We spoke with the winners to find out how they managed to deliver a successful pitch and inspire the investors.
Preparation for the pitch
For Tim Breker from Vytal, one of the Berlin winners, the key to a successful pitch is not to perfect every detail, but to find a balance between preparation and spontaneity. It’s important to practice the core messages, but also to remain flexible and authentic to adapt to the situation and audience, he says. Tim Kniepkamp from Suitcase shares this view; he keeps the audience in mind and improvises depending on the situation. He found the preparation sessions organized by Start2 Group particularly helpful to understand the exact “atmosphere” of the event. Two to three dry runs in the office without a script gave him a feel for the length of the pitch.
Key elements of an investor pitch
For Rick Hodgson from Emrod, who presented a pre-revenue startup, the most important element of his pitch was to convey a clear vision to communicate the potential of the technology. As a deeptech company still in an early stage, Emrod had to convince investors this way. Tim (Vytal) adds that in a three-minute pitch, confidence and presentation style play a major role. Content-wise, you shouldn’t tell everything, but instead spark curiosity so that investors want to learn more. For Vytal, previous successes as well as partnerships and references made the difference.
Inspiration for the pitch
Everyone agrees that pitch decks from successful companies like Airbnb and DoorDash serve as the best source of inspiration for how to present your story effectively and convincingly. Fritz Lange from 3D Spark also sought feedback from investors to understand their perspective and adjust his communication accordingly. Tim (Suitcase), who placed on the podium in Munich, distinguishes between a reading deck and a pitch deck and has developed different slide layouts to convince in different situations.
Tips for pitch preparation
When it comes to preparing for a pitch, Rick (Emrod) advises emphasizing your startup’s strengths and building your message around them. In the few minutes of a pitch, it’s often not possible to present all aspects of a startup comprehensively. Therefore, it’s helpful to identify what really resonates with your audience. For him, the measure of success is the number of investors who show interest after the pitch. Rick also recommends putting less text on the slides and making the pitch visually appealing. He practices his pitch ten to twenty times so he can focus more on speaking and interacting with the audience.
Fritz (3D Spark), who initially gave very technical presentations as an engineer, has learned to tell the story as simply as possible so that it can be understood even by laypeople. A pitch is just the starting point for further discussions. Therefore, you should try to spark the interest of investors and convey the value of your solution, rather than explaining the product in detail.
About Cashwalk
The Cashwalk event by Start2 Group has been taking place in Munich for nearly 10 years as well as at rotating locations such as Berlin and Darmstadt. Here, up to 30 selected seed and series A startups have the opportunity to pitch in front of over 60 investors, build networks, and find investment opportunities.
The event differs from other pitch events in that the participating investors are carefully vetted to ensure genuine investment interest. Additionally, the number of investors is larger than the number of startups to increase the chances of securing an investment.
If you’d like to pitch your startup at the 21st edition of Cashwalk on November 7 in Munich and raise your next investment round, register for free here.