How to pitch your Web3 startup to investors: tips for success
You came up with a promising Web3 startup idea and viable business plan. Congratulations!
Now the most challenging part: pitching your Web3 startup idea to the investors.
Investors see thousands of startup pitches every year and support only a select few projects.This is the reality of startup pitching, but understanding the difficulty of achieving investment can help you overcome this hurdle.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the most important tactics on how to pitch your startup successfully.
Why are startup pitches important?
No matter how innovative and ambitious your project is, if you can’t attract investors, you’ll probably struggle with the launch and development process. Potential backers will not blindly believe in your prospects; you need to prove that investing in your startup will be beneficial to them and provide good returns.
That’s why raising capital requires an impressive startup pitch presentation that will convince investors to support your idea.
Attracting investors
Presenting your idea to investors is not an easy task, but there’s no alternative. If you are looking to attract significant funding, you have to go through this stage.
Below is a list of features to include in your startup pitch presentation that will help your product stand out from the crowd.
Storytelling
Stories sell better than anything else. Many founders often make a big mistake by not sharing their personal backstory and how the company came to be. A compelling history of your business development, its founders, and how you discovered the problem and came up with a solution will inspire more interest in your project.
Different formats
Think about experimenting with a variety of presentation formats to create informative materials that are easy on the eye, yet detailed enough to explain the project idea.
It’s a good idea to have both a short startup pitch presentation, that doesn’t exceed 10 minutes of speaking time, and a more extended version containing all the details you would like potential investors to know.
Roles and responsibilities of the founding team
Investors must understand that your founding team comprises the right people and that each member perfectly fits their role.
When introducing your team, go beyond “John is our CTO; Lisa is a Marketing and Sales Director.” Explain why John is a first-rate technical specialist and why he is the right person for the technical team leader role. Tell investors why you brought together this particular team, how you plan to develop a go-to-market strategy, and also explain your project roadmap.
You have to convince investors that your experts are capable of creating, promoting, and selling a product. Prove this with your case studies, marketing materials, and customer reviews.
Competitive advantages
Outlining your competitive advantages is also an essential part of your startup presentation. You must demonstrate and explain why your product or service is the best on the market and how you differ from the competition.
Investor background
It’s important to research the background and industry expertise of your potential investors beforehand. They may be interested in a particular area of a company at a certain stage of development, a project that chases a specific goal, etc. This information will help you understand what the investors are looking for and what you should offer them to secure the deal.
Hard facts
“Our project is unique” means nothing. There is no evidence. “We created the project and got $27 million in revenue” on the other hand, provides the financial detail that proves your statement.
The more facts that prove your current and potential success, the easier it will be for investors to trust you and support your project. Even if these are small numbers, tell them about them and explain how you managed to achieve them.
Customer acquisition
This is another critical component of your startup pitch. How will you attract clients? How will you measure your customer acquisition rate?
Customer acquisition costs can be easily calculated from your finances. So it’s better to explain to investors exactly how you will be attracting future customers, which channels you will be advertising on, and the additional tools that you will be using. Conduct customer research and create your client profile to give potential investors a clear idea of who your customers will be.
Precise funding expectations
Don’t say that you need “a million dollars or maybe a million and a half.” That’s a pretty big difference. Lack of concrete figures will tell the investor that you don’t understand exactly how much money you need.
Therefore, you must clearly understand how much capital you need to get the desired results. This shows that you have set goals, know how to achieve them, and won’t take the investor’s money for granted.
Revenue model
Investors will want to know how you’ll monetize your idea, so don’t forget to present a convincing revenue model.
This includes:
- Different product packages
- Whether you’re charging a monthly, annual, or one-off fee
- Initial pricing points
Also, when you pitch a startup, add a short description of how this model relates to annual revenue goals.
[Bonus]: Business Idea Pitch Example
Here’s a basic Web3 pitch template you can use to share your idea with investors:
1) Your (plan/start/grow) company (fill in your project name);
2) What will it be (website? online store? mobile/web app?);
3) For whom will it be designed (describe your target audience here);
4) The project aims to (write a short project story, the purpose of it, what does it do for the target audience, etc.);
5) Why your project is unique (explain what your product idea will do differently or uniquely, why people need it).
These are the crucial data that potential investors want to know about. You can customize this template as you like by adding information about your project, target audience, team members, project mission, and other details.
For DEIP, we created a short but compelling startup pitch presentation that includes all the necessary information about the project, its primary goals, specifications, benefits to users and investors, and why our idea is worthy of attention. Use it for inspiration!
So get out there with your Web3 startup pitch presentation!
You never know where you might find success, keep knocking on doors. It’s impossible to gauge how good your idea is until you present it to the public. Be patient, persevere, and treat each of your pitches as a different experience. Each presentation will bring you additional skills and knowledge to apply that will help you attract the funding your project deserves!
