Guest blog by James Church, co-founder of Robot Mascot
Whenever you stand in front of a potential investor, you’re asking them to believe in two things: your idea and you, the person who can make it happen.
Throughout your fundraising journey, you have to show an entrepreneurial skill set that both impresses and reassures them. To prove you are indeed an investable entrepreneur, you need to demonstrate three essential skills:
- Resourcefulness: investors want to see that the entrepreneurs they back can enrol people in their vision and be highly resourceful.
- Financial acumen: they need proof that you’ve considered the financial risks, not just the potential rewards.
- Ability to deliver commercial success: they want to see a roadmap for a viable business, demonstrating strategic routes to commercial success.
Easily said.
So, to satisfy these criterias and prove to investors that you’re the entrepreneur to back, you’ll need three critical fundraising assets that showcase your personal ability to deliver returns. Do this successfully and you’ll join the 1% of entrepreneurs who establish themselves as genuinely investable.
To help entrepreneurs prepare for seeking and securing investment, here is our comprehensive guide to impressing investors and securing funding.
Fundraising assets 1: Pitch materials
Your pitch is the critical first opportunity to communicate your business idea to investors. Before any pitch situation, meticulously prepare your pitch materials. These should intrigue and excite investors about your business idea, its potential and your vision. Throughout your fundraising journey, you’ll return to these foundational elements repeatedly.
Whether raising investment, enrolling talent, or onboarding strategic partners, an engaging and solid pitch is key to long-term success and investors know it. Ensure your pitch materials provide clarity on your business, proof of your resourcefulness and a vision investors can get behind.
The essential pitch materials you need are:
A. Investor pitch deck
A 15-20 slide presentation that investors can review in your absence. It should be clear, accessible and detailed enough to capture potential backers’ attention. Use it in various settings, such as emailing potential investors, launching it on crowdfunding platforms, or uploading it to investment databases. Ensure it’s perfect, as it’s your key to getting in front of the right people.
Five of the best crowdfunding platforms:
Here are some great examples of investor pitch decks for brands you’ll recognise.
B. Presentation pitch
Based on your Investor Deck, this stripped-down version retains only vital visuals and a few supporting words for verbal presentations. Use it in boardrooms, at events, or on Zoom to command the audience’s attention without them just reading your slides. Effective visual content makes your pitch memorable long after the presentation ends.
C. Teaser pitch
Designed to inspire curiosity, this brief introduction outlines your product/service and the problem it solves. It should generate interest in your product’s potential and motivate investors to seek more information. A successful Teaser Pitch will intrigue investors enough to want to hear the full Investor Pitch.
Teaser pitch essentials:
- Hook/opening statement
- Problem statement
- Solution overview
- Value proposition
- Call to action.
If delivered in written form, keep it to a single page, focusing on clarity and brevity.
D. One-pager
When applying to angel investment groups or investment funds, you’ll often need a One-Pager. This concise document provides a high-level overview of your idea and key business model elements. It gives readers a quick insight into what you’ll present if invited to pitch, compelling them to want to know more.
E. Expression of interest form
Obtaining written Expressions of Interest from investors solidifies commitment during an investment round. It makes the commitment more concrete for both you and the investor. Aim to gather as many of these as possible from credible investors to secure more backers than needed, ensuring the investment round’s success even if some drop out. Use these forms at large pitching events where canvassing every delegate’s opinion may not be possible.
Elements to include:
- Investor details
- Investment amount range
- Investment type
- Shareholder Style
- Reason for interest
- Additional contributions
- Declaration.
Tips for creating great pitch materials
- Tailor your pitch materials to the interests and expectations of your potential investors. Research their background and preferences to align your content with what they value most.
- Craft a narrative that captivates your audience from the start. Use storytelling techniques to make your business idea relatable and memorable.
- Keep your pitch materials focused and to the point. Avoid jargon and complex language to ensure that your message is easily understood.
- Use high-quality visuals, including graphs, charts and images, to illustrate key points and make your presentation more engaging. Visual aids can help clarify complex information and keep the audience’s attention.
- Include essential metrics that demonstrate your business’s viability and potential. Showcasing traction, market size and financial projections can build investor confidence.
