What questions might investors ask?

Go to any pitching competition and you’ll hear similar questions. These might be about your ‘Moat’ – how you will defend your business from competition, or about your ‘Go To Market’ strategy for selling your products and services.

Investors may also be considering questions which they don’t ask out loud. These might concern you and your co-founders’ abilities to work as a team, leading the business and growing with it. You should try to appear confident but not arrogant.

Pitching contests tend to focus on the stage craft – your ability to communicate effectively and engage the audience. These skills are important for winning customers, as well as raising investment.

But pitching is really a means to getting a second meeting with investors. Their final decision won’t rest on first impressions. And you may need more numbers than words next time, to support your business case.

The questions below are by no means definitive – there are many other pitch check lists out there. But they should help prepare your thoughts. While you may not be able to answer them all today, it’s worth considering your responses. Instead of improvising an answer, it can be better to offer to clarify later, especially if this encourages a further meeting!

There is no perfect approach to pitching – you will have to find your own style. But it’s generally better to focus on your narrative and use slides to support this, rather than making the deck the centre of attention!

If you’d like to discuss how to anticipate Investors’ questions then please get in touch!