4 Building Blocks to a Pitch That Attracts Investors

You got a great idea for a start-up business, but you are struggling to find the funding? This sounds all too familiar to many start-ups right now, but you shouldn’t lose hope. There are investors out there willing to invest, but raising funds for your start-up will require you to put in the effort.

According to StartUp Britain, well over 447,000 new businesses have been established this year alone. When you are competing with all these businesses for funding, you must find ways to ensure investors pick your company. To help you do just that, these four building blocks will give you the pitch of a lifetime and help you attract investment to your start-up.

1. Tell a Story

Investors listen and read a number of investment pitches every day. If you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to tell the investors a story, not just a list of facts about your business.
The most important thing about storytelling is to try to trigger the listener’s senses. This Fast Company article talked about ensuring your pitch uses the “language of the senses.” If you can get the investor to use his senses while listening to or reading your pitch, the chances are that he or she will remember your business for longer.

2. Keep It Simple

You need to keep your story simple. The longer your pitch goes on, the quicker the investor will lose focus. Naturally, you want to include all the key information from your business plan, but you don’t need to mention every single detail during the pitch.

Keeping it simple also means that you need to know what your investor knows about the field your business operates in. As you’ll see later, you want to focus on the right kind of investor, which typically means that they understand the field you work in already. So, you don’t want to explain everything about the market, as the investor will already possess this information.

3. Showcase Charity

Investors these days are increasingly interested in businesses that do charity work or provide sustainable products. In fact, studies have shown that entrepreneurs in general tend to give more to charities.

Businesses and entrepreneurs give money for charity, because they understand the value of giving back to the community in the long-term. Showcasing your philanthropy work during the pitch can actually be very lucrative to an investor.

4. Highlight Interest

Finally, you need to show you are interested and excited about the possibility of getting the investor on board. You don’t want to sound desperate, but you want to come across appreciative and let the investor know you have done your homework.

This requires you to be confident. Often this comes with practice, so you should do the pitch a few times to different audiences before you go after the ‘big shots’. Show passion not only towards your business idea, but also towards the investor in question.

Where Are the Investors Hiding?
Now that you have mastered the perfect pitch, you naturally need to find the investors. The good news is that there are plenty of willing investors out there. The key to finding funding for your start-up is all about attracting the right type of investors.

Think about what type of investment works best with your start-up. Are you after crowd funding opportunities or would private equity investors suit your business better? You can find investment platforms online for many different sectors as well as investment opportunities. In order to find the right platform and investor, you just need to define the kind of investor you want and start looking.

In a CNET article, entrepreneurs point out that you need to look for investors that align with your business interests. You should never consider fundraising as just a process to get money to your business, but define it as a process where you are looking for an investor who shares your passion and understands the direction you want to go with your start-up. When the investor hears your pitch, you want them to get excited as well, as that’s the best way to fund your new adventure.