This document provides tips for pitching startups to investors. It advises founders to research investors to find the right fit based on their focus, stage, sector, and geography. It also stresses the importance of warm introductions over unsolicited emails. The pitch should focus on the problem being solved, vision, team, market and distribution over detailed plans. The presentation should be a maximum of 10 slides and the founder should pitch themselves rather than the idea. Follow up is important to build trust and show progress.

1. the art of the investor pitch Boris Wertz / w media ventures

2. about me entrepreneur: JustBooks / AbeBooks (sold to Amazon) investor: 20+ early-stage investments, consumer internet, focus on Pacific North-West venture partner: Acton Capital (late-stage consumer internet fund) community builder: BootUp, Techvibes, Startup Visa Canada

3. my investments

4. some numbers to frame the challenge see 150-200 companies / year but make only 5-6 investments this ratio is worse for investors in large markets (i.e. Valley) you need to cut through the noise

5. the art of the investor pitch find the right investors to pitch get a warm introduction nail your pitch stay in touch the art of the investor pitch is more about the process than it is about the actual presentation

6. right investor your start-up needs to match investor’s focus: stage: seed, early, expansion, late sector: e-commerce, media, software,… business model: b2c, b2b geography: only investing close to home? do your research upfront or you will waste everybody’s time

7. get a warm introduction unsolicited emails have almost no chance – need to get a warm introduction LinkedIn Blog Events executive summary (+ link to product)

8. nail your pitch pitch yourself not the idea product demo focus on high-level concept investor deck of max 10 slides

9. avoid ask investor to sign a NDA go through detailed business plan / financial models schedule meetings for longer than 30 minutes

10. investor deck problem you are solving (+ product demo) vision team market distribution ask

11. pitch yourself start-ups are about the founders, not necessarily the ideas ideas change don’t focus on schools attended / companies worked for but what you have built examples: created a non-for profit organization, coded a Facebook game, published a student newspaper

12. size market using narratives investors are interested in big opportunities size market using narratives, not numbers examples: social sharing (and hence noise) is increasing dramatically so curation and filtering will become more important mobile devices are becoming powerful enough to replace laptops for most tasks and will unleash a flood of new applications and business models

13. stay in touch unless you are a serial entrepreneur, investor will need time to get comfortable with you listen, refine, show progress “it is like dating before getting married”

14. connect wmediaventures.com/blog twitter.com/bwertz ca.linkedin.com/in/bwertz

15. sources this presentation borrowed from many sources, including http://cdixon.org/2009/11/14/pitch-yourself-not-your-idea/ http://cdixon.org/2010/04/03/size-markets-using-narratives-not-numbers/ http://www.wmediaventures.com/news/4-key-points-to-address-in-your-startup-pitch/