How do you pitch your startup to potential investors?

As a founder, pitching your idea to a potential investor is never easy. However, you can always learn from other experienced and successful startup founders who have gone through the same journey. In addition, there are also startup events that help you pitch to potential investors. Typical scenarios could include an investor breakfast, a demo-day event, a startup competition, or a closed angel network community.

There’s also StartupBus, another startup created to empower the creators of the next generation of technology companies to disrupt the status quo, StartupBus is the legendary startup competition and boot camp that fast forwards lives and careers.

StartupBus provides a 72-hour hackathon that takes place on seven buses as they make their way across North America to Austin for SXSW. Over 152 founders and entrepreneurs have already pitched their ideas using StartupBus.

That being said, the best way to learn how to pitch is to learn by example. For example, the Airbnb pitch deck that raised $500K in 2009 is the most sought by startup founders and has become an increasingly popular reference for entrepreneurs around the world. The company founders, Brian Chesky, Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk used this pitch to raise $600K from Sequoia Capital and Y Ventures.

Airbnb pitch deck slide distribution

1. Cover
2. Problem
3. Solution
4. Market Validation
5. Market Size
6. Product
7. Business Model <<< KILLER SLIDE!
8. Adoption Strategy
9. Competition
10. Competitive Advantages
11. Team
12. Press
13. Users Testimonials
14. Financial

Below are the two most important slides from the Airbnb pitch deck.

With that, we would also like to share a perfect example of a startup application submitted to Y Combinator by Lambda School, an online code Bootcamp with no upfront cost.

Below is the Lambda School application.

Finally, below is a video of how to pitch your startup. In this video, YC Partner Kevin Hale goes over how to package up your idea and communicate it to an investor. He shares his tips on how to craft your pitch in a clear and concise way that effectively grabs your audience’s attention.

Here is another one.