Get people excited about your startup!
3 Mistakes Founders Do The Most While They’re Pitching Their Startups
I have pitched my startup on stage for many times. Also, I’ve seen lots of different pitch decks and listened to founders pitching their startups on stage. Here are the 3 mistakes that the founders do most while they’re pitching their startups that I wish I could know a long time ago.
1) Lack of — “The Hook”
So imagine that you’re in a room full of entrepreneurs, mentors, corporate leaders, and many other audiences.
People are sitting there for a long time and listening to numerous pitches one after the other, and at some point, these people lost their attention, and they’re turning on their iPhones and checking emails or scrolling through LinkedIn maybe some of them leaving their chairs to take a walk.
Here is the thing that you can instantly have their attention and get them entirely focused on what you’re saying. The hook in presentations is just like the one in fishing.
You’ve got to say something that summarizes that “Hey, I am here, I know you could be bored, I know you have something going on out of this room, but what I’m about to introduce you is something you’ll be more than interested.”
You have to find what is your hook specialized in your business or yourself and present it right away while you’re starting your presentation.
2) Too Many Texts on The Pitch Deck
Most startup pitch decks I’ve seen were covered by many texts in different forms, separate font types, and some of them could be extremely hard to read.
You have a given period of time at the stage to not just rolling through the slides with the clicker. Your pitch deck is something that supports your hypothesis and visualizes them. This is not something that you can only cover with a bunch of texts and read them on stage.
You’re on the stage to talk, to impress, to make people excited about what you’re building.
In an average demo day or presentation stage, founders are having 2 to 5 minutes to pitch their startups. I think this period is more than enough for startups to clear about their businesses. But it would be best if you were prepared and practiced about your speech.
I think it is also better to have growth charts, real-life proofs and visualization, and much more materials that support your arguments.
3) To not clear “What is the Ask?”
You are at the stage for some reason, right. You can be raising investment, seeking partnerships, or it’s just for general introducing. But whatever it is, your speech should be connected from beginning to end to serve the particular purpose of what you’re asking.
If it’s an investor pitch, you can talk about the market cap, tractions, team, and competitor analysis, and in the end, you can say that we’re asking for 400K to scale our startup. Or, if you’re, for example, pitching to your potential customers, it is better to more talk about the product features and the things that would somehow connect those people with your brand.
And this is actually it. I think there are many other things that we should talk about, but I wanted to keep these tips as briefly as I could. If you want to hear more about startups and pitching, don’t forget to let me know and I’ll be back with more content that would help entrepreneurs! And if you have any questions, feel free to reach me out via LinkedIn/Twitter. Thank you for your time, and have a great day!
