But for founders, pitching yourself is a year-round activity, and the stakes are higher than a first date. Whether you’re courting a game-changing client or raising crucial funding for your big idea, your pitch is your make-or-break moment.

After years of being on both sides of the table and finding success as both a founder and a VC, I’ve learnt through trial, error, success, and failure how to get to yes and nail a pitch.

Here are the three guiding principles I’ve learnt in my time that will help you pitch yourself and impress in your next big meet.

Work out where to start

Spoiler alert, the answer is before you click “insert new slide”. I know, it seems like an unlikely statement from someone who develops a presentation software tool for a living. Surely it’s all about diving into the deck first, right?

In all my years of pitching, this is the most important lesson I have learnt. You need to put the hard yards in on planning before you start committing words to slides.

Don’t view this part of the project as a time-suck or a hindrance. Take this opportunity early doors to step back and get perspective.

Before you touch a slide, get your worldview in order:

1. Which direction is the world headed in?
2. What’s the core problem that shift is causing?
3. Who/how many are you solving the problem for?
4. How valuable is a potential solution?
5. How would a solution change where the world’s headed?

Remember, as a founder your vision is crystal-clear in your own head. That means it’s easy to think your first step is to start capturing it in a pitch deck, and the rest will flow from there. But if you’re not careful, that will be your first mistake.

By taking the time upfront to establish these proof points, you’ll be ready to help your VC audience see the world the way you do and frame your company as a venture-scale opportunity.

Bring your people on the journey

Inviting others - even co-founders or long-time collaborators - into your vision can be tricky, and I’ve seen a lot of founders do a poor job of sharing responsibility, which always leads to a worse pitch. The key is to treat this like directing a play or a concert: You’re creating the conditions to put on a great show.

The risks are high if you hold onto the deck too tightly and only share with others at the end of the process.

There is nothing worse than pouring hours into a deck, its design, and the content to have the head decision maker jump in and rip it to shreds. That’s why real time feedback is so important.

Get your team leads to return feedback in real time so you know what is sticking, what needs more work, and what should be cut. This will allow for continual refinement and improvement.

Connect, connect, connect

Don’t fall into the trap of living in a slide deck so long you forget that you’re driving the slides - they’re not driving you.

Read the room (or the Zoom) and remember the importance of making a strong connection. With your pitch in hand, you’re ready to get out there and deliver your story. But at this point, too many founders stiffen up and stick to their slides like a script.

The key here is to treat your meetings with VCs like conversations because investors want to know what it’s going to be like to work with you.

My key tips?

1. Use your time wisely. Have a very short intro that works every time (less than five minutes)
2. React in real time to visual cues from your audience. Are they scratching their head? Or worse, yawning? Don’t be frightened to check in to be sure your audience is with you on the journey. And if they aren’t - mix it up, change your pace, and make sure you are responding to those signals to help you land your story.
3. Never be defensive. Be convinced that you have a great story. Questions and comments are good, because it means they listened. So, pause and check in with yourself. Then ask yourself: what’s the angle they’re coming from? What are they seeing in the story that I’m not seeing yet + why are they asking that question?
4. And remember to listen. Keep a FAQ document of all questions that are being asked by those hearing the pitch - this way you can anticipate the top 5-10 most likely questions and work with your team to have super tight answers for those. By the end of the fundraising process it's very unlikely for completely new questions to pop up.

Perfecting pitching is all about practice. Keen to learn more? Check out the Pitch website, where you can find hundreds of templates to help you get started as well as our Presentation Gallery, where you can find decks packed full of advice from a host of founders and VCs sharing their top tips for nailing your next big pitch.