One thing most startup Founders have in common is having to pitch to investors. Some love it and some hate it, but it is part of the job.
On one hand, COVID has made access to investors easier than ever, a 10 min Zoom chat is far easier to arrange than it was when every meeting was a 30 min in person conversation where you physically met in an office.
That said, the massive proliferation of meetings and pitching via Zoom makes it much harder for you to stand out from every other pitch before you.
Zoom pitching is NOT the same as in person pitching so you need to adapt accordingly.
Here are 5 tips to help you get that investment you are looking for:
1. Modify your pitch for Zoom — when you show slides over Zoom you will disappear into the corner of an investor’s screen. It is hard enough to make a connection over Zoom, let alone if you are reduced to the size of a postage stamp — so screen share less! Show less slides and talk more. Perhaps even show NO slides and just talk. Be brave.
2. If you must use slides then create a specific Zoom deck — if you are showing wordy or complex slides it will be very hard for the investor to focus on you. So create a Zoom deck and make the slides simpler and more impactful. The optimal number of words on a Zoom slide is zero! If you start with that goal you will do well. You should, of course, have a more detailed deck that you can send ahead or after the meeting, but don’t use it when you pitch.
3. You appearance is important — just because you are not meeting in person it doesn't mean you shouldn't worry about your appearance. Dress as if you were meeting in person. You don’t need to go over the top, but a scruffy t-shift with food stains is not recommended. You should also position your camera well, stable and slightly above your eye line, and consider your background. If in doubt then just keep it clean and tidy. You want to avoid any investor being distracted by your dirty washing, as this means they are not focusing on you.
4. Be memorable — raising investment is rarely over and done in just one meeting. The main purpose of a first meeting is to get to meeting two or get a hard no. So be interesting, tell a story, make sure when an investor is asked about recent pitches they remember you. Remember an investor may see 30 or more pitches a week. Would you remember you?
5. Focus on you and your market — for early stage companies this is all that really matters. Talk about why you and your team and your market. If the market is big enough and you and your team are good enough you will have a shot at finding an opportunity. You should have an idea now but it will evolve. Look at AirBnb and Slack and how they started and where they are now. Yes, of course you need to prepare and talk about other areas but these are the key ones, so make sure you tell a compelling, interesting and memorable story.
One disadvantage of Zoom is every man and his dog wants to be associated with startups and say they are an Angel now days. In my opinion, an Angel is someone that makes a minimum of a few investments a year of at least £10–50k per ticket. £150 on Crowdcube doesn’t make you an Angel. However, there are lots of people out there who love to share their opinions, pretend they are on Dragon’s Den and then not ever invest. Sadly, there are a lot of these clowns out there. It is hard to weed these people out so you will need to factor them in to your planning.
There is no doubt that pitching over Zoom is hard but in some form it is here to stay for a while. It is really hard to form a personal connection, which is so critical for early stage companies.
However, so few people are adapting how they pitch that if you do you will stand our and are more likely to win.
Good luck……
