How is your pitch?
Today I have attended an investor day where 12 startups where pitching. And based on what I have heard, I would not invest in any of them. Not because the idea was terrible, but because the CEO/Founder could not address the things I am looking for in the pitch.
Here is my list:
1. Who is your customer? Based on what are you segmenting your clients?
2. How big are your customer segments? Show me numbers about the size of your market and what part of it do you want to capture.
3. What problem are you solving to your primary customer segment?
4. How do you solve it? What is your Value proposition? Show me how you increase customer value, decrease cost, or improve control.
5. Who are your competitors? What do you do differently?
6. What is unique about you? Why will clients be loyal (yes, I am worried about your future churn rate)?
7. What are your sales channels? How effective are they (conversion)? What is CAC (customer acquisition cost)?
8. Who is on the team, and what are their key competencies?
9. For what are you asking the money? How will you use it? I want to see actions with dates. Which should show how fast are you.
10. What are the key numbers of your financial model?
Needless to say that all the numbers need to be consistent through the presentation.
Out of 12 startups today, only three managed to cover 5 to 7 points from my list. Nobody got more than 7. 8 addressed 4 or less.