Every successful investor pitch requires much more effort than putting some Power Point slides together and showing up for the meeting. The pitching session does not end with your final slide. The most interesting part actually begins with the Q&A session – this is the time to actually impress the investors by answering their questions. Every detail matters, but here we will focus on the fundamentals and highlight the three main ingredients of an investor pitch – the product, the business and the time frame.

What?

The entrepreneurs should present their product/service in a way that proves the need of it. The technology matters, but if you are not solving a problem and you are not offering to the customers something unique that also brings great value, you are going to have hard time to convince the investors that you can make a difference in the market. Don’t sell the product, sell the need for it!

How?

The technology behind your business can be groundbreaking but if you don’t have the right strategy and clear execution plan to follow, you are very likely to struggle growing your business. The investors may love your product or service, but if they don’t like what they hear in terms of making money, they will not be interested. To get their attention and to spark their interest, you should be able to show them how you are going to make money with this product, the growth potential of the business and convince them that market share is sufficient.

When?

Investors need to have enough of information before they make the decision to put not only their money, but also their time in a business. Investing in starting companies carries enormous risks and, even though the investors are comfortable with it, yet they always make well-informed decisions. They need to know not only how much money they will get in return but in what period of time this will happen. The time value of money impacts the decisions of investors, so you better give them a decent time frame.