‘TREPONOMICS SKILLSET
Cove Beach in Dubai
GET YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS BREAKING DOWN WHAT MAKES FOR A GOOD PITCH FOR FUNDS FROM INVESTORS by ANTIGONE CHRISTOFIDES
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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 pricing, 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 frequently 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 different sources, such as your clients, FFFs (i.e. friends, fools, and family), banks, grants, angel investors, etc. Although the
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language, 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 messages. 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 of
Digiteam, 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: 1. 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. 2. 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 reassurance by backing it up with research, market projections, or evidence of other successful ventures in that market. 3. 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.