Michelle Ijomah, Co-founder, Agnes Health 

Adapt to investor interest

Reception has definitely been more engaging when pitches are adapted to the person you're speaking to.

You want to highlight what it is that you do, that you know will attract that investor. You want to highlight that in your deck.

And then when you're telling your story, you're also going to have different ways of telling your story. When you're telling your story, you focus on telling it in a way that attracts that specific investor.

The key thing to know is what does that investor typically put money in? Are they more focused on impact? Are they focused on health? Are they focused on hospitals per se? What type of impact and what type of portfolio does that investor have? And then understanding what type of portfolio they have, you're now able to adapt your deck and adapt your pitch to suit that investor.

Prepare for Q&A

What I started doing is I have a Q&A bank. 

I started off with just possible questions that they could ask. We also play devil's advocate sometimes with my co-founders where we pitch to each other and just understand, so we have all questions or all possible outcomes aligned.

Akbar Sher Khan, Social Entrepreneur & Legal Advisor

Address the investor’s priorities

It's very important to curate your narrative accordingly because each investor has their own priorities. 

For example, an individual, they would really want to know more about you as a person. So make sure that you talk about yourself, your experience, why you are the best team to do what you set out to do.

I think that puts a lot of confidence in the investor, especially an investor who's investing in an individual capacity.

Whereas if you're going to an institutional investor, you've got to understand how they work as well. They raise funds from their own investors, which then they invest in companies, and they have to - apart from the social impact they've promised to return to their investors - they need to give financial returns as well.

There you need to be a bit more careful in terms of what you say. Be more focused about your KPIs and metrics which you will track and follow and report on because that's something which institutional investors tend to ask for.

You do have your standard deck, and then it's up to you in terms of, based on your investor's profile, which aspect of your pitch you're going to highlight.

My tip is depend less on the slides and depend more on interaction with your investors and look at other body language cues, et cetera, in terms of what makes them, what is looking more interesting to them.

My advice would be, there's no harm. At the end of the day, investors are human as well. You can always get that instant feedback from them and then curate your pitch according to what they want to listen to.

 Key takeaways 

• Research your investor’s interests and portfolio before your presentation

• Anticipate questions and have clear, concise responses ready

• Maintain a versatile deck highlighting what it is you do, but tailor to investor interest

• Actively engage with investors during the meeting and accept feedback for your next pitch