Category: Investor Pitching

Improve your investor pitch

Pitching to investors? How to make a difference.

Posted on 27th November 2017 in Investor Pitching

This is your time to shine and show the best of you and you only get one chance.

Investors and VCs have made an initial judgement about you from your plan. This next step when they get you in to meet you is all about finding out who you are as a person, almost like a first date. If you are successful they are going to be working together with you for a number of years so they want to get a sense of you. It’s about chemistry and who can work well with who. Are you compatible with this person or are they going to drive you mad? Investors look for people who will make good partners, who are open to feedback and don’t get too defensive. They want to see YOU and YOUR personality. They DO NOT want to watch you read through a power point presentation. They can do this themselves.
Investors are going to be judging you from the moment they see you to the moment you open your mouth and start speaking. They want to see how passionate and enthusiastic you are about your proposed business and the industry you have chosen to work in. How much you genuinely know and have experience of. Are you dying to do this business and work hard with strong, solid commitment to the project?
  • Do you have the charisma to sell ideas and products?
  • Do you have the charisma and energy to lead and inspire teams?
  • Have you got the stamina to take this business through into the long term?
  • Are you calm under pressure, solid and trustworthy?
  

Your investor pitch has got to communicate the best of you.

REHEARSE, REHEARSE, REHEARSE
Consider first how you want to be perceived. How do you think an investor wants you to come across?
If you are a very exuberant, bubbly person with oozes of energy you most likely need to tone down the excitement and balance your exuberance with a calm presence which shows you are serious and committed to business.

If you are a serious character who is more process driven, you most likely need to practice speaking with energy and enthusiasm as you want to inspire this investor audience.

If you are a softer character, who can be emotional, you need to prove that you have the strength to drive a business through the ups and downs which all businesses go through without losing control.

Looks aren’t everything but first impressions are so carefully choose how you present yourself. If you would never where a suit and tie then don’t start wearing one now as it won’t look or feel like you. Most people can’t get away with dressing in a white t-shirt and jeans as Mark Zukkerberg but you can dress as the smartest version of your best self. Dress to impress in the most relevant way to you and your business.

How to do your best performance

  • Be the best of yourself
  • Look the part
  • Be enthusiastic
  • Be calm
  • Be considered
  • Show strength
  • Show charisma
  • Show flexibility
  • Show stamina
  • Don’t rely on powerpoint
  • Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse
Overall you’ve got to get the investor to trust in you and to like you. You’ve got to create rapport to get them to invest in you. A CEO who lacks a skill based competency such as a financial or technical can overcome this through training or by hiring the right complimentary talent, but character is less malleable.

 

TRUST BEATS COMPETENCY. COMPETENCY BEATS LIKE. LIKE IS WHERE IT BEGINS.

 

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

Elevator pitch effectively

Elevator Pitch… How to Pitch Your Idea Effectively…

The elevator pitch strikes many of us as fairly hackneyed and cliched these days. Perhaps we still find it too salesy and pushy as a speculative approach to a potential investor or client who we’ve just bumped into and best left to Americans who generally don’t have the same fear. They, when compared to us Brits at least, can happily steam ahead with their elevator pitch whenever they want. Or so it seems.

There are various approaches to making a favourable impression within just a couple of minutes and that after all is the best you can hope for in a short space of time. So perhaps that should direct your thinking with respect to an elevator pitch.

3 Approaches to the Elevator Pitch

Some choose to give a mini, condensed presentation complete with introduction, middle and ending all within two minutes. A lot for the listener to take on board, can feel stilted and really what are the chances of them remembering all the information that you tried so keenly to cram in.

Others go straight to the heart of the issue knowing that time is pressing in the perfect elevator pitch. This has the advantage of stripping away that which is largely unnecessary given the context but unless very careful in the initial approach, you could come across as overly direct and robust.

Possibly a more effective approach is to establish a two way conversation. After all, dialogue succeeds where monologue fails. This approach favours beginning a natural conversation where you introduce yourself and give just the headline of your idea, project, whatever and then ask an open question and use whatever time there is, regardless of how little, to listen. Remember that it doesn’t need to be over the top flashy or a dramatic performance. Read your audience in the moment – how are they feeling right now? Tired or energised? Adapt your energy to match them and you’ll have a much better chance of being remembered for the right reasons.

Dialogue Succeeds where Monologue Fails…

Do this all in an unhurried manner. In other words aim to have the most effective beginning to a fuller conversation. Far easier for you to do and much better for the recipient. This way, if your idea or pitch was truly of interest, you’ll leave them wanting to know more – which is exactly what you want.

Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication

investor pitching for social entrepreneurs

Investor Pitching Skills for Social Entrepreneurs

Dynamic Presenting provided a series of workshops on investor pitching for social entrepreneurs. Sartaj Grewal advised entrepreneurs with social, educational and community based business ideas on how best to pitch to potential investors and win start-up funding. The focus was on communicating personal stories and emotional selling.

Village Capital – Pitching for Investment

Village Capital is an incubator program, started in 2010, which has been run in New Orleans, Boulder, Mumbai and San Francisco. It has been cited as “#1 Trend to Watch in 2010” on Change.org; featured in Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine and Beyond Profit. So far, the program has incubated 82 entrepreneurs selected from over 500 applications and developed amongst other skills, their investor pitching ability.

The first European Village Capital, was hosted at Hub Westminster, as a twelve week program designed for entrepreneurs to accelerate their for profit social businesses. In workshops focused on fundraising, marketing and designing for impact the 16 participants will develop the core skills needed to attract investment and scale their businesses as well as receiving mentoring and coaching from our team of experienced advisors.

At the heart of Village Capital lies the belief that entrepreneurs benefit from building peer networks for review and support. The program culminates in peers selecting two entrepreneurs that receive investment prizes of £50,000 each.

The next Village Cpital Programme for Spring 2012 will be announced shortly. For enquiries email hello@hubventurelabs.net

Nominet Trust Accelerator

www.nominettrust.org.uk

Nominet Trust’s project partners can take advantage of our Accelerator Programme delivered by Merism Capital

The programme delivers a seminar series which includes topics such as “scaling up a social enterprise” and “pitching for investment”. Project partners also benefit from access to mentors and experts who can help them address specific challenges facing their organisation.

The sessions are led by a variety of speakers with specific expertise in different areas. Spring 2012 sessions are:

  • The Impact Investment Landscape
  • Measuring Social Impact and Value
  • Assessing different business models
  • Investor pitching
  • Company structures and due diligence
  • Growing pains
  • Marketing
  • Exit strategies from the investor and organisational perspective
Sartaj Garewal is the founder of Dynamic Presenting – a creative, leadership development consultancy, adapting theatre training to create leadership programs for business.

Dynamic Presenting – Enabling Powerful Communication