Feeling nervous when going in front of prominent investors is common. However, it’s important to calm yourself and deliver the pitch confidently.
About 90% of all startups fail, 10% of which fall through within the first year, and 70% collapse during years two through five. If you don’t want to be included in these stats, you must secure the funds needed to help your business survive in today’s world of increasing economic uncertainty.
The first step to delivering an outstanding pitch is identifying the problems you may experience in your pitch deck and then mapping out a plan to work through them.
There is no standard format for a pitch deck. As long as it provides answers to all questions of potential investors, you are good to go. However, there are some common mistakes that you must avoid to deliver a great presentation. Let’s take a deeper look into these problems:
- Too Much Information
Guy Kawasaki, a Silicon-based valley author, says that a PowerPoint presentation should not include more than ten slides and last more than twenty minutes. Remembering the general rules for presentations while creating your pitch deck is very important.
Entrepreneurs often get tempted to give away all the information, from industry facts to market trends, in their pitch decks. If you include a lot of fluff in your presentation, you may send a signal that you don’t respect investors’ time and lack clarity in your vision.
- Irrelevant Information
Investors don’t want to know every small detail about your industry. They are already familiar with it and want to know your business model. Therefore, it’s important that you get down to the most important aspects of your business plan, such as your monetization strategy, target audience, value proposition, financial projections, and capital requirements.
The exact information to include in the pitch deck varies according to the startup stage, industry, geography, and other factors. The pitch deck of a physical business varies greatly from that of online businesses like Casino777 Switzerland.
- Lack of Clarity
A pitch that does not elucidate how the business is going to make money is destined to fail. From product sales to affiliate income to subscription models and tiers, you need to provide a detailed explanation of how your business will generate revenue.
Most early-stage startup presentations revolve around value propositions and lack this information. This sends a signal that you are not clear about how your business will produce returns.
- Overestimating Market Share
Entrepreneurs often get absurdly over-excited about their idea, ending up overestimating the potential of their business. Even if the market you’re targeting is massive, the customers won’t just start buying from you as soon as you swoop in.
Conducting thorough marketing research before creating a pitch deck is essential. Your pitch deck must include a ‘competition’ slide with realistic estimates.
- Not Showing Execution Strategy
Having a great idea and a large market share is not enough to nail a pitch deck. You must be able to convince investors that you can execute your business plan. Many people can come up with the same idea.
The only way you can stand out from the rest is by executing it perfectly. Highlighting your team’s competencies and demonstrating traction is important to convince investors that you have the ability to execute.
