How To Pitch a Business Idea Masterclass

Overview

Many founders understand that they need funding for the survival of their businesses, but they don’t have experience in the idea-pitching process. This session will equip the founders of an investable idea with the appropriate skills and knowledge required to deliver a successful pitch. Pitching successfully is a key ingredient of the fundraising process and good preparation helps in attracting investors faster and closing the funding round on time.

This masterclass will address several issues related to the pitching process and explain what founders need to do before, during and after a pitch. The focus will be on how to pitch an idea to investors, so this will be very different to pitching a business/product/service to a general audience. We will discuss the documents and mindset you need to have while going through the pitch preparation, delivery and follow-up process. Note that a founder needs to pitch several times before some serious investors get interested in a new venture. So we will also discuss how to maintain momentum while pitching at several events and ensure that you as founder control the ongoing process while running your business in parallel.

So whether you are a recent founder or a seasoned business owner, this masterclass can help you to either gain new knowledge or upgrade your existing experience in this area.

Course Overview

This masterclass is designed to introduce learners to startup pitching. Participants will gain a greater understanding of the pitch process, required content and challenges encountered during the pitching efforts.

This 2-hour masterclass will cover:

• Investor criteria to shortlist an idea
• Thought process expected of the founder
• Preparation before the pitch day
• Documents needed for the pitch day
• Dos and don’ts during the pitch day
• Key things to do after the pitch day
• Documents needed for follow-ups
• General tips for the entire process

Course aims

Skills gained:

• Understand how to prepare a pitch deck
• Learn how to address investors and their questions
• Get important tips to address typical challenges during the process
• Understand the entire pitching cycle

Knowledge:

• Understand the key topics to cover during a pitch
• Differentiate between investor pitch and general audience pitch
• Learn about several pitching styles available to founders
• Identify relevant documents for each stage of pitching
• Understand the investor mindset

Benefits

Benefits to the company:

This masterclass can help a company to survive when incoming cash as revenue is either not yet a reality or is not enough to manage the cash requirements of a business. The learning can also create growth possibilities for an otherwise small business. 

The learner will leave the session with:

This masterclass will help the learner to create jobs by pursuing their dream of starting a company and growing it over several years. Some skills learned through the session will be transferable across departments and across industries.  

Assessment

This masterclass does not require an assessment.

Award

On completion of this masterclass, learners will receive a Certificate of Attendance.

Funding

Staffordshire E-Skills & Entrepreneurship Gateway (SEGway) is part funded by the European Social Fund.