What is the goal of an investor pitch?
The goal of an early investor pitch is usually not to get a check immediately. It is to make the investor understand the opportunity, trust the founder, and want the next conversation. A strong startup pitch creates clarity and conviction, not pressure. I...
A strong pitch deck should not only explain the company. It should show why the company is worth investing in. That means making the customer need clear, showing real traction, proving why this team has the right to win, and explaining what the capital will unlock next. If those signals are ...
An investor told me recently that pitch decks have become harder to evaluate.
Not because they look bad.
The opposite.
They look too good.
Too polished.Too finished.Too smooth.
And because of that, they often stop doing the one thing a deck is supposed to do:
Help an investor quickly underst...
Using FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) in an investor pitch is a tactic designed to create urgency by signaling scarcity or competitive pressure. In extremely fast-moving sectors, urgency can accelerate decisions. However, turning FOMO into a standard fundraising strategy can weaken trust, damage lo...
Failure is not the opposite of success.It is a necessary step toward it.
In skill-based activities like skiing or horseback riding, we accept that falling is part of learning. In business, however, failure often feels personal and threatening.
But in entrepreneurship, failure is data. And data...
What happens if you choose the wrong investor?
Choosing the wrong investor can slow your startup, distort your strategy, and create long-term friction that is harder to fix than raising no capital at all.
Capital is not just money - it comes with expectations, influence, and power. When ther...
The other day, during a workshop with Ukrainian and Moldovan founders, someone asked me a question I get all the time:
"Should I use jokes in my pitch?"
And I'll be honest - I love jokes. I think most people do.
There's something magical about laughter in a room full of investors. It lowers de...
Event season is here.Web Summit. TechArena. Demo days. Side events.Late nights. Bad coffee. Adrenaline.Founders fly home exhausted, collapse on the couch, and think:
"Thank god that's over."And then they rest.
That's the mistake.
Because your pitch doesn't end when you leave the room.It star...
Yesterday I spoke with a potential customer.They’d been recommended to me for one very specific thing:coaching their startups on the 30-second pitch.I get this request quite often.Because accelerators and investors keep running into the same problem:their startups can’t explain what they do ...
Before 2008, I had never even heard the word “pitch.”
Not once.
Then I got a new job at Ericsson - and everything changed.
Overnight, my role became this:
Take 80 pages of dense technical documentation per product (there were hundreds)
Digest it
Turn it into a 5–7 minute pitch per prod...
You might not know this, or maybe you do... and you haven't really given it any thought.But the difference between a startup that gets funded and a startup that fails isn't always just because of the idea or innovation. It's often due to the conviction in the face of rejection.
Most of the fou...
For the past 17 years, I’ve listened to tens of thousands of pitches. Investor pitches, yes - but also sales presentations, internal updates, boardroom discussions, and early conversations with customers.
And there’s one moment that almost always determines how the rest of it goes.
You feel it...
