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Skillset
} Entrepreneurs often underestimate or miss altogether the critical elements their investors want to see in a business plan. With the typical startup pitch lasting less than 20 minutes, the window to make an impression is narrow. Short, succinct descriptors may seem obvious, but all too often, decks are too long, too wordy, and investors switch off. If you can’t keep an investor interested for three minutes, how will you keep customers engaged? And every statement you make should be backed up by numbers. As many as 54% of pitch decks have no financial projections– yet anyone who has built a successful business will almost certainly be a data-driven individual. There is much that aspiring innovators in the region can learn from the criteria against which programs like the Harvard Business School New Venture Competition assess participating startups. Here, I list four areas that are too often overlooked by entrepreneurs, but have proven as critical success factors for some of the most innovative and successful startups the region has produced:
1/ Team Early-stage investors bet on
teams, not businesses. In fact, 96% of VCs state that the team was the primary driver of success. They want to know that your people can offer a diverse, yet complementary skillset with a range of experiences- so, make this clear in your deck. A good team often comprises a technical and a commercial co-founder where the skillsets balance each other out. They will want to know that between you, you have significant experience with the problem you are looking to solve, and can show unique insight into addressing the pain point. And if you don’t, can you demonstrate an understanding of the value in selecting strong advisors, as and when you need them? Advisory boards and mentors are regarded as both a proof-of-concept as well as a sign of humility that the founder might not have all the answers, but is willing to ask for help. Demonstrating that you have also considered what the team 52 / E N T R E P R E N E U R . C O M / June 2022
EARLY-STAGE INVESTORS BET ON TEAMS, NOT BUSINESSES. IN FACT, 96% OF VCS STATE THAT THE TEAM WAS THE PRIMARY DRIVER OF SUCCESS.
build-out plan will look like shows investors that you understand what skills will be required as the business scales, and how you will keep the engine running.
2/ Customer Discovery
Investors need to know that startups are addressing a meaningful pain point within a large and growing market. Many entrepreneurs often have a personal “eureka” moment, and can deliver a passionate, compelling pitch addressing a personal problem. But demonstrating that this obstacle is felt by a large customer population is essential. Rigorous and data-driven customer discovery will give you a firm grasp on whether the market has validated your assumptions. Research on the market size and growth are a must. Bring to life your case by creating customer personas to show the specific pain points in real world situations. If you can demonstrate a large-scale unmet need, with value in
addressing your identified barrier– you may be on to a winner.
3/ Solution For the product or
your solution to really work, it must be unique, differentiated and defensible, offering significant quality as well as time and cost savings to stand out from the competition. Let’s take Careem as an example, a company that continues to thrive thanks to its suite of innovations tailored to the Middle East market. By enabling app users to pay in cash, they reached customers who weren’t able or didn’t want to pay by credit card. By creating their own geolocation maps, they added more and more landmarks and locations to their platform to accurately transport passengers from A to B. They leveraged their customer base to add more products and solutions to create a super app offering delivery, couriers, shopping, and services. Fundamentally, they were able to show not just a solution to a current problem, but how the solution could be
