Pitch Decks
Pitch Decks: tips for consideration
Most pitchings do not produce results. Funds could not be raised. One of the reasons is the lack of attraction to investors. There are few areas which could improve the results.
Vision
Vision must be convincing to win the heart of the investors.
What do you want to do to improve the world or the community you are in? Why do you want to do that? How would you do that? Earning big money should never be the reason behind for setting up the startup!
Competitiveness
Many founders often say that their products / services are the only one available in Hong Kong. They should look around the world to check if there are similar products / services being available overseas. Founders from other countries should also check in this manner. Being the only one in one’s jurisdiction is just not convincing enough to beg for money.
If there are something similar out there, how could you make your products / services more appealing to the customers? What are the niches?
Market
How big is the market? To attract investment, the market must be big enough to be viable and sustainable. A few years ago, there was a founder pitching to raise funds to provide sufficient AED heartstarters to rescue people having sudden heart attack on the street. His father died because of this. Nobody was interested because:
- Sudden heart attack does not happen everyday;
- It is not easy to find proper places to store the equipment;
- Manpower is needed to take care of the storage;
- Proper training has to be given to people who handle this equipment.
This means a huge amount of money and human resources have to be spent for some unpredictable events!
To deal with this, market research has to be done to prove the worthiness of the projects. Even if the market is big enough, the following has to be considered:
- Any market entry barrier;
- Who are the competitors;
- How could you beat the competitors;
- Strategy to enter the market;
- How much market share could be won within 3-5 years.
Don’t copy
Products / services having huge success in the US or Europe would not guarantee success in Asia or other regions. Quite often, founders try to come up with similar products / services. The markets are not the same. Most fail.
How much money you need
Most founders have some ideas how much money they need initially – to create protypes / rental etc. They tend to over estimate the potential revenues while under estimate expenses. This will have adverse impact on the operation. Be conservative on the revenue! Provide more for expenses!
How much equity to give
Many founders have not thought carefully how much equity they should give to investors. On the seed / angel investor round of fundings, the value of the startups is difficult to have a figure. Many founders are generous in giving away big slice of equity which they later regret. Founders should always calculate their chances of success when the valuation of their startups is to be done. In case of doubt, consult a professional on the valuation.
Execution
Projects have to be executed by a good team. The choice of compatible team members with strong desire for success is critical to attract investors to hand out money to support the projects.
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