Pitch with the end in mind!

Adjusting your pitch and financials to meet investor criteria is essential to get your message through.

Investors will appreciate seeing the workflow and operational flow and what are the risks at each level. They will be curious to see who is running the show and if you have good management to make things happening.

Here are the essentials to consider while preparing your pitch.

Brace yourself for ‘investment’ marriage in 3 steps

• Purpose: Know the deal-breakers and de-risk!

Investors want to be sure you know your business inside out and what they want above all is to reduce their risk.

• Pre-pitch: Who to engage? How to engage?

Partner with the good investors to make sure you could scale up your business, and keep in mind that investors need to diversify their portfolio. Hence choose them carefully and make your own due diligence to understand why they would be interested in your business.

Also, note that the journey is long and informal due diligence starts from the very first moment you meet an investor.

• Post-pitch: Documentation. Data-room.

Investors are making rational decisions. Although it’s good to be passionate, back-it up with facts to make it works.

Understand investors’ situation in a nutshell

Time is precious. Hook investors’ attention!

Herding gives comfort. Select investors carefully!

Execution trumps idea. Build your team to stay relevant & scale!

Investment committee decision. Adjust to the individual: overview vs details!

Portfolio construction. Know how the investor is deploying!

Want to learn more about investor approach and negotiation? Register now to access the free Social Finance Academy courses: Units 7, 8 and 9 

Training: The session on “Adjusting your pitch and financials to meet investor criteria” was run during the Leveraging Innovative Finance Together event, organized for sustainable energy, water, and sanitation social entrepreneurs
Trainer: Jessica Aung  – Jessica Aung, Investment Manager (Myanmar Representative) – DEG – German Investment and Development Company
Date: 26 February 2019
Location: Yangon, Myanmar