How to Pitch Your Startup to Investors

How To PITCHYour Startup To

Investors

This presentation represents Jeremey Donovan’s personal opinions and not those of Gartner Inc.. All company and product names mentioned herein are trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Start with your core value proposition1

Forget hotels (2009)

Travel like a human

The friendly neighborhood way

to pay (2011)

Sell More With Square

Sync your files online and across computers (2009)

Your stuff, anywhere

Customer-centric

Short

Positive

Action-oriented

Benefits (not features)

Catchy

Share the problem you are solving2

Hotels are expensive and

impersonal

Credit card merchant services

are complex to setup and manage

Every device has its own data

Complex

Boring

Expensive

Time-Consuming

Risky

Inconvenient

Link the problem to disruptive macro trends3

Globally connected youth culture

‘Solo-preneur’ revolution

Explosion of mobile devices + limitless

storage & bandwidth

Alternative currencies

Energy

Electronic health

Security

3D Printing

Sensors

Show your solution4

A web-based platform where :

[Travelers can save and immerse]

[Hosts can earn]

A smartphone & sensor based platform for

processing credit card transactions

A cloud-based platform to protect,

access, and share your files anywhere,

anytime

Not a feature, not a product, but a…

PLATFORM

< < < Insert Demo Here >>>

Link your business model to a massive opportunity5

10.9 billion trips/yrx

0.10% sharex

$20 commission=

> $200M/yr

$6T CC transactionsx

0.15% sharex

2.5% commission=

> $200M/yr

1.2 billion PCsx

0.20% sharex

$100 / yr=

>$200M/yr

[Massive Market] x [Tiny Share] x [Reasonable Price]

Explain how you acquire customers at low cost6

Events

Partnerships

CraigsList

Internet advertising

Mobile Retailers

Referral incentives

File Sharing

Build ‘virality’ into your product

Remember that product quality is marketing

Show traction with real customers7

>10M nights booked

> $10B processed with > 40K retailers >200M users

Though less impactful than revenue from customers,this is also the place to show tractionwith investors, partners, advisors, etc.

Handle objections8

What about personal safety?

What about government regulations?

How do you handle credit fraud?

How are you different than a million other

competitors?

The best offense is a good defense(but don’t break into jail)

Explain why you are the right team9

Passionate, well-educated millennials

initially funded by Y Combinator

Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter

Passionate, well-educated millennials

initially funded by Y Combinator

Pedigree matters, but there is no perfect profile

And one last thing…

Close with your ask10

How much money?+

What you are going to spend it on?+

How you are going to repay it?

Connect with me

Blog: www.speakingsherpa.com

Twitter: @SpeakingSherpa

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/jeremeydonovan