Pitching and winning
Thanks to the opportunities on offer for growing businesses based in Scotland, the Amiqus team have had many opportunities to showcase our work. We were one of the first companies to win the Scottish EDGE “treble” and recently became the first company to win Pitch of the Day twice at EIE. Nobody starts with a perfect pitch, we’ve learned from dozens of opportunities and we’d argue that none of our winning pitches were perfect either, but there are a few things they’ve all had in common.
We definitely don’t have the perfect formula for every pitching opportunity, but we have accumulated a few strategies we’d like to share, because, at some point, someone shared them with us and it made all the difference.
1.
Our mission is our mystique
At first glance, the connection between pitching ID verification software successfully and our mission to make civil justice accessible may not be entirely obvious, but why we do what we do plays an essential role in how we pitch and talk about our products.
Everyone on our team has joined Amiqus because they want to make it easier for people to access legal and financial services when they need them most. This has a profound effect on motivation and morale within the team. No matter how big or small the task, if our products are successful then our work can have impact; we can set precedents that can make a difference to the 5 billion people whose legal systems are failing them worldwide or the 1.7bn people who are unbanked and, therefore, we approach every task with the aim of achieving the absolute maximum out of the opportunity that presents itself.
2.
We’re willing to start over
Pitching and presenting takes an immense amount of effort and focus from many members of our team. Our CEO works with our investors, finance manager and marketing team, as well as well as the experts and coaches employed by event organisers. The more perspectives we have around the table, the better we can assess the risks and potential impact of what we’re choosing to say, but taking on so many perspectives requires a great deal of patience and only works when you take ego out of the equation.
When someone on our team puts forward an idea, it becomes the team’s idea. We look at it from all angles; we all take responsibility for refining it and, if it becomes clear that we need to rethink everything and start again, we relish the challenge. It’s not the size of our team that matters, but they way in which everyone is able to contribute and take ownership of their role that has led to our best ideas.
3.
We start with who we’re pitching to, not what we’re pitching
Yes we have a “tech for good” product to sell, but when preparing a pitch the product is not our starting point. Before we know what to say, we have to know who we’re saying it to. We start by asking ourselves questions like who’s in the room? and what are they tired of hearing?
Defining the actual messaging of our pitch comes after we’ve considered the needs of our audience and gone into some detail exploring the format of the occasion and the set-up of the venue. This approach is something that has sprung from our hiring process. We don’t always hire the obvious candidate and by having a former political speech writer on our marketing team, we’ve had the opportunity to bring lessons from political campaign strategy into our business communications.
4.
We don’t presume knowledge of our product or sector
Six minutes isn’t a lot of time to explain something your team has spent years building, selling, refining and maintaining. In an effort to cut to the chase during your pitch, it can be easy to focus on the numbers and the “ask” to potential investors, but there are many more people in the audience who, if they’re inspired by what you’re doing, can open doors to conversations and opportunities that may have never occurred to you.
Use simple language; use helpful relatable comparisons; give your product a history and a personality. Even if you’ve done it a hundred times before, take a moment to tell your story. Where did the idea for your product come from? How does it actually work in practice and why is it solving a problem better than any of the competition out there?
5.
We prepare more than just the pitch
When preparing for a pitch, it can be easy to forget that an event like EIE takes place over 48 hours with a series of pre and post events. The actual pitch is just a few minutes of that time. To make the most of the time available we employ a dual communication strategy.
The first part is everything that is prepared in advance: from the pitch itself; to blogs addressing the investors as they land at the airport; to tweets scheduled to go out every 30 minutes on the day of the pitch. The second part is the real-time strategy: responding to what’s happening on the day; showcasing the strength of our network and providing a way to get to know the people behind our proposition.
With over a billion pounds in venture capital raised by UK tech for good companies in 2018, the future of pitching for us is as much about demonstrating the social, human and sustainable impact of your company’s mission as the financial viability and long term value of your product or service.
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