Free · Investor clarity resource

The Five Questions Every Investment Pitch Must Answer

Before you change your deck, test the fundamentals. If an investor cannot quickly understand these five things, the rest of the pitch has to work much harder.

Take the check See the deeper Review

The Five Questions

Write or say each answer in one or two sentences. Use plain English. Imagine the listener knows nothing about your company or sector.

1. Who are you?Name the company and establish why you are the people to build it. 2. What do you do?Explain the customer, the problem and the value you create. 3. How does it work?Make the product, service and customer experience understandable. 4. How does it make money?Explain who pays, what they pay for and how the model can grow. 5. What are you asking for, and what will the investment enable?State the amount, use of funds and the progress that investment should make possible.

Now test the answers

Can someone unfamiliar with the business repeat each answer back accurately?
Have you removed jargon, assumptions and unnecessary detail?
Does each answer lead naturally to the next?
Is the investment ask specific and connected to measurable progress?

What the result means

Five clear answers are a useful first test, not proof that the business is investor ready. The deeper Investor Questions examine whether the market, traction, economics, evidence, team, risks and assumptions make the case believable.

Continue exploring

See how this thinking is applied.

Sample assessmentSee How I Look at a Pitch Investor perspectiveWhat Investors Are Really Listening For Paid starting pointInvestor Readiness Review

Apply the thinking to your pitch

Want me to look at the complete picture?

Start a conversation about the business, the pitch and the investment conversations ahead.

Start a conversation