- Ensure your pitch materials are professionally designed. A polished presentation reflects well on your business and conveys attention to detail and seriousness.
- Highlight any traction your business has gained, such as customer numbers, partnerships, or revenue growth. Demonstrating progress can build credibility and excitement.
- End with a clear call to action, specifying the next steps you want investors to take. This could be setting up a meeting, reviewing detailed documents, or making a commitment.
- Practise your pitch multiple times to ensure smooth delivery. If you’re familiar with your material it will help you present confidently and handle questions effectively.
Fundraising asset 2: Financial projections
Your financial projections can make or break your chances of securing investment. Poorly researched or unconvincing projections will significantly reduce your likelihood of success. Investors want evidence that you’ve carefully explored every part of your business’s financial reality. Any investment carries risks, so investors are not impressed by projections that downplay or ignore them.
Instead, provide a comprehensive set of projections. Include a five-year forecast and a summary with the most important metrics and demonstrate how the business can offer a great return on investment. Be thorough, realistic and detailed. Your projections should include profit and loss statements, a cash flow summary, a rolling balance sheet and key metrics that provide insight into your current and expected performance. Show investors that you know what it takes to make the business successful and that you have a forecasted route to get there.
Tips for creating great financial projections
- Include detailed profit and loss statements, cash flow summaries, rolling balance sheets, and key metrics. These documents form the backbone of your financial plan and offer a clear snapshot of your financial health.
- Every assumption must be rooted in solid market research and realistic data. Don’t base your projections on wishful thinking. Reliable data ensures your plan is credible and trustworthy.
- Acknowledge potential risks and outline strategies to mitigate them.
- Provide a comprehensive five-year forecast.
- Use conservative and realistic assumptions.
- Clearly outline and justify all expected revenue streams.
- Incorporate graphs and charts for a clear and engaging presentation.
- Include best-case, worst-case and most likely scenarios to cover various outcomes.
- Clearly document all assumptions for transparency and investor confidence.
- Continuously review and revise your projections based on feedback and new information.
Fundraising asset 3: Business plan
Investors won’t back you unless you can demonstrate that you know how to deliver commercial success and create a viable business. Your business plan is the most important asset you’ll create for your fundraising journey, as it forms the foundation of your financial projection and pitch materials. Investors will scrutinise it intensely, so it must be thorough and convincing.
In your business plan, you should provide detailed explanations of how you’ll create demand for your product or service, the operational structure you need, your target markets, growth plans and the financial roadmap to reach your goals.
Anticipate and answer investors’ questions. Also include market research, demand calculations and plans to reach revenue goals.
Try to present a long-term vision for scaling up, entering new markets, making acquisitions and projections of the funding needed to meet these targets. Smart entrepreneurs will also include investment objectives and an exit strategy, showing they understand the investor’s goal to eventually make a return and cash out.
Tips for creating a great business plan
- Start with a compelling vision and mission statement that encapsulates your business’s core purpose and long-term aspirations.
- Conduct thorough market research to understand your industry, target audience and competition. Include comprehensive data and insights to back your claims and strategies.
- Try to clearly articulate what sets your product or service apart from competitors. Highlight unique features and benefits that will attract customers.
- Develop a robust marketing strategy detailing how you plan to reach your target market, including channels, tactics and budget.
- You should outline your operational structure, including key processes, resources and personnel. Explain how your business will function day-to-day to achieve its objectives.
- Provide realistic and detailed financial projections, including income statements, cash flow forecasts and balance sheets. Demonstrate a clear path to profitability and financial stability.
- Try to identify potential risks and challenges in your business and develop strategies for mitigating these risks to show preparedness and resilience.
- Always clearly state your funding requirements, how the investment will be used, and your plans for providing returns to investors. Consider including an exit strategy to show you understand the investor’s perspective.
Armed with these three different pitch materials, you’ll showcase your resourcefulness and ability to enrol people into your vision, using them repeatedly throughout your fundraising journey.
Our friends at Robot Mascot have supported hundreds of founders and their clients have raised more than £200m. Get more investment advice, guidance and resources to help you create the perfect investor pitch from Robot Mascot!
