Investors
How to make a business pitch that convinces
In a few minutes: the problem, for whom, your solution, proof it works, how it makes money, who the team is and what you're asking for. No promises.
bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published
A pitch is a short presentation of your business to someone who can say yes: an investor, a big customer, a partner, a panel of judges. "Business pitch," "pitch deck" and "elevator pitch" are among the searches Google completes most. There's no perfect pitch, but there is an order that helps the listener understand quickly and trust.
The practical path
- Start with the problem. One concrete sentence, ideally with a real person in it: "Every week, producers lose part of their harvest because...". The listener needs to feel the pain before hearing the solution.
- Say who it's for. Who has the problem, how many there are, how much they spend today to solve it. Numbers with a source are worth more than big numbers.
- Show the solution in one sentence. "We do X for Y, without Z." Then a demonstration, a photo, a case.
- Present the proof. Paying customers, growth, genuine testimonials used with permission, letters of intent, pilot results. Evidence knocks down objections better than enthusiasm.
- Explain how it makes money. Who pays, how much, how often, how much it costs to win and serve each customer.
- Introduce the team. Why you are the right people to solve this problem. Track record counts, including the failures that taught something.
- Make a clear ask. How much you need, what for, and what changes with that money or partnership in 12 to 18 months.
- Cut the promises. A projection is a projection: present it as a scenario, with assumptions. No "sure returns" or "it can't go wrong"; that drives serious investors away and can be illegal in a public offering.
- Practice out loud and in versions. One of 1 minute, one of 3 and one of 10. Rehearsing with outsiders who don't know the business reveals where the story gets lost.
For the written material (the pitch deck), ten to twelve slides are usually enough, one for each point above.
How Bairo went through it
Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez has presented ideas to people who said no. When he built the foundation of the CEASA Bank platform, he went looking for answers and connections and heard, he says, once again, that it wasn't possible; the banks refused to integrate the solution. Before that, he had been told that the AI and augmented reality idea, and then the natural-based cosmetics one, wouldn't work.
He has never turned his story into a résumé of victories. On the contrary: he often says that those who invest want to invest in the person, the story and the path, in someone who went broke, got up, invested, decided and took risks. In a pitch, that means not hiding the falls. It means showing what each one taught.
The Method step
Every pitch is born from step 1 of the Seventh Attempt Method: say the dream out loud. The sentence "I will build ___ for , because " is the skeleton of your first minute. Then use step 2: write down the first objection of each person who hears the pitch and classify the no. That's how the presentation improves.
Discover the Seventh Attempt Method