You only have 2 min to make a great impression
Entrepreneurs are learning and dealing with many things along their way toward indefinite outputs of success and failure. I respect that, a lot.
I find it unfair to see them struggle with both their pitch and their data (that they are supposed to master…), the two most important things there are when one only has 2 minutes to catch the attention and convince someone to dig further. It’s especially true in the early days of many startups because entrepreneurs have yet everything to learn.
Entrepreneurs have the mission to turn complex and painful problems into powerful and simple front-end solutions. Same goes when pitching someone or sharing data. Turn your startup into a compelling and relevant story that people will love to hear and respect.
DATA & KPI
Raw data suck. Nobody cares about how many visits, signups or purchases you got unless you connect those numbers with time in order to show conversion, retention and growth.
That is why you have to focus on delivering simple ratios regarding your conversion funnel to show initial product-market fit
You also have to build a cohort in order to show retention
And finally, you must show growth through compound growth rates (weekly or monthly) and nothing else
I won’t teach you here how to build a cohort, how to calculate compound growth rates or how to analyse your conversion funnel. You need to do your homework here.
THE PITCH
Here are few tips in order to make sure you are on the right path toward pitching people about your startup.
Find the one sentence and the one data that are worth sharing about your startup. don’t make it shine, make it bold. It’s a hook.
Be empathetic and true to yourself. Be humble yet ambitious. Be aware, yet determined. Stay clear and concise. The goal is to catch the sincere attention of your audience, not to bore them.
Be careful, the person you’re pitching is not necessary a potential user/customer. You need to make sure your audience clearly and quickly understand what you’re talking.
Finally, your story goes as follow: Who we are, what we do, when you started, why people use and love our product/service, what is our secret sauce, our KPIs, and finally our ambition.