This video explains how to pitch investors virtually via Zoom, highlighting the shift in investor comfort with online meetings and the advantages this presents for entrepreneurs seeking investment.
What this video covers
Let’s be honest. Really, the whole thing of in-person meetings, traveling, getting into an airplane, staying at a hotel, all of that is actually changing, especially events like Coronavirus has triggered and accelerated the way that we collaborate online, the way that we can meet online, and essentially, the way that you pitch investors when you’re trying to seek an investment for your business. In today’s video, we’re going to be breaking it down step-by-step, how to go out there and how to actually pitch via Zoom. With that being said, let’s get into it.
When it comes to the new era of virtual pitching, now you’re starting to see more and more investors being comfortable with seeing founders on the other side of the screen. Before that, in the past, investors really needed to see the body language, to see the reaction of the entrepreneur when they would ask the hard questions.
I would say that this is definitely an advantage, too, for the entrepreneur because you get, ultimately, to reduce and optimize the cost. Now, you don’t have to spend thousands of dollars. You can literally schedule your virtual meetings, let’s say via Zoom, back-to-back. Obviously, there are a ton of options.
You’re going to need time to prepare. When you’re doing the pitch online via video, you want to be buttoned-up as much as possible. In this case, what you want to do is to remember that the attention span of the investor is very short, so you want to compress your story in the most effective and clear way that you can, so they get it in a very short amount of time.
In essence, for example, if you would do a pitch offline and it would be between 5 to 10 minutes, if you’re doing it via video, you want to make it even shorter. You want to maybe leave it at 2 minutes and immediately leave available time for the investor to ask any questions because, ultimately, what you want to do is to trigger those questions – the more questions that you get, the closer that you’re going to be to the money.
Next, you want to practice, and you want to practice a lot. Here, you’re going to be practicing the narrative, how you’re going to be delivering your story because storytelling is absolutely everything. But have a clear focus on the numbers. They’re going to be asking you for the numbers. How are you making your money? What’s your profit? What kind of projections are you outlining or expecting over the course of time?
And remember that at the end of the day, you need to have the story or the narrative come out in a way in which it’s not robotic. Don’t sound like you’ve memorized, and then you’re just throwing it out there. It needs to sound authentic. We live in a world now where people are craving authenticity.
Be aware of the limitations of free versions. The last thing that you want is that you use Zoom and, for example, you’re not premium and past the 45-minute mark. You get locked out of the session. You get locked out of the session because you don’t have the premium subscription.
Next is, you want to have backup of absolutely everything. You want to have a backup of your presentation in case it’s not working on your current device. Maybe you have the presentation in a pen drive that you can put together. Maybe your Google Meet is not working. You’re going to have a Skype, or you’re going to have a Zoom or visa-versa. Perhaps your phone may not work. Maybe your co-founder has another phone, or maybe you have another phone, as well, that you can use.
Next, don’t go solo. Try to avoid being on your own, especially if you know it’s an investor that is worth it. Obviously, if it’s a first call, an introductory call to see if they make sense and worth the effort, then you probably want to do it alone.
You’ve got to tweak and repeat at the end of the day. So you need to get that feedback in. You need to understand what you did well and what you didn’t do so well. Write down those questions that you’re getting – remember that the questions are always going to be the same. Those investors are meeting with your competitors.
