Pitching Angel Investors Face to Face
I have previously discussed what I consider to be the four cornerstones of elevator pitching, to reiterate the idea is to overview your concept, your market and the need you satisfy, your businesses revenue model and how you plan on executing the business plan.
OK that takes care of your initial elevator pitch but when you do get a “sit down” face to face with your target angel you will need to further substantiate what you have presented in your elevator pitch.
Hopefully your pitch has baited the big fish angel, now you need to hook them with an entertaining story of how you came about your business idea or how your team came together. This is a great way of capturing the attention of the angel and excellent for building rapport as, being angels, they no doubt can relate to your experiences with their own.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
It can also pay dividends to talk about previous faliures (if you’re anything like me, you’ve had many), as bizarre as this may sound it proves your strength of character and again, the angel will no doubt relate.
Your ultimate goal is to keep the angels attention focused, a good way of doing this is to quickly gloss over the superfluous aspects of your business and present deeper insights in to the meat of your business and it’s plans for investment allocation.
The Google & Facebook Killer
This brings me neatly on to my next point, leave hype for the marketing. Never exaggerate or big up your product. Angels are shrewd entrepreneurs in their own right and can spot over exaggeration a mile off. Overemphasising is another potential pitfall, angels want to see any barriers to entry and IP advantages but they don’t need to know the ins and outs, at least not until due diligence stages.
It is important to end the meeting leaving a powerful impression. If you end the meeting with passion and confidence it will solidify the positive impression then angel has of you and the perception that you will look after their money and deliver an excellent ROI.
