Pitch Presentation Summary

Recently, startup events are gaining more and more popularity, where participants are struggling to get investments for the development of their project. One of the important steps to achieve this goal is the ability to present your idea, the drafting of which will be discussed in this article.

Typically, a presentation at such events is called a pitch. And the first thing to understand when preparing it is what it is. A pitch is a performance whose purpose is to sell an idea, project, plan, yourself, team, etc.

The next point that needs to be clarified is for whom such speeches are made. Of course, if we talk about start-up competitions, they are done for investors, but in addition they can be prepared for bankers, potential sponsors, management, employees, customers, partners. In general, for everyone who needs to sell something.

Third, it should be understood that there are several types of pitch performances:

1) Elevator pitch , the duration of which is 1 minute. The main goal is to interest the investor in order to receive an invitation to the second meeting. For this minute, you need to have time to briefly talk about the existing problem; About the solution you propose; and tell what are the prospects for the monetization of this project.

2) Idea pitchwhich lasts up to 3 minutes. This type of pitching is most often practiced in startup competitions. It consists of the following elements:

1. Name of the project. You should not waste time introducing yourself and the story of all the cool members of the team, leave this to the part of the presentation specially allocated for this. At first it’s worth confining ourselves to the name of the project.
2. The problem. It is best to present it in the form of a story, during the story of which investors have associations and visual images of the problem.
3. The decision. Simply, briefly and readily explain the solution to the problem and its distinguishing features in comparison with existing analogues, if any.
4. Market size.Show the total market size; the part of the market that you plan to get; and the target audience at this stage of the project.
5. The business model. Demonstrate how the project will generate money, where it comes from, how much the project will bring annually and most importantly where the figures come from, why you make these assumptions.
6. The team. Tell us about the specialists who are in the team, about their achievements.
7. Conclusion. Tell the most important things that should remain in the memory of investors. And of course, do not forget to write your contacts.

3) Funding pitch, the duration of which is about 7-10 minutes. Funding pitch is a more detailed presentation compared to Idea pitch, which in addition to the points listed above should include such sections as: competitors, market entry strategy, current position and necessary investments.

In addition, when preparing the pitch, you must:
- thoroughly prepare: train in front of the mirror, friends, relatives, so that, firstly, the idea is clear to absolutely everyone; and secondly, to learn to keep eye contact with everyone present;
- Avoid specific terms. If relatives, friends, a guy / girl do not understand what is being discussed, then, probably, it is worth changing the content, because investors are not encyclopedias and they do not know everything about everything. In general, the main rule that should be followed in such performances is KISS - keep it stupid simple;
- Avoid lengthy explanations;
- Avoid lying. Before investing their money, investors will definitely do an analysis and, if it turns out that they have been deceived, then your reputation will be somewhat crushed;
- avoid a huge amount of text in slides and, if possible, replace it with graphs, tables and figures. And in general, the less “noise” on the slide, the better.
- make a good analysis of the market and competitors in order to be able to answer investors' questions after the pitch.

Good pitch performances can be seen on the example of the finalists of the global startup competition Get in the Ring: Investment Battle. www.valorisatierotterdam.nl/valorisatieprogramma-rotterdam/nieuws/2013/11/21/finalist-get-in-the-ring

By the way, the national selection of this competition is now being held in 50 countries of the world, therefore if you have ideas and desire to compete for investments up to 1 000 000 euros, which will be played out in the final of the competition at World Entrepreneurship Week, it is worth trying your hand and passing the National Selection.

Summing up all of the above, when preparing the pitch, you must:
1. Remember that you are selling;
2. Determine which pitch format is appropriate in a particular situation;
3. Use the necessary components to sell a startup.

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