This video is part five of a five part series. Watch part one or view the whole series.
In the video settings, you can select subtitles for English, Español, Français, and Português. Video transcripts for all five of the videos are available in English [PDF – 178KB], Español [PDF – 195KB], Français [PDF – 179KB], and Português [PDF – 194KB].
Transcript:
There are so many different audiences an entrepreneur will potentially pitch to throughout their entrepreneurial journey. Whether you are pitching to an investor, a customer, your employees, or potential hires, creating a pitch that fits your audience is essential.
In this video, we will be talking about how to craft your pitch for the right audience.
An investor will always be thinking about upside, so when you pitch to an investor, know that they are looking to hear how they will receive a large future return from investing in your company. So you will definitely want to place a strong emphasis on the market opportunity, your financial projections, and your competitive advantage.
Also the majority of investors invest in an entrepreneur because they genuinely believe in them as people, so you will want to convey how passionate you are about solving this problem through the delivery of this good or service.
It’s also important to demonstrate your drive and vision to scale this business into something massively profitable that will allow them to make an exit.
Now when you pitch a customer, it’s different from pitching an investor. Customers are interested in how effective you will be at solving a problem they are facing at that moment. They are less interested in how they can benefit in the long-term like an investor. They want to know, how can they benefit now? So demonstrate that you provide a reliable, dependable solution to their problem and that they can trust you.
Lastly, pitching to an employee or potential hire is a sort of hybrid between pitching an investor and a customer. In the modern era, more and more employees are looking to feel like they are doing impactful work from the start of their employment with a company. They want to hear about the long-term vision for the company and how their work will be helping others. Employees or potential hires are typically less interested in the financial projections or market analysis or competitive edge, and more interested in learning how they can fit into your company and how their values and goals align with your company’s. The better your pitch, the better chance you’ll have of attracting top talent.
So whether it’s an investor, customer, or employee – know your audience before you make your pitch.
Visit ylai.state.gov/entrepreneurship to find your voice and take the next step.
Nick has developed hundreds of entrepreneurs through his work as a Program Manager and Facilitator with 3 Day Startup, a Austin-based nonprofit that runs immersive entrepreneurship programs for students and community members at 150 institutions in 35 countries. His founder experience spans from a medtech venture that graduated from the nationally-ranked The Brandery accelerator–to music video production and digital strategy companies. He holds a BA from Miami University of Ohio.