3 Strategies to Improve Your Startup Pitch in the Digital Era

A startup pitch is a crucial part of securing investors to fund and grow your business. Founders must go beyond technical skills to present their products and services in the best way possible, which is why you need to make the most out of every helpful resource. We looked at some successful startup pitches and summarized three actionable ways you can improve your startup pitch.

With the start of a new year, countless startups are opening across the US. A Small Business Trends report on the startup market shows that as many as two in five Americans plan to start a business in 2023. This is in line with 2022 statistics, with around 62% of Americans wanting to earn more money through their own business venture. However, with high competition, startup owners and teams have to work hard to succeed. This is especially challenging with limited manpower and money, which makes investors a critical part of a business.

While it’s important to follow consumer and investor trends, like focusing on sustainability, there are other factors you should consider. Our previous post on “The Startup Pitch: Everything You Need to Know”, visits the basics of creating a startup pitch: finding the right audience, telling a compelling story, and avoiding common startup pitfalls. To catch an investor’s interest, it’s crucial that you go above and beyond— meaning that you need to use every potential tool and help you can get.

In this article, we discuss three strategies you can use to improve your startup pitch in the digital era:

Consult and hire experts

Many experts recommend that startups should have leaders with business experience. However, there may be certain aspects of the field you’re not entirely familiar with. As such, it can be beneficial for your startup to consult or hire an expert. Regarding finance, having a professional on your team can significantly improve how you present projections to potential partners/investors. Maryville University’s article on financial analysts documents how these specialists often examine markets, stocks, companies, and other business and financial data. With their knowledge, they can project future earnings, potential monetary issues, and other financial matters— all of which are part of essential reports your startup has to prepare.

One great way to start meeting experts is through our application Intch. Through Intch, startup owners can connect with relevant people who can help improve their business approaches. You can easily send a request based on specific areas related to your expertise. In turn, you can also help others or introduce them to someone you know, allowing you to earn Social Capital. This boosts your profile and request visibility, providing more opportunities for consultations.

Use data analytics as leverage

When it comes to attracting investors, it’s crucial that startups make them understand the value of their service. Startups with an existing customer base may have an advantage in pitches, as they can use product metrics to leverage their business. As noted by venture capitalists (VC) Meka Asonye and Zach Berger, they often focus on statistics like daily active users against monthly active user numbers to see if a product or service is growing organically.

Some other ways startups can use data analytics to improve their business include:

• Market data — Data analytics can be the basis for founding a startup. By analyzing local trends, house cleaning platform Hux found a demand for house cleaners in Atlanta, Georgia. They developed their model similar to Uber, keeping systems familiar and accessible.
• Customer data — Some startups, like the clothing marketplace FMRU Clothing, already have an existing customer database. Not only can they show demand, but they also use customer feedback and shopping data to improve their business models.

Work with pitch deck tools

Arguably, the simplest and hardest digital way to improve your startup pitch is finding the right presentation software. In our aforementioned post, one common mistake startup founders make is not having a structure in their presentation. In recent years, many pitch deck tools and templates have been released to assist startups in securing investors. Platforms such as Improve Presentation and Haiku Deck are all-in-one platforms that provide plenty of stock images, elements, graphs, and charts to help businesses enhance their approach.

When choosing your platform, it’s important to focus on brief, informative content rather than cluttered slides. Some startup pitch decks featured on Pitch showcase how you don’t need a lot of elements in every slide. In the case of the culinary creator platform The Plate, they only relied on simple headings to describe the function of their business and supplemented their message with pictures. On the other hand, payroll product Catch used graphs and numbers to support their presentation. By organizing your pitch deck, you can boost your presentation quality and attract potential investors.

Written by JB Moore for intch.org