62 / ENTREPRENEUR.COM / August 2019BREAKING DOWN WHAT MAKES FOR
A GOOD PITCH FOR FUNDS FROM INVESTORS
by ANTIGONE CHRISTOFIDESGET YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS
Cove Beach in Dubai‘TREPONOMICS SKILLSET
I
founded Agga Consulting with the
goal to enable startups, SMEs, and
aspiring entrepreneurs to have
access to high-quality strategy
and management advisory in an
affordable manner in terms of pric-
ing, but also in terms of mode of
collaboration. As part of this philosophy,
Agga Consulting collaborators have been
running numerous workshops mainly
in the UAE and Greece with the goal to
give practical solutions to some of the
most common questions in the minds
of entrepreneurs. During many of these
workshops, a common question was fre-
quently brought up by our participants,
which was how can they effectively pitch
for funds from investors.
Investors are not only venture capital
firms. They may come from many differ-
ent sources, such as your clients, FFFs
(i.e. friends, fools, and family), banks,
grants, angel investors, etc. Although thelanguage, format used, and even time
spent on transmitting this pitch may vary
according to who is your audience, we
believe that all potential investors are
looking for the same re-assuring mes-
sages. What differs is the level of detail
of information to be actually disclosed in
that communication to give a reassurance
to potential investors that these messages
are backed up.
Thus, we felt that it would be
interesting for us to further explore
this field, and provide entrepreneurs
a practical approach to pitch for funds
from investors, that actually works in
a “#SimpleAs123” manner. To get this
as right as possible, we mobilized our
network of collaborators that are based
across Europe, such as Periklis Tsoulos,
CFA who is based in Amsterdam to
research it, and we also reached out to
entrepreneurs, such as the Dubai-based
Mirhan Mandour, founder and CEO ofDigiteam, and one of the leaders of the
female chapter of the MENA Fintech
Association. Our exercise was fruitful,
and that led us to identify the following
10 core elements that should be present
in any successful pitch:- Idea
Probably the most important element
of your pitch. Ideas can be expressed
in terms of the issue they are trying to
resolve, the solution they are actually
providing, and the benefits expected
from utilizing this solution, or the risks
from not utilizing this. As for how you
represent it, mobilize your creative talent
to work in this part; for instance, through
the use of short videos, simulations, or
augmented reality. - Potential
Investors want to put their money into
a market that is growing, not saturated,
and looks healthy overall. Therefore, it
is important that you transmit this reas-
surance by backing it up with research,
market projections, or evidence of other
successful ventures in that market. - Commitment
The first person that needs to believe in
your idea is you. You need to demonstrate
that you are investing time and money in
this, so that others can follow.