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Pitching Your Experience
Read time 0.7 minutes
One of the questions I get a lot is whether experience is essential when pitching or how to display your experience best when pitching to startup investors.
Yes, you must have a good structure and a pitch narrative, but is #perfection in #pitching truly necessary? Would it be enough to display an authentic expression of expertise and solid mastery of your domain? #Insurtech#digitalhealth
— Veronika Litinski (@VL_konona)
7:02 PM • Jul 12, 2023
Is industry experience necessary?
NO!
A central part of my Master’s thesis, as many of you know, was analyzing over 700+ VC deals. What did I find? (Aside from all the psychological insights into how VCs make decisions)
Industry experience is negatively correlated with startup success.
Why? Because most people who have industry experience view a minor change from the status quo as “revolutionary,” while those without industry experience tend to view a whole new way of approaching an industry as a “small change.”
Uber is a great example. Mark Cuban didn’t invest because he was familiar with highly regulated industries like Taxis and thought the legal troubles would outway the company's potential. Travis Kalanick didn’t understand these challenges, so he started his revolutionary company, not knowing the legal problems ahead.
A founder with industry experience might never have founded Uber.
What experience is necessary?
The best experience is the experience of making money. Founders with previous exits can raise money because they can show investors that they know how to grow and sell a company.
That is key to show if you have any experience successfully returning capital to investors.
Another experience that helps to a lesser extent but that many people leave out is the experience of raising money. Most VC-backed companies will need to raise multiple rounds; if you show investors you’ve done it before, they have more confidence you can do it again, and they aren’t going to be an outlier.
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How can you improve your pitch?
Don’t focus as much on industry experience as specific industry insights. By sharing knowledge and information about the industry, you can show your expertise and how it gives you a leg up on the competition.
Share any experience you have operating a company, selling a company, managing a team, etc. Your experience should show you have the right skills to run a startup.
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Onwards and Upwards,
P.S. Are you ready to take the next step in raising venture capital for your company? If so, you can now book a 1:1 strategy call with me to help get you going in the right direction!