What are the most important steps to prepare for a pitch meeting with angel investors and VCs?

When pitching to angel investors or VCs, tailor your presentation to their interests and investment style. Know your business plan inside out, craft a compelling story, and prepare a concise, clear pitch deck. Highlight your team's strengths, show real-world traction, and be clear about your financial needs. Practice your pitch, anticipate tough questions, and focus on building relationships, not just presenting facts.

Present yourself as the professional you want to be received: research and know who you are talking/presenting to. Be clear, concise and confident when you showcase what your product or service is and how this enhances, reduces time or simplifies steps in the channel that you have developed this product or service for. Do not fill in time instead use your time wisely.

Once I crafted a pitch. There was no investor in the room, but a recommendation judge during a funding opportunity competition. Hours of preparation and rehearsal morph into a daily regime, and the power points were "pointing." Yet, there was a problem. The potential to win was heavily dependent on meeting criteria most aligned to the for-profit sector, and not the non-profit sector. My new-wave business approach melded both business sectors into one. There was also a huge serving of the “warm and fuzzy.” There was no winning against the for-profit business models. Presentation is important, but for funders looking for potentially self-sustaining business models – convincing upside potential with low-risk variables makes for the win.

Engage investors with a narrative that highlights your vision, unique value, and market potential. Showcase your solution, revenue model, and success metrics. Emphasize your team's expertise and specify your funding needs and goals. This approach turns facts into a persuasive and memorable pitch.

These days you need more than a solid idea and marketing plan. You need to show the costs, the projections, and a short-term and long-term outlook. Your Business Plan should reflect every aspect because you don't know how many (or how few) people will look at everything. I still recall the time that I was hired to work on a Business Plan for a client, only to be told that the investor that received it turned it over to his financial advisor to "approve" before he looked at the concept and the strategy. It also happens a lot where the person requesting the proposal knows a lot more than the partners he/she hands it off to. Your Business Plan should provide a full explanation as if to a complete stranger, no matter how much they know.

Refine your delivery through practice, ensuring confidence and clarity in your message. Rehearse in front of diverse audiences for feedback, anticipate investor questions, and craft concise responses. Ensure your pitch deck is visually engaging and aligns with your verbal pitch. This preparation is key to making a lasting impact.

Alongside your pitch deck, prepare an executive summary, business plan, financial projections, customer testimonials, market research, and product demos. Ensure these materials are accurate, current, and organized, ready to share with investors at any stage of the meeting. This comprehensive preparation enhances credibility and supports your pitch.

The Set-up determines the Follow-up. If you made the right pitch to the right audience they will ask investing questions. If you get invited to dinner after that, it’s all about them getting to know you better. Always strive to make pitches to investors coming from a respected referral.

Post-pitch, quickly thank investors, reiterate your key points and value proposition, and provide requested information. Keep them informed about progress and milestones. Maintain a respectful relationship, be ready to negotiate terms, and seek legal and financial advice as necessary. Timely follow-up demonstrates professionalism and commitment.

Show high competency. No EGO. Create scarcity and urgency. Momentum, if they don’t invest, have two presentations for tomorrow. People’s fear of loss trumps their greed for gain!

NO YOUR NUMBER!!! And how fast an investor will get their return on their money! The pitch has to be fast and efficient! It’s about margin and return on the investment and how fast you can make that happens and how much with it take to make the return happen!