The founder told me: “Everyone says ‘Refine your pitch’, ‘Refine your pitch’. And there is so much written about it.” I know. It’s crazy how many people write about it. “10 ways to perfect your pitch” “5 keys for a perfect pitch” “9 hacks to get the investor stop looking at his phone”
Well, I'm going to take a different approach. Fuck pitch refining. Lets start by understanding that there are different kinds of pitches. Understand your audience and you will make a better pitch.
Lets make a list of them
1-Investors
2-Customers
3-Sales
4-Employees
5-Partners
6-Competitors
This is not an order of importance or preference. Just a list ☺Let’s go deeper.
1-Investors
The “pitch” that everyone usually writes about is the pitch to an investor. The one where you’re trying to raise money. There is a lot written about it that you can read here and here. My friend and angel Terrence Yang wrote “To me, two of the most important things you can do during a pitch are to 1/ describe the problem you want to solve and why, and 2/ compellingly present a contrarian idea about — or insight into — a big market opportunity is important.”
My take on it is that you need to tell a story. As any story it has an introduction, a body and a conclusion. During that story you need to talk about your product, the market, your metrics and especially, your team. There needs to be a double correlation. One where all the parts are sequential and makes it feel right. The should be chronological and should excite the investor.
There needs to be a connection between the product and why the founder is building it (or already built it). Why are you building it and why are you the right person to do it? It’s also related to what market you are going for and what kind of traction you have. Why now? What is it different from two years ago. Eg: a founder from an online social platform was totally excited about how his power users had contacted each other and jumped into a Slack group. It took him some time to realize that he should build a communication tool inside the platform but he was still excited about the engagement level of it and how the users were creating a community. This is the kind of thing you want to hear as an investor. What makes your product special and what fires you up.
2-Customers
I just realized this should have been #1. Your pitch to customers ( comes in the form of conversations & feedback) is the most important one of all. This is not sales. You already made that sales pitch and she is already your customer. This pitch is to know how is she doing and what she thinks about the product. What makes her love it? What does she hate about it? One question I like to ask is: what would you change right now if I put you in charge. Most people don’t like to tell each other the bad news. Encourage the hard feedback in your pitch. Ask for the answers you don’t want to get.
3-Sales
A sales call is a pitch. When you are talking with your possible customers you don’t talk about the size of the market (they are the market) or how much money you need to raise (or you already raised). It’s a different audience but its still a pitch. The same rules applies, make a story. It’s a story about creating value, having a great experience and building a relationship. As Sam Altman, CEO of (YC) says “build something people love”. Tell the love story. I would add something to it, “build something people love and love building it”. You need to really enjoy what you are doing. If you are excited to talk about your product, you will tell everyone about it, All. The. Time.
I love helping founders build their companies and figuring out how to solve problems. It makes my day, learning from entrepreneurs and writing about it. I love to analyze a deal to see if I want to invest. If we start talking about it I can just go on forever.
Show your passion and also your knowledge. It’s easy to sell something when the other person just wants to feel as excited as you. It’s not about being able to sell but about the charisma you have as a founder (& team).
4-Employees
There are two kinds of pitches to employees. The one you give to recruit someone and the one you give to actual employees (I like to call them vision and motivation). I’m just going to talk about the first one. The pitch needs to consider the vision you have of the company and also the future of the employee. It has to be a conversation where you are talking about how to be part of a story. What character do you want to play? Do you think you can help me build up this dream? Yes, you need to add compensation and stock and all the other stuff. But what is better than this, really enjoying going to work because you feel you belong. Each of us have a purpose in life. Try to explain yours when pitching the company to your future employee or co-worker. Excite them! Inspire them! Sorry, I get ramped up on this one ☺
5-Partners
Trying to get partnerships is hard (especially with big companies or the government). This is probably one of the most difficult pitches: part sales, part investor. You need to be careful if you get the partnership. Convincing a big company that your product will help them reduce costs or increase sales or even make their life better is difficult. There is one key thing here, and it’s talking to the actual decision maker. Don't try to hustle everyone. Be smart and find out who is the person you need to deliver your pitch.
The pitch itself should be focused, not on your company, but on the partner. You need to pitch to their needs and vision. Its not what you can offer broadly, but what you can specifically do to help them. Go that extra yard to reach out and make their lives better.
6-Competitors
Pitching competitors? YES. “Keep your friends close but your enemies closer” Sun Tzu. Have an open channel of communication with the CEO of your main competitor. Remember that is not about what you say, but what you don’t say. Talking to each other can help to find a middle ground when it comes to niches of the market or even fighting common enemies (big companies or the government).It doesn't mean that you won’t be aggressive and want to win the market but that you are rational and smart enough to know that at the end, it is the market who decides who wins.
Hope this can help you understand why one pitch doesn't work in all situations. I would even go further and think who exactly I'm talking to and try to adapt it to her. Whenever you feel people are not understanding what you are trying to say, stop and think if your pitch is the right one for that audience.
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