During a warm summer day in the Growlab offices, Yi-Jian from the Alliance of Angels spent some of his time to speak with Growlab and Launch Academy. He’ll be meeting up with individual Growlab cohorts to help them refine their pitches in preparation for a variety of Growlab events.
Yi-Jian opened the floor to questions from members in a very open conversation. One of the more interesting discussions came from the question:
“How can the Alliance of Angels help out our company beyond funding?”
His response began with “what kind of CEO are you?”. The rationale was that the company’s founders are the ones which dictate what sort of investor would suit their company. Investors involve themselves differently depending on how the CEO wants them to be involved in an organization. Some investors will try to work themselves into an organization to provide insight or knowledge, while others will simply want to write a check and see results.
He also spoke about 2 different pitch formats, a 5 minute pitch and the more traditional 1 hour pitch. He provided some simple advice to improve your pitch:
- Don’t lie, be honest about everything you say. If you don’t have an answer, tell them
- Investors are generally looking for something, if investors ask specific questions, be flexible and don’t give round-about answers
- If the investors want something specific from you during your pitch, change your pitch to focus on that point until you feel they understand what you’re saying
- Make your 5 minute pitch like a film trailer, leaving them wanting more or a follow up. Avoid demo’s during the short pitch
- If you include graphs, they should imply growth
Yi-Jian provided us with some excellent insight on getting your voice heard by investors, along with some more insight for founders.
