Why Every Founder Should Pitch (Even If You’re Not Raising Capital)
How pitch training and demo days can improve your business development
Guess what? We almost forgot our own birthday! That’s right; The Rural Startup launched one year ago this week. Since then, we have connected with founders throughout rural America, and even a few folks from abroad.
And, on a personal note (from our producer, Margaret Hedderman), it’s been an incredible opportunity to pick the brains of experts across industries and fields. We’ve learned a lot on this journey, and we hope you have too!
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As a publication of Startup Colorado, our mission is simple: connect rural founders with the essential resources they need to build strong businesses.
There’s no shortage of startup advice out there on the interwebs. We’re not here to repeat it. We’re here to deliver practical, relevant guidance built specifically for rural founders. If that’s valuable to you, help us spread the word.
Ok, let’s get started. Today’s newsletter explores how rural founders can strengthen their business with a key strategic practice: pitching.
Few entrepreneurial tasks are more anxiety-inducing than making a formal pitch. A good story can make or break a great idea. In a pitch, you’re not only shaping a compelling narrative, you’re also aiming to prove why your idea, your model, and your leadership is the winning formula.
By the way, you’ll probably have to do it in under five minutes. Ugh.
Many founders back out at this point. Too stressful. Too judgy. And, besides, if you’re not seeking investment, what’s the point?
Well, we’ve got something to tell you:
Do it anyway.
Even if it’s scary and even if you’re not currently seeking investment. We want you to rethink pitching based on two premises:
Entrepreneurs are always pitching. Anytime you ask an individual or an institution to engage with your business, you’re pitching.
Crafting a pitch isn’t an exercise in perfection. It’s an exercise in rooting out opportunities for improvement.
Bottom line: Pitching will help strengthen your business, your brand story, and your leadership.
We pulled in Mark Madic, Director of Ecosystem Development and Partnerships for Startup Colorado, to give us the deets. Mark leads SUCO’s Pitch Practice and Demo Day series and has helped founders across industries participate in pitch competitions. He says the process of crafting and practicing a pitch, not to mention delivering it to judges, has tremendous value for entrepreneurs.
“In going through the process of building and practicing a pitch, what founders are really doing is pressure testing their idea and strategy and model to uncover any lurking weaknesses,” Mark says.
Building a pitch isn’t exclusively about securing funding. A persuasive pitch provides a connection point for many audiences: customers, potential partners, employees and internal stakeholders, bankers, vendors, and even personal networks of friends and family who are excited to spread the word.
Other types of pitches founders regularly use include:
Elevator Pitch
Investor Pitch
Sales Pitch
Partnership Pitch
Product Demo Pitch
Customer Conversion Pitch
As you can see, founders of all business types can utilize pitching to improve their business. For example:
“If your company is selling products or services to other businesses, having a customer pitch deck will be very important,” Mark says. “It will probably contain some similar information as an investor deck; but focus on the benefit to the target customer. How will your product save them money, or improve efficiency?”
Pitch Preparation Forces Strategic Clarity
A strong pitch will have structure, intention, and brevity. This pitch framework can help clarify precisely what’s needed to grow a business in the near and long term.
A sample framework, as detailed further here, would include:
Introducing yourself and your company
Defining the problem you’re solving
Explaining your solution and business model
Understanding your customer and market opportunity
Showcasing key milestones and your team
Perfecting “The Ask” to varied audiences
Best practices for presenting with confidence
A narrative will start to emerge from these priorities. As you shape it into a concise story, it’s important to invite outside perspective.
“It can be hard to evaluate your own pitch and overall story when you are the only one working on it,” Mark says. “Seasoned investors and mentors have probably seen at least 10 different types of every business pitch. As a practice audience, they can unlock insights and resources [relevant to your model] that others may have succeeded with or missed in the past.”
Think Like a Stakeholder: All of Them
Crafting a pitch helps you get into the mindset of your most critical stakeholders. It doesn’t matter if your startup is enterprise cloud software or art installations, every stakeholder hearing your pitch will vet it through the lens of what they value and the type of investment they might make.
Angel investors, capital investors, and VCs, need to see avenues for growth. What will their returns look like? Which strategies and channels are you leveraging?
Potential employees want to see vision and longevity. They need to know the business will be solvent. The media wants to see something new: a new product, a new model, or a new idea. Bankers need to see security.
