Many things are important towards the success of a start-up pitch but getting the audience to relate to the problem that is being solved can be the difference between a nod or a nay. For many founders this could mean that they must essentially dumb down their pitch, and I would agree with that approach over a technologically complex and “intelligent sounding” presentation any day.  In sales we call this approach, selling the sizzle.

In a nut shell what I am suggesting to the presenter in you, is to hone down on the objective of the first pitch i.e. being relatable enough to warrant further investigation. I would not advise neither expect a presentation to get an investor to write a cheque immediately after the pitch, that is unheard of and nearly impossible. However, if your pitch has the recall value to keep investors thinking for hours, days or even weeks after it – the goal has been achieved.

These are some key ingredients to achieve the desired effect on an investor audience:

1. Create an image of your target customer
2. Explain the challenges that the target faces today
3. Delve into the loss (in time, money, etc.) that this target faces
4. Elaborate how that loss is hurting the target and how the current solutions aren’t helping
5. Elucidate how your solution solves these problems (a video case study is recommended)
6. Calculate the value delivered to the target
7. Quantify how many such targets exist i.e. TAM, SAM, SOM, etc

Your story should get woven in such a way that the investor finds themselves in the shoes of the target and can visualize the issue, the solution and the value it would provide to them. A great example is this Bhavish Agarwal’s 2011 pitch for Ola.

Notice how Bhavish asks the audience for a show of hands of how many people have had a bad taxi experience. Almost everyone has faced this issue at some point or the other or knows of someone that has, i.e. relatable. Instead of delving into the awesomeness of Ola’s tech stack, he uses ‘you’ multiple times during the presentation to gently put the audience into the shoes of a taxi hailer. He shares just enough pain points to get your creative juices flowing and start looking for a solution to this imaginary problem. Smartly, he chooses to stay out of the tech plaining which he understands can (and will) get covered during follow-on conversations with interested investors.  

If you think about it, it is easy to argue with an explanation but hard to argue with an experience. Therefore, it makes logical sense to cut out the excess fabulousness of your pitch and focus on only delivering a pitch that is edible, visualizable and recallable. The rest can wait.

19/2019