1. HOW TO NAIL YOUR
PITCH
IN 5 MINUTES
A quick guide to help you organize your presentation for
the final pitch at Startup Weekend
By:
Nezar Kadhem
Tomas Paulauskas

2. In today’s competitive and fierce funding climate, entrepreneurs
must stand out, and pitch their ideas in a convincing & compelling
manner. At startup conferences & Angel / VC meetings, all you
have is 5 minutes, yes, 5 minutes to step on stage and convince
your potential investors, partners, and customers to pick you.
Getting this presentation right is crucial as it can lead to
financing, buzz, and growth; AND getting it wrong: doesn’t.

3. YOUR 1ST SEXY LOGO
SLIDE
• On your first slide, you will need nothing but a logo.
• Plaster your slick & attractive logo that you created during the
weekend
• Introduce yourself.
• Do you have some “star” players in your team?

4. PROBLEM STATEMENT
• Nothing sounds better than starting your pitch with a
problem statement.
• And want your listeners to believe it?
•  Start it off with a story.
• How big is the problem?
•  Can you relate it to someone who has the pain? How many of
people are like this person?

5. SOLUTION
• The Solution is… Your Product / Service
• Right after name it, state your mantra
• A Mantra is a tagline that summarizes your business in clear and
concise framing of 2 sentences, not more.
• Clearly explain how you alleviate the pain
• Ensure that the audience clearly understands what you sell, and
what is your value proposition to your customer.

6. HOW DOES IT WORK?
• Clearly explain in steps how your product of service works
• Users Open the app / webpage
• Users login
• How do they pick the service?
• How do they pay?
• Users use your service… And are satisfied.
• Give examples. Showing off your prototype is extremely
useful. Here you can show your progress & how your team
was able to execute well under pressure.

7. THE FACTS!
“As convincing as your business might sound to you, it’s important to
recognize that it is still largely untested guesses & hypothesizes that will
almost certainly change”
- Ash Maurya
• Prove that your customers want you! Go out to the field.
• Conduct surveys (Quantitative)
• Interview / Talk to your customers (Qualitative)
• Talk to your key partners
• Want to impress?
• Great to add quotes from people you spoke with “… I would
definitely pay…”
• Even better? Tell us how much they said they are willing to pay.

8. HOW DO YOU MAKE
MONEY?
• Clearly describe your business model
• What are your main revenue streams?
• Show the monetary inflow and outflow between your company and
relevant stakeholders in