I understand your position. Let me try to give you some humble tips about body language and overall communication. I’m guessing you already know the business model stuff, and if your product stinks, I won’t be able to help you here. Besides, in my own experience interviewing startups, one of the major issues about the pitch is constantly related to the language and presentation.How to impress an investor
So, here we go:How to impress an investor
- Don’t speak too fast. Beware that your tone of voice is crucial, it highly indicates your maturity level. Notice that older and more experienced people usually speak slowly. I know this might seem ridiculous, but it really matters.
- The best thing you can do every time they ask you something is starting by saying “Well, as you know, we cannot be absolutely sure about anything…” This will definitely show deliberation, prudence and wiseness. They know you’re trying to sell them your product, but the humbler your appear to be, the better.
- Listen really well. Do NEVER interrupt a question, do not stress up in replying to the investor, take your time, take a deep breath before every question, work with the momentum.
- Smile and show a calm state of self-confidence. When I was presenting my startup to a board of investors, I got this feeling that you should never worry if you don’t have all the answers, if they don’t like your product, or even if you mess up with the words. It’s fine! Pitching to an investor is really not a big deal, you’ll have infinite opportunities to sell your business to an investor as long as you keep in business. So, if you present a confident and happy positioning, it can highly impact the perception investors have on you.
To wrap up the communication chapter, I’d like to leave you a final note about voice tone.
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Investors spend a significant part of their time listening to startup pitches, and it can definitely get boring, trust me (especially in those speed dating events in which you meet 30 startups in 1,5 hours). So you want to make sure to stand out.
Now, how can you do this solely by working on your pitch’s tone?
- Bring all your enthusiasm and passion for this business to the surface and show it in your pitch
- Guarantee that only one person speaks at the presentation to be coherent, structured and easy to follow
- Speak slowly and learn to highlight the keywords to better impact the audience