Have you prepared a 2-minute pitch to pitch potential investors? How about a one-sentence pitch? How do you distill the most important information and deliver it in the least amount of time?
Last week, I attended the Founder Institute’s “Founder Hotseat” event. The event allows entrepreneurs to share their 2-minute pitch. Then they receive feedback from experienced investors and entrepreneurs. Allison Silvers, Early-Stage Investor and Startup Advisor, Tech Coast Angels, and Dimitri Villard, CEO, Facet Capital Partners, LLC, provided feedback for this event.
Two questions to answer before delivering your 2-minute pitch
When crafting your 2-minute pitch, answer two questions, according to Don Di Pietro, COO, XIRKL Networks, and master of ceremonies:
- Who are you talking with?
- What do you want them to do?
Who are you talking with?
Who is the specific person you’re pitching and what company does he/she work for? It’s just like dating. You have to make sure you’re a match.
Do they have other companies like yours in their portfolio? Does their mission line up with your company and its solution? Have they successfully launched other companies like yours in the past?
Whom you are talking with also means understanding the questions investors/accelerators want to answer:
- What’s the problem?
- How do you solve it better than anyone else?
- Why are you and your team the best team to solve it?
- What’s the size of the market?
- Who are your competitors?
- How do you or will you make money?
- Do you have traction?
- Can you scale?
It’s also about personal connections. Investors are people too. They have their own interests. Guy Kawasaki, the former MacIntosh evangelist and now Chief Evangelist for Canva, wrote in his book Enchanted that he will open emails with ice hockey in the subject because hockey is his personal passion.
What do you want them to do?
This is your objective for the 2-minute pitch. Most assume the objective is to secure investment capital. That’s incorrect. Di Pietro said the mission is to entice the investor to ask more questions. In other words, the pitch is the equivalent of a movie trailer.
Why you need more than a 2-minute pitch
Even though most investor pitches are five to seven minutes, The Founder Institute suggests preparing a 2-minute pitch and even a one-sentence pitch. You never know who you’ll be talking with and how much time you’ll have to discuss your company and its benefit.
The Founder Institute offers a one-sentence pitch template on their website. Surprisingly no one took advantage of it. Here’s the one-sentence pitch template:
My company, ______ (name of company), is developing ______ (a defined offering) to help ______ (a defined audience) ______ (solve a problem) with ______ (secret sauce).
According to the site, if you can’t describe your business in one sentence, then you don’t understand it well enough.
They also offer the same information on a pitch tip sheet.
Why you should think like a publicist when crafting your 2-minute pitch
Publicists write 2-minute pitches when pitching their client’s stories to the media. We craft media pitch emails that are two paragraphs and a call to action. It’s just enough information to entice reporters to interview our clients.
The format for those pitches is the same:
- Here’s the problem or trend
- Here’s how my client solves or fits into it
- Here’s why the founder started the company
- Here’s why the company is introducing this product/solution
- Here’s third party validation
- Can I put you in touch with the CEO to discuss in greater detail?
5 Tips for crafting and sharing your 2-minute pitch:
Brevity and clarity. Forcing entrepreneurs to communicate their message in a 2-minute pitch proved challenging for most. To address the compressed time frame, some entrepreneurs rushed their presentations. The result was confusion.
The overriding feedback was you have to know what information you absolutely need to convey in the allotted time. Period. Prepare your sentences ahead of time and practice them frequently.
Focus on the solution, not the problem. The feedback provided most often was “Get their sooner.” Some entrepreneurs spent their 2-minute pitch laying out the problems. While compelling, the audience was left wondering what was the solution.
The problem and size of market proves there is a need. How you solve it and why your team is best equipped to address it today and in the future is more important.
Focus on the big picture. What’s the problem you’re solving, how do you solve it better than anyone else, do you have traction, how can it scale?
Some entrepreneurs went down a rabbit hole, sharing the details of how their company or product worked in their 2-minute pitch. The why is more important than the how.
Dump the jargon. I cut my teeth publicizing tech companies so I’m very aware of the jargon most companies use to prop themselves up. If you can’t explain the problem and what your company does to an eight year old or your grandmother, you need to refine your messaging.
Tell a story. Humans make emotional decisions and back them with data. While several entrepreneurs were credible delivering their 2-minute pitch, only a handful shared compelling stories.
One in particular shared how she was raising a multicultural family with her husband, they speak three different languages, and there was a growing market for families like hers, yet the marketplace still primarily caters to homogeneous families. Her company was a platform for mixed race/mixed ethnicity couples. It was very compelling.
One final note. “Public speaking is different than starting a business,” said Villard. It’s very true. And it’s a good reminder.
Entrepreneurs really do have to think about what to say – a clear, concise, compelling message – and how to say it – calm, comfortable, confident delivery – particularly if they want to inspire investors to ask more questions.
If you want to learn how I can help with your next investor pitch, please contact me.