15 Jan The Biggest Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Pitching Investors
After years of helping entrepreneurs/CEOs navigate the waters of preparing for an investor pitch presentation, we’ve identified the nine most common mistakes they repeatedly make:
#1: They dive into creating the slide deck without a holistic plan.
When you write a paper (high school, college, or professionally) you usually start with an outline and then you begin filling in the details. The same is true for a pitch to investors. You need to plan out what you are going to say, why you are going to say it, and how you are going to say it. By jumping right into the slides, entrepreneurs can waste a tremendous amount of time. Creating slides is time consuming and when you are still in the draft process of your pitch, you will be making lots of changes and throwing out slides as you iterate toward a final version of your slide deck.
Please don’t start with the slide deck when you create your pitch to investors. It would be difficult for us to think of a way to make the process more inefficient!
#2: They create only a slide deck.
At Pitch Creator we call the slide deck the, “Listen to Me Pitch,” because it is a great tool to support your verbal presentation to investors. However, most entrepreneurs don’t know they also need to create a “Read Me Pitch,” which we call an Investment Summary. This document is like an executive summary but is designed specifically for investors and intended to be emailed or printed.
Since most entrepreneurs don’t have a Read Me Pitch, they don’t understand the importance of it or its hidden advantages. The Read Me Pitch is the first way an investor will learn meaningful information about your business. Then they will decide if they want to take the time to meet with you. Without a Read Me Pitch entrepreneurs are missing out on many potential meetings with investors and they don’t even realize it! Also, there are multiple hidden advantages to a Read Me Pitch that we discuss in detail in our courses.
To maximize your probability of fundraising success, your pitch to investors must include both a specifically designed Read Me Pitch and Listen to Me Pitch.
#3: They don’t realize the most important job of the CEO/entrepreneur.
If you are the CEO and need capital to grow your company, then fundraising is your most important job. You are the only person who can do it (you cannot outsource it) and it is the lifeblood of your business. Without it you cannot hire or execute on your plan.
If you are a CEO/entrepreneur and determine that fundraising is currently your most important job, then you should be spending most of your time, energy, and resources learning and mastering that skill. It will not only help you maximize your chances of fundraising success in the near term, but also serve you well throughout your entrepreneurial career.
To keep reading all nine common mistakes, download the full e-book by clicking here.
