{"id":46849,"date":"2023-10-20T15:51:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/a-founder-turned-investor-on-how-to-perfect-your-startup-pitch-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:51:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:51:31","slug":"a-founder-turned-investor-on-how-to-perfect-your-startup-pitch-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/a-founder-turned-investor-on-how-to-perfect-your-startup-pitch-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"A founder-turned-investor on how to perfect your startup pitch – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pitch\"<\/div>\n

Being pitched to by ill-prepared, ill-informed or immature entrepreneurs is not much fun for most investors.<\/p>\n

Having been on both sides of the table, I realised that I had a unique perspective in helping to bring founders and investors together.<\/p>\n

So in the spirit of helping to connect both, it’s worth sharing some insights.<\/p>\n

As a founder, though the odds may be stacked against you, it is possible to gain investment for your ‘brave new venture’. But things don’t always go according to plan.<\/p>\n

When that happens, the polite investors that I know gently guide and give positive feedback; the more aggressive or insensitive of our ‘tribe’ of investors are less compassionate and more direct, which I’ve witnessed more than a few times.<\/p>\n

Though the outcome is the same – “no” – the outcome of such misdirected aggression and disrespect can lend itself to those weaker recipients tending to disappear, never to present themselves again.<\/p>\n

Some of us might say that this is trial by fire or ‘if you can’t stand the heat\u2026.’, and that taking a direct view is a way of sorting those that can take criticism and rise from it, stronger and wiser, and better prepared than those that can’t.<\/p>\n

I prefer to take a different view – we as successful entrepreneurs-come investors can vividly remember our own paths to success; the challenges and opportunities; of falling over & getting back up again – and of the help & guidance that we received along the way, as we tried (and often failed) to discover our path forward.<\/p>\n

The reality is that most won\u2019t succeed – almost certainly not in your first ventures – but that doesn’t mean that we have to degrade, disrespect or denigrate someone who is searching and seeking to become that which they have imagined.<\/p>\n

Often times for many investors we have to remind ourselves that the aspiring entrepreneur is not their business model, their value proposition, their idea, or their path to market.<\/p>\n

These are just vehicles, from which they seek to achieve their vision of becoming a successful entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

Resilience- the capacity to get up again after being knocked down- is a trait learnt over time. But as investors, we don’t and shouldn’t make that any harder than it already is – life and experience will naturally take care of that soon enough.<\/p>\n

No, our job is to be as engaging, inspiring and supportive as our time, emotional intelligence and capacity allows, in order that the second, third -or later -venture is the one that ultimately works.<\/p>\n

And for aspiring entrepreneurs, they have an equally hard job: to learn, study, prepare and engage, not as amateurs, but as professionals.<\/p>\n

Which means that they must do their homework, before approaching investors.<\/p>\n

Here’s a small but important list of examples:<\/p>\n