Pitch with confidence to secure new investors, partners, staff, and customers

Pitching is an essential part of building your startup. This is your opportunity to persuade and influence people to either work with you or support you. Even if you are a nervous public speaker, you can pitch like a pro — and it all comes down to practice, preparation, and knowing your audience! 

So, whether you’re pitching in a competition, a boardroom meeting, or to a group of angel investors, we’re here to share tips to help you create a stand-out pitch presentation. 

Why is pitching so important?

Pitching allows you to have meaningful conversations that help you to attract and influence people to support your business. You may be wanting to attract investors, partners, sponsors, customers, suppliers, a co-founder, or even staff. Each pitch should be specific and tailored directly to the types of people you are looking to work with. At the end of the day, you’re asking for other people’s time, energy, or money, so it’s important to customise your pitch presentation. 

What makes a good pitch?

There are a number of things that make a pitch standout to the audience, and you should consider them when putting together your presentation. Even if it’s a 30 second networking pitch, a 5 minute pitch at a competition, or a 10 minute pitch to a group of angel investors, you need to think about what’s important to your specific audience, and how you can influence them to want to speak to you further. 

Here’s what can help you make a great pitch: 

• Incredulity or disbelief which identifies the problem you’re solving, and why — “I can’t believe that problem was so bad!” 
• An a-ha moment
• Strategically pausing throughout the presentation to highlight key moments
• Changing the pitch or loudness of your voice 
• Structure — every pitch should have a beginning, middle, and end. Just like any presentation, you should tell the audience what you’re going to say, say it, then tell them what you said 
• Be engaging — you need to make your audience take notice, so think about what can help you to stand out

Would you like to learn more about pitching? Read our full article here!