Let's start with the end, by understanding what Investors want to know. This will give you a competitive edge when pitching!
A Typical Pitch Story
As a cash flow expert, startup advisor & angel investor, I’ve attended many pitch competitions, and also spoken to many other investors ... and the biggest single weakness across pitches, is founders presenting exponentially unsubstantiated growth, accompanied by unrealistic valuations
Pitching to Sharks
This fun Shark Tank video, captures the key questions investors typically ask:
Do you have sales?
Do you know what it costs to acquire a customer?
What is the average sale?
What is your profit margin?
Watch out for this entertaining exchange!
Shark: “We don’t know yet the Customer Acquisition Cost … So you can’t say to me that you’re worth close to $2 million. I don’t buy it … “
Entrepreneur: “I mean I said it, but it might not be true … I don’t know!”
In the next sections on Growth, we will empower you with the skills to answer these questions, as part of developing a credible pitch!
Sustainable Growth - Does your strategy address the whole customer journey?
The Customer Journey
Ensuring a link between the Customer Journey and Key Business Activities is crucial for achieving sustainable growth
Growth Statistics - The Importance of Retention
A common mistake is to focus heavily on Marketing & Sales, however, the key to sustainable growth is Retention.
Does your Growth Strategy address the whole customer journey? Does your whole team have a growth mindset?
For some B2B products & services, it may also be important to understand the B2C perspective of your customers. This can increase your B2B retention & upsell etc
Developing a Viable Growth Strategy
The Kwik Look Prepare4VC FREE One Year Growth Simulator provides a simple but powerful framework for understanding how to develop a viable growth strategy which addresses the entire customer journey.
Here it is note worthy that Referrals, which are the key to “going viral”, are not FREE.
Note: The complexity of modeling monthly cohorts at different stages of the retention curve, escalates quickly - and is not readily done in Excel unless you are an expert
Case Studies
Check out subsequent growth modules for case studies demonstrating how to use the Kwik Look Prepare4VC FREE One Year Growth Simulator to conduct scenario analysis.
www.kwiklookgrowthsimtool.online/partner/prepare4vclogin