(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: Having a brilliant business idea but an inability to pitch effectively means early-stage startups can often lose out on key investment opportunities.
For those at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey, it is essential to recognize the importance of creating a compelling pitch that can crucially help engage investors, emphasised Mohammad Zebian (pictured), Program Manager - Acceleration at Qatar Science and technology Park (QSTP) – part of Qatar Foundation – in his masterclass at the Web Summit Qatar 2024.
“There is a skill to pitching, which is to clearly articulate the value of your startup idea, by stressing the business opportunity, rather than getting bogged down in the technical jargon of how you will build it. As a startup, you are pitching to investors and investors care most about the business opportunity.
Investors want 100 percent straight forward, clear, and verifiable claims, before parting with their money.
This can be a challenge for aspiring entrepreneurs as they set out with a different mindset than the investor,” Zebian said.“There is a misalignment between what they want to communicate and what the investor is looking for.”
“Many founders tend to dive deep into technical aspects of their product in their pitch that simply do not align with the investors' interests and therefore fail to attract their attention.”
Zebian has extensive experience working, in the US and Canada, with startups at various stages of development and currently manages two accelerator programs at QSTP; XLR8 (ideation accelerator) and ELV8 (growth stage accelerator). According to him, one of the top considerations in a strong pitch is to ensure that the content is simple and easy for an investor to understand.
“When listening to a pitch, investors want to understand the value of your idea, how it will solve problems for the end user, and whether the idea holds the potential to generate return on investment. None of that should involve heavy technical terminology.”
The content of the pitch deck must be built around these important investor concerns, Zebian said to some 130 class participants.
“Another common mistake that young startups make during the pitching process is to include details around specific features of their product or service or go on to explain the kinds of tools or resources they will use to develop their ideas.”
“You only really have 3-4 minutes or a maximum of 5 minutes, in some cases, to present your idea to the investor.”
Startup founders must realize that they cannot present all the information about their venture within this time and thus, must focus on the most important information and present that in the clearest way possible. It is ideal to have a maximum of 10 slides as part of the pitch deck and ensure it covers only the most critical elements of the business idea i.e. the business value, market, potential and the team, Zebian advised.
Expanding upon the importance of teams, Zebian said that investors are aware that there are uncertainties around investing in early-stage startups, especially in the early stages. However, the startup's success and its capability to deal with these emerging challenges will depend upon its team.
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