Mark says that pitching is both a simulation and a preparation exercise for all your target audiences and stakeholders. Prepping a full pitch readies you for the real conversations you’ll have down the line.
Yes, You Should Practice Publicly
Your dog may be the best listener and always regard you with admiration, but Mr. Waggy’s questions and feedback aren’t going to propel your business forward. And that’s the whole point of practicing your pitch.
Low-pressure pitch practices and demo days provide a forum for founders to make their pitch, answer targeted questions, and receive feedback from seasoned judges.
The questions are designed to suss out strategies, business models, and tactics that need fortification. Judges might ask:
How is traction sustained after an initial success?
Why have other competitors failed in the specific industry sector?
What is the next most important hire needed to move the ball forward?
How will you differentiate your product and position if a larger, existing industry player launches a similar product?
How will you address the inherent challenges tied to your business’s location; such as access to skilled talent, infrastructure limitations, or supply chain constraints?
Participating in a pitch practice or demo day offers meaningful exposure and a safe learning environment, whether you’re prepping for a formal pitch competition or not. The feedback alone is worth the effort.
Case in Point: Brock Predovich of BiteZen
Brock Predovich is the founder of BiteZen, an AI-powered oral health company in Florence, Colorado. Last year, he was a finalist at the Startup Colorado Pitch Competition in Durango. Despite preparing carefully, he admits he tried to pack too much into his presentation and stumbled through key moments.
The judges pushed him to clarify and substantiate parts of his business model. While they were intrigued by his big picture vision, what they really wanted to know more about was his go-to market strategy. Ultimately, he didn’t secure funding, but he gained something more valuable: direction.
“I did my best in Durango, but I walked away a bit disappointed,” Brock said. “But that disappointment created a deep fire within me that I wouldn’t make those same mistakes again.”
He took that feedback seriously. When he pitched at the Dental Tech Shark Tank in Chicago, his approach was sharper and more focused.
“I would say the judges at the Startup Colorado Pitch Competition helped me hone in on the core message of my pitch,” Brock said. “In Chicago, I focused my pitch on the immediate future: what we’re doing right now; what our traction has been; and how we will magnify our current trajectory and wins. That focus made for pitch that was way more consumable and believable.”
The result? What he calls a “near perfect” pitch, a $50,000 seed investment, and momentum toward a $500,000 raise.
Pitching is Uncomfortable. That’s Why It’s Important
Nearly all successful founders have one quality in common: resilience. You need a thick skin! Founders face heaps of unsolicited opinions, criticism, and rejection.
As if that weren’t tough enough, the odds for success aren’t great. It’s estimated that only about 20% of all new ventures are still operating after five years. That means 80% of businesses fail in the first five years.
An entrepreneurial brain needs to read those statistics as a challenge, not a deterrent.
“When the odds of success across any industry are so steep, a founder needs to take every opportunity for feedback and development as a positive rather than a negative,” says Mark.
Strong leaders can learn how to cut through the noise, set ego aside, and incorporate what’s best for their business at every stage. It may take a mindset shift from creator to learner. Learning requires putting themselves in uncomfortable positions and welcoming input from experts worth trusting.
In these environments, feedback is never about tearing down a founder. It’s about building a better foundation for the business at every stage. The insights offered will help clarify assumptions. Questions asked will help justify strategic choices and create a more ironclad business plan.
“Entrepreneurs inherently have to be influencers and experts at telling their story–to a variety of audiences,” says Mark. Developing your pitch and how you present it is key to success and longevity.
Additional Resources
If you live in Rural Colorado, we invite you to participate in our free Pitch Practice and Demo Day series. Our next Demo Day is March 11. Apply today.
Not located in Colorado? Here are a few other pitch training opportunities we encourage you to take advantage of:
Connect with your local SBDC which may offer training or know of an opportunity in your area.
This newsletter is powered by Startup Colorado. We believe that anyone should have the ability to start and scale a business in the place they call home. And in Rural Colorado, we’re seeing the power of entrepreneurship transform communities and lives, proving that the spark of innovation can—and should—be kindled outside urban hubs.
Produced by Margaret Hedderman, Director of Communications at Startup Colorado. Written by Brook Sutton with support from Mark Madic.