Dr. Tony Ratliff tonyratliff.com@drtonyratliff

A Few Tips for Your Investor Pitch.

It didn’t take long being an Angel Investor to realize that most entrepreneurs are really, really bad at “selling themselves” and “pitching” their ideas to investors.

So many good ideas and start-ups never get funded - all because of a poor presentation during the “pitch”.

This is not the only way to give a investor “pitch”, but by following these eight simple suggestions you’ll be setting yourself apart from the other poor “pitches”.

Most Angels and VCs have short attention spans. Give us the “short version” and if or when we ask questions, then you can provide us with more details. Just explain what problem you’re solving and why your solution is important to the customer.

1. Tell us what you do in a few words.

As investors, we aren’t necessarily as interested in your product as you are, and we probably don’t have your problem. Explain how you are going to grow your business.

2. What’s the Plan? How does it Scale?

Don’t just put up a slide of your team and their past job experiences. Tell us why you’ve assembled this team for this particular opportunity and highlight your expertise. I want to see your passion.

3. Talk about the team.

So many people spend time developing a great product, only to find out no one wants it. How are you going to get it into the hands of your customers? What is your Marketing plan?

4.What’s your go-to-market strategy?

There are probably about 25 people working on the exact same problem in some form or another. As investors we love a “secret sauce”.What is your secret sauce? How are you going to execute?

5.What’s your competitiveadvantage?

A short demo or actual product sample is key. Is it simple, does it solve the problem, is it easy to use from a user’s point of view - we just want to know that it’s clean, works and simple to use.

6. Let us touch and feel your product.

Successful people understand their strengths and weaknesses. Go ahead and acknowledge your weaknesses because I guarantee that everyone in the room is asking themselves, “What is it that I don’t like about this? Where are the holes in this plan?

7. Show us your weaknesses

It’s hard to forecast projections for an early stage company, but show us what you’ve got - we know they’re going to be wrong anyway. Explain what it will take to double or triple the sales, and what kind of timeframe you need to accomplish it?

8. Show us the FINANCIALS.

I want more good ideas to get funded. If you follow these 8 tips and can answer some basic questions about your product, valuation and your competition you’ll have a much better chance of raising funds.

Dr. Tony Ratliff tonyratliff.com@drtonyratliff

Good Luck with Your Start up!