Perfecting the art of the pitch with Icehouse Ventures partner Barnaby Marshall

How to Craft a Winning Pitch That Stands Out

“It’s read very quickly and it’s either understood or it’s not understood. And if it’s not understood, you’ve missed an opportunity.”

Pitching. It’s one of the most stressful yet essential experiences any founder can have.

A moment where the future of your company can depend on convincing a time-poor but cash-rich investor that your dream will not only become a reality but also make them some money.

Considering there likely isn’t a single person in our audience who won’t have experience with pitches, either receiving or giving, Caffeine thought it was high time we checked in with an expert about what you need to know ahead of time.

Barnaby Marshall, Partner at Icehouse Ventures, has read and heard literally thousands of pitches from every kind of startup and scale-up under the sun, so it’s safe to say he knows what he’s talking about.

When I chatted with him this week about what separates the good pitches from the bad, one thing came up again and again.

Simplicity is king

Make it as concise and compelling as possible.

If anyone wants the tl;dr for this entire article, it’s that sentence.

Companies packing their pitches with too many numbers or words can appear to be overcompensating or unclear about their value.

“It’s a trap that many companies fall into thinking that being long-winded or having lots of charts and numbers helps to convince investors that they are professional when actually the opposite is true; too much information makes the business seem less clear and convicted of what they need to do,” explains Marshall.

“What’s the most important number? Let’s say in the market to focus on as being the total opportunity space, presenting lots of different metrics and numbers and all that kind of kerfuffle to try and articulate how well you’ve done your market research isn’t as compelling as saying this one or two numbers representing why the time is right or why we are best positioned.”

But while simplicity is king, that doesn’t mean neglecting to do the hard work of collating reference material and complex numbers that support your vision.

The dense data just has to be what investors can request if they wish, not what’s jammed in their faces before they’re even interested.

“In terms of the materials that accompany a pitch deck, you want to have a comprehensive data room of materials that help to back up your strategy, which could be market research documentation. It could be a detailed execution plan of how your engineering programme works. It could be a financial model. Whatever it is - that sits outside of the deck. Nobody wants that jammed into your pitch deck.”

Know your audience

From grants to venture capital to private equity investors and banks, there are multiple methods for raising capital for a business, and all have differing expectations and reasons for investing.

Understanding who you are trying to raise money from and then telling a story that meets the needs of their investment thesis and criteria is crucial to being efficient.

“Otherwise, you go out and tell this story to a whole bunch of people. They’re like, “that’s all great and good luck to you, but it doesn’t fit our mandate,” Marshall explains.

“We are sometimes on the other end of frustration felt by founders being like, I’ve got a great idea, so you should invest in my great idea. It’s like no. If it doesn’t fit with what we’re trying to achieve, we won’t invest.”

For those curious about what Icehouse Ventures specifically is looking for:

“There are three parts: An excellent team, a unique insight which is defensible and robust, and massive market opportunities. So you have to have all three ingredients to be able to be a venture-fundable investment opportunity,” says Marshall.

Structure your deck

When you spend dozens of hours crafting your pitch deck for a startup that could consume almost every waking moment of your life, it can be challenging to realise how little of a potential investor’s attention you might get.

While ideally an investor would view your presentation on a large screen in a boardroom and dedicate 30 minutes of undivided attention, that’s rarely the case.

Your investor might only have 5 minutes to quickly skim through your deck on their phone before taking a flight.

“It’s read very quickly and it’s either understood or it’s not understood. And if it’s not understood, you’ve missed an opportunity,” says Marshall.

And while a founder’s personal charisma and ability to speak over the deck to help a pitch land are useful additions, Marshall advises against leaning on any founder’s ability to sell the story if it’s to the detriment of the deck itself. Your deck must be understandable and convincing even when you aren’t there to present it.

Be a present pragmatist and future idealist

Marshall says he expects a certain level of rosy projection in pitch decks. He even wants to hear the most ambitious vision of where your start-up could land because it shows confidence in a vision.

But long-term idealism has to be married with short-term realism and humility about your limits.

“I think long-term you want it to be kind of bold and ambitious and it can be pretty fanciful,” Marshall says.

“Short-term execution has to be really clear and understood. And then when you’re pressed, I think what we want to see is people being able to say, “yep, we know that and we don’t know that. We’re going to test this hypothesis in this way to understand that question. Right now, we don’t know.” And if we hear that, we’re like “Great, that’s good.”