10 Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Investors (Infographic) For many entrepreneurs looking to start a business, getting access to capital can be the make-or-break moment to a successful launch.

By Catherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Shutterstock.com

Like it or not, money is the lifeblood of a business. If you are on the hunt for capital and have landed a meeting with an investor, your first impression can either be a deal breaker or money in the bank.

According to Founder Institute, an early-stage startup accelerator in Mountain View, Calif., one of the biggest flubs rookies make in an investor presentation pitch is failing to include charts and graphs. If you aren't sure how to go about making charts and graphs that relate to your financial projections, you can consider hiring a business student or a certified public accountant for a day to help. Also, the institute says, steer clear of promising potential investors that your startup is going to be worth $1 billion by its fifth year. Investors want conservative estimates that they can trust, not pie-in-the-sky guesstimates.

Related: Hunting for Business Ideas? Consider Looking at These 8 Hot Industries

Other tips from the Founder Institute include:

  • Avoid a "hard coded" financial spreadsheet in your presentation – that is, don't make your numbers unchangeable in a spreadsheet. Present your information so that investors can play with your various financial inputs to see how your business model will survive in changing conditions.
  • Skip what's known as a "top down" financial forecast where you assume that your company will automatically win a percentage of some existing market. Instead, use what's called "bottom up" forecasting, where you base your financial projections on an actual budget: essentially, how many items you are going to sell multiplied by how much each is worth.
  • Talk about the size of your total addressable market (TAM), but don't focus on it. For example, if you are creating an iPhone game for women ages 35 and up, the size of the entire gaming industry would be your total addressable market and would be largely irrelevant. Instead, research your serviceable addressable market (SAM), which in this example would be the total market for women over the age of 35.

In the infographic below, Founder Institute offers a list of the 10 rookie pitching mistakes it sees on a regular basis.

Related: Entrepreneurship: Risks You Need to Consider (Infographic)

10 Mistakes to Avoid When Pitching Investors

Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Thought Leaders

3 New Ways to Develop Laser-Like Focus

To boost focus in the face of distractions, you need a new approach to success.

Business Ideas

This Teacher Sells Digital Downloads for $10. Her Side Hustle Now Makes Six Figures a Month: 'It Seems Too Good to Be True, But It's Not.'

When one middle school teacher needed to make some extra income, she started a remote side hustle with no physical products and incredibly low overhead. Now she brings in six figures each month, and offers courses teaching others how to do the same.

Business News

McDonald's Is Making a Major Change to Its Burgers in 2024

The beloved Big Mac will also be getting a big makeover.

Growing a Business

Serial Entrepreneur Turned VC Reveals 4 Numbers You Need to Know to Scale Your Company

If you're looking to attract investment or simply seeking to scale your business, there are four key numbers you should use as your guiding light.

Marketing

5 Tips for Helping Your Book Stand Out In an Overcrowded Niche

Writing a book is one thing. Getting people to read it is an entirely different kind of challenge.

Growing a Business

What It Takes to Build a Best-In-Class Company — 3 Essential Elements

The journey to excellence is not a matter of chance but a deliberate pursuit to shape the future and raise the bar for all who follow.