PITCHING

CONVINCING SOMEONE
ABOUT SOMETHING
Why do you need a Pitch?
1. Communicate your startup’s product and business model to
your stakeholders:
co-founders, employees, partners, customers, vendors,
investors, etc.
2. Validate your own understanding of what your startup is all
about.
3. Attract stakeholders and make them want to know more
about your startup.
HOW DO I PITCH?
THE ELEVATOR PITCH
ELEVATOR PITCH is
like a MINI SKIRT
Long enough to cover
important parts & Short
enough to create an
interest
 THE ELEVATOR PITCH
• An elevator pitch is not a sales pitch
• It is NOT a pitch of a great idea, team or product
• You ARE pitching what your business will do for customers,
investors, and/or society
• You want to pitch how your business solves a real problem or
addresses a burning need that exists today
 THE PITCH
Interesting opening: opening much immediately grab
interest of recipient

Passion: if you are not excited about your idea, no one else
will be

Short: you only have at least two- ten minutes deliver your
pitch

Caution: Do not take too long to get to the pain/problem that

you are solving—you could lose the listener’s attention
 WHAT’S INSIDE A GOOD PITCH
The following points are included in effective pitches
1. The Hook: pitch opening that grabs the listener's attention
2. The Problem: impact and facts
3. Brief description of product/service
4. Brief target market description
5. Brief description of how the business is different from the
competition
6. Brief description of how you will make money
7. Brief description of the resources you need from investors
8. Brief description of the returns/payback the investor can expect
9. Memorable tagline/pitch closing
WHAT TO DO
&
WHAT TO AVOID
The KISS of death: Too much detail
• INEFFECTIVE:
Our medical technology is the first automatic anesthetic gas scavenging
system that will scan patient’s using an anesthetic vaporizer thus
providing analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic techniques similar to those
used by National Laboratories in 2007, but that were updated in 2011 to
include the new immunology reports

• EFFECTIVE:
We provide the most accurate medical diagnostic equipment available on
the market.
 Avoid Geek speak:
Listeners Tune Out What They don’t Understand
• INEFFECTIVE:
We provide non-penetrable debridement medical equipment technologies
for lymph node excision by integrating our with our 4851-bit encryption
algorithm that is integrated with the newest 245-bit Dorland operators.

• EFFECTIVE:
We allow medical professionals to operate on cancer patients using the
least invasive equipment on the market.
Acknowledge Your Competition

• Identify a couple of your competitors as well as what they

provide
• Describe one or two differentiators that describe your
advantage
• Unlike the competitors, our firm offers customers a full-
service pet daycare, grooming services, and a pet training
facility that is run by world-class trainers.
 Tagline/Pitch Closing
• End the pitch in a memorable way
• Taglines are often very effective:
• In sum, GE brings good things to light

• Acura—the road will never the same

• Harley Davidson: American by birth. Rebel by choice.

• In conclusion IBM provide solutions for a small plant

• If you do not have a tagline, closing the pitch with a simple “Thank
You” can also be effective and professional
• What is your CALL TO ACTION?
10-20-30 Rule
10 Slides - optimal number of slides in a PowerPoint
presentation because a normal human being cannot
comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting
20 Minutes- You should give your ten slides in twenty
minutes. In a perfect world, you give your pitch in
twenty minutes, and you have forty minutes left for
discussion.
30 Font Size- As much text as possible is jammed into the
slide, and then the presenter reads it. However, as soon as the
audience figures out that you’re reading the text, it reads ahead
of you because it can read faster than you can speak.
BASIC 10 SLIDES

SLIDE 1 SLIDE 2

TITLE
________________________________
Provide company name, your name
and title, address, email and phone
number
PROBLEM /
OPPORTUNITY
________________________________
Describe the pain that you’re
alleviating or the pleasure you’re
providing
BASIC 10 SLIDES

SLIDE 3 SLIDE 4

UNDERLYING MAGIC
VALUE PROPOSITION ________________________________

________________________________ Describe the SECRET SAUCE behind

your product. Less text, more
The gift of your product
diagrams, schematic and flowcharts.
Prototypes and demos are effective
BASIC 10 SLIDES

SLIDE 5 SLIDE 6

GO-TO-MARKET PLAN
BUSINESS MODEL ________________________________
________________________________
Explain how are you going
Revenue Model
to reach your customer
BASIC 10 SLIDES

SLIDE 7 SLIDE 8

COMPETETIVE MANAGEMENT TEAM

ANALYSIS ________________________________
________________________________
Who’s who? Who will build
Who are your competitors and the company?
how you are different
BASIC 10 SLIDES

SLIDE 9 SLIDE 10

FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS CURRENT STATUS,

AND KEY METRICS ACCOMPLISMENTS,
________________________________ TIMELINE, USE OF FUNDS
________________________________
3-Year forecast with key metrics
Rehearse Your Elevator Pitch
• Introduce yourself, your startup and the value proposition.
• Who is your customer?
• What are their problem(s)?
• How does your product solve their problem?
• How do you make money?
• Define your success.