Pitching with Confidence

Pitching investors is fun.  A lot more fun when the response is positive.

About a year ago I had a lofty goal.  I was going to create the premier niche sports-related social networking platform.  It was going to be cool.  Everyone would use it and love it.

My partner and I invested a lot of our own dough into the company, brought on a talented programmer, and went to work.  Then we ran out of money.  Which led us to making our rounds with the various angel and seed funds in our local market.  What a disaster that was!  Why?

Who wants to fund a half-finished pipe dream with little-to-no proof of concept?  Would you?  It’s easy as an entrepreneur to get excited about your product/service/website/whatever without having any traction.  After getting smacked around a bit by some seasoned investors, it becomes easier to both see and accept the weaknesses in your business.  Traction is everything.  An idea is nothing.

My second go at pitching investors has been a much more enjoyable experience.  It’s actually fun.  Landing meetings has been relatively easy in comparison to my previous experience.  Our presentation skills and general know-how are considerably greater.  Our understanding of where we need to be as a business is clearer.

So, what’s helped us get far with investors this time around?

• Fully-developed technology that his ready to take to market
• Core management team is in place
• A few “Big Name” clients
• Three strategic partnerships that carry a lot of weight
• Confidence

The first four items listed above are self-explanatory.  ”Confidence” is a bit more ambiguous; I’ve pitched with confidence and I’ve pitched scared to death.  Let me outline the difference…

Pitching with confidence starts with having a business you believe in.  When working and talking with fellow entrepreneurs, I hear the same question over and over again after an entrepreneur is finished telling me about their business: “so, what do you think?  Is it a good idea?”  Hmmm…

If you are asking that question, you are likely facing one of these two problems:

1. You don’t believe in your business
2. You have a lot of faith in your business/idea but haven’t proven anything yet (i.e., you don’t know if anyone will buy your product/service once it actually exists, etc.)

If you can take care of problem #2, problem #1 will take care of itself.   If you cannot take care of problem #2, the writing is on the wall, my friend.  Don’t spin your tires trying to raise money on a nice idea with a flashy PowerPoint presentation.

Imagine how much more confidence you have when pitching if you have customer reviews/testimonials and some social proof!  The question of whether or not your product works or whether or not anyone will buy from you is no longer an issue.

Being confident in your business makes all the difference.  Don’t waste your time pitching investors until you are 100% confident in your business.  Don’t ask for money to try to figure out whether or not you should be confident.  You need to get there on your own first.

With my business, now that we know that our technology works, we’re confident.  We’ve seen it work.  It works really, really well.  It impresses our clients and it impresses our investors.  We have testimonials from clients thanking us for the wonderful tools we’ve built.  That’s when you know you’ve got something special.  That’s when you can go into a meeting with investors and pitch with confidence.