How to Present to Angel Investors

Most of these blog posts are geared toward investors, but this one is a bit different. Today, I want to talk to founders about ways they can be more effective when presenting to angel groups. Over the last year, my group (the Render Capital Angel Network, launched in January 2023) heard pitches from 30 startups.

Throughout that time, I’ve noticed a few simple things startups can do to drastically increase their chances of getting funding. Here are a few.

Be concise in your presentation

I understand that you want to take the opportunity to tell potential investors everything about your company. Seriously, I get it. It’s your baby. I have my own company and I feel the same way. That said, you have to be pragmatic. Investors are listening to your pitch through the lens of deciding whether they have a reasonable chance of making a return on their investment.

How do you convince them of that? Personally, I start by looking for three things:

• Is there a problem, and is that problem big enough to create a market?
• Do you have a solution that buyers will pay for?
• Are you the right person or team to implement that solution?

Every investor has different criteria, but these are what I use to initially vet companies. If you want to catch my attention, you need to answer each of these questions, preferably in your deck, and in a way I can understand without additional context.

Don’t be overly wordy

This goes for both your pitch deck and your actual presentation. Y Combinator has a great pitch deck template, and I can’t recommend it enough. There’s no reason to reinvent the wheel here. They recommend focusing on clarity and concision, and I couldn’t agree more.

The only thing I might change is to move the ask up to the front of the deck, so investors can know immediately whether you’re a fit for their portfolio based on round size, valuation, and minimum check size. Sometimes great companies aren’t a great fit for a specific investor solely because their round size or valuation doesn’t fit with that investor’s portfolio construction. It’s better to know this up front.

I’ve seen many decks that were beautifully designed and way, way too long. Even worse is the deck that doesn’t include any information on what the company actually wants to raise. When I can’t immediately reference round size, terms, and valuation, it’s easier to put the deck in the “too hard” pile, unless the pitch was incredibly compelling.

Respect the time you’re given and make the most of it

Time for a quick story. I’m a member of several angel groups. One group does a great job of establishing a schedule and sticking to it. Startups are given a certain amount of time to present, and they’re held to it, twenty minutes, followed by a separate time for questions.

Not long ago, a startup pitched, and I don’t even remember anything about their business. What I do remember is that they spent nearly ten minutes of their presentation reviewing the backgrounds of every single person associated with the project. They spent three to four minutes on the background and experience of their social media manager, who had graduated college only a few months prior.

I mention this because that was not an effective use of their time. I don’t care about the background of your social media manager. Unless you’re building a community and that’s directly influential on the outcome of your startup, it’s immaterial.

That time could have been better used to define the problem and how the startup would solve it. They could have talked about early traction, or, in lieu of traction, how their customer research and validation pointed toward a specific need.

Going back to my earlier point: founders need to convince investors that a problem exists and that they have a solution to it, one that people will pay for. Beyond that, background is relevant to the extent that it impacts your ability to implement your business model. If you’re building a solution for health insurance companies and your CSO is ex-Humana? Tell us that. Otherwise, I expect that you’ve hired solid employees. I don’t need to double-check that.

Bringing it together

Shorter is better. If you can convince me of the three items I mentioned above, I’m going to dig more. That’s when you bring out more and more information.

Think of the pitch as speed dating. You’re not trying to get engaged from a three-minute conversation. Your goal is to create enough interest to justify a second date.