Learn to pitch your stock not you!

I want you to come across as a “pro” when you pitch for capital.
So let’s get real.

This is where a lot of founders go wrong in their pitch;

1. Over Indexing on your personal story. Pitching your stock is different to pitching your vision and your story. Your story is important but that importance wanes after about two minutes.. This is where a lot of first time founders go wrong. Most founders have triumphed over adversity, are smart and are resilient so they would like to tell that story, I know I did. 10 mins later… you are still on that story? It’s likely going to be a no.

2. Not becoming the CEO in the elevator pitch and staying the founder. Your founder persona might be excitable, inspiring, energizing and a little erratic. But your CEO persona must be calm, concise, direct and clear. You can’t be the founder in the elevator pitch you need to be the CEO. There is a place for the founder in product demo and when you talk about customers. Excitement in that component is absolutely differentiated and shows a relentless obsession in getting it right.

3. Not telling investors why you would want them - Remember 1+1 = 10. As a CEO if you can understand the value of the investor and how you could direct their support, you come across as a strong board director and can make most founders don’t spend the time to research I looked up your firm,I believe you can add value here

4. Not making the problem simple enough – Founders can overcomplicate problem and make it to verbose or jargon heavy. The problem like the solution should be able satisfy grandma when she asks ‘What on earth are you up to now?”. Let’s take WYWM.

This problem exists because of "poor recruiting systems”
to “Employers can’t attract the right people”
to "We have stopped looking at the potential of others”,



So how can you overcome this?

Research, Research and Research.

Being well researched means you can point to relative acquisitions and models conversationally, assess how rational or emotional you should lean in your product deep dive and score their overall competency on how fast or slow you should sequence the meeting. Not all investors are the same, some significantly outperform others, figure out how and why then adjust your questions and conversation points for your initial meeting.

1. What should you look for when you research?

2. How do they make a decision? Work out who is on the Investment Committee and their investment thematics or bracket

3. Are they a great investor? Review their last deals, their board directorships

4. Do they have dry powder? How much money can they still deploy in their current fund?

Are they hear to deal or fuck around? Check out how many deals they do a year and see their appetite for the speed.
Ptichbook is great for this! Can’t afford it? Ask one of your investors to borrow their access.

All of these questions can create a moment for a personalised hook and a way we can change your initial 5 min pitch.

Next we have to pitch the stock as a CEO not the story as a founder. I know, it isn’t as fun but it’s necessary to show your sophistication.

Here is a tried and tested template that has worked for me in the first 5 minutes of your capital raise pitch:

1. Overall Vision - Our Vision at Company X

2. Problem and Current Success - The problem we are solving is A. We are currently solving this problem for Y amount of customers for B amount for C revenue this year.

3. Highlight Unique Selling Point within market descriptor - We do it with a “market category” software or hardware or service that uniquely solves S with product feature T or service

4. Business Model - We make money by “insert revenue model”

5. Secret Sauce for customer acquisition -Our business acquires customers differently by “insert feature that activates paying customers”

6. Point of difference in go to market against other players - Our voice stands out because of our “brand position or how we deal with customers, they scale we offer or what we provide that is value added or free”

7. Point of difference outcome by number - This generates a positive NPS of X or a Revenue retention of X or YOY ACV

8. Future Ambition - We would like to solve this problem for X more customers next year. We also seen an opportunity to bring our product to these types of customer or markets.

9. Investor Qualification- We are looking for a strategic investment partner that can;"Insert what you are looking for" This could include but not limited"

Finding Operating executives or build out our management team

Attract foreign capital and new investors for long-term growth

Support us in this exit or M+A action

Open up a geographic market.

10. Capital Ballpark - We believe that with Y amount of investment we can be at this level of revenue and profit in due course (modest financial forecast).

This template isn’t perfect but it has definitely helped me raise my game to a new level when pitching for capital.

Don’t know when to start or want help converting into my template? I’d love to chat, helping founders shift to pitching stock over a story is a little tricky, emotional and can be really frustrating.

I’d be more then happy to give you an hour of my time to help you get started. Just send me a DM!

Keeping your equity is a valuable thing and nailing your elevator pitch can attract the right investors and valuation.


P.S I'm also completing my GED - Keep track of my progress on my LI and see how I uncover top potential in GED graduates along the way. I also talk alot about how High School could change for the better!!!