Q: Can you please take a look at this pitch. I have created it as a promo for investors and potential users.
Selling your offering to customers and selling your business to investors requires two different presentations They have fundamentally different questions they need answered before they “buy.”
Customers want to understand how your product will meet their needs. Investors want to know how much their investment will return and why: they may want to understand your customer presentation but only if you cannot offer strong evidence of traction: revenue, signups, etc…They are always interested in what you have learned and what you plan to learn: what hypothesis you need to test using their money.
In B2B markets early business customers may be interested in your investment pitch if they believe you will need investment to be viable but that is rarely the case in a consumer market.
One of the best guides to constructing an investment pitch is “Pitching Hacks” by the Venture Hacks team. Here is there explanation for what needs to go into your elevator pitch:
The major components of an elevator pitch are traction, product, team, and social proof. And investors care about traction over everything else. A story without traction is a work of fiction.
Traction is a measure of your product’s engagement with its market, a.k.a. product/market fit. In order of importance, it is demonstrated through:
- profit
- revenue
- customers
- pilot customers
- non-paying users
- verified hypotheses about customer problems.
And their rates of change.
Pitching Hacks is a slim 83 page book that packs a lot of insight. Many longer books have a good 4-5 page magazine article trapped inside, this book has already been boiled to the essentials. Definitely worth $20 if you are wiling to follow at least one of the many pieces of advice in the book.
The Art if the Start by Guy Kawasaki has a very good investor pitch versus sales pitch outline, too.
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