What competitive advantages do you have?
ü What is exclusive to your company?

11. PRODUCT
• Objective: explain the technology, secret sauce, magic behind
your product
• Key questions:
ü What technology do you use?
ü What are the unique features?
ü What are the major product milestones?
ü Does your technology have patent?

12. BUSINESS MODEL
• Objective: prove your company can or will generate revenue
• Key questions:
ü How do / will you make money?
ü What’s the pricing?
ü Have you tested monetisation?
ü How much revenue has been generated?
ü Is there a willingness to pay?

13. TRACTION
• Objective: show evidence of product / market fit and company
progress
• Key questions:
ü What have you accomplished to date?
ü What are the 1-3 metrics that matter?
ü What has driven growth?
ü How do you know it’s working?
ü How and where do you acquire customers?
ü What is your go-to-market strategy?

14. TEAM
• Objective: show off who is on your team, your experience, and
why you are capable
• Key questions:
ü Who is on the team, what are their roles / skills?
ü What is each person responsible for and unique?
ü Why do you think you have what it takes?
ü How many employees do you have?

15. FINANCIALS
• Objective: rationalise your capital requirements and use of
proceeds
• Key questions:
ü How much do you want and need to raise?
ü What are the use of proceeds?
ü What key hires do you need to make?
ü What are the 2-3 milestones you hope to achieve?
ü How much runway does this give you?

16. EMAIL PITCH
• Audience: people who you might raise money from that can’t
meet you in person or want to know futher
• Can be up to 20 slides long
• Some more you can mentions: financial model / financial
assumptions / unit economics / customer reviews / product
screenshots / potential exits / concerns and mitigations /
market analysis & characteristics/ milestones / pipeline …

17. TIPS
• Guy Kawasaki: 10/20/30rule
• Read vs Listen
• Get to the point
• Don’t read the slide, tell a story
• Meaning meaning meaning