After securing investment from Google’s Black Founders Fund for her sports recovery startup MyoMaster, Lottie Whyte went on Dragons’ Den with her husband Joe Gray and secured £100,000 investment from Gary Neville and Sara Davies. Here, Whyte shares her advice for nailing your pitch to investors. 

1. Make it personal 

The most powerful outreach and pitches are personal. You can stand out head and shoulders above the rest by doing thorough research on investors. It allows you to make elements of your pitch feel personal to them, referencing other similar businesses they have invested in, or parts of their background that could add value specifically to the type of business you are building.   

When we pitched on Dragons' Den, I'd stalked all of the Dragons on Instagram. I knew that Sara loves Parkrun and in the pitch I talked about how she could use our products after her Saturday Parkrun, and she responded so positively to that. It just goes to show that a personal touch can go a long way.   

2. Run a process

The best pitchers run an efficient process. This is something that not enough people looking for investment do well, and it is an amazing way to stand out. It sends a message that you are serious and organised, whilst giving signals about how you will run your company.

You should run your investment process like a sales manager would run his pipeline. By inputting everyone you reach out to into a spreadsheet, with details of their interests, you can keep track of when you last emailed them and follow up at regular intervals.

I recommend having your documents in place and getting your data room ready with all the relevant information that an investor may want to see after your first process, including employment contracts, forecasts, and investment documents. 

If there is going to be a long gap between them agreeing to invest and the paperwork being circulated, ensure you keep them up to date with regular updates on how both the investment round and the business is progressing. 

3. Remember a NO is not permanent

An investor that you pitched to on your first round at a very early stage might say no but it doesn't have to be forever. If you keep a database of everyone you pitch to who doesn't come on board, you can send them a quarterly update and share how the business is progressing. 

That will keep you front of mind and is something that 99% of others are not doing. As a result, those investors will often come back around as they have a front row seat to your growth.  

4. Know your numbers

This is incredibly impressive to prospective investors. You need to really demonstrate your understanding of the numbers that move the needle in the business and the impact this investment is going to have. 

This has to be beyond topline forecasts, you have to understand what the financial drivers of your business are to being successful and whether you will need further investment. 

It doesn't matter if these numbers change in the future, it matters that you can demonstrate your understanding.  

5. Build Your Brand 

In the early stages of business, investors are deciding whether they should back you as an individual as much as they are looking at your business. Building your personal brand can put you streets ahead in this department. 

You can connect with investors and build your reputation with them before you even start reaching out to them, which is much more impactful than a cold intro. Imagine walking into a room with an investor who has seen you posting updates about your exciting journey, you’re automatically at an advantage. LinkedIn is the best platform for this, followed by X.

Once you have done an initial pitch it's really powerful if the investor can then see you posting updates and insights, and this helps to move them across the line. At least three of the investors on my cap table have told me after they met with me for an initial pitch that watching my LinkedIn content played a part in them coming on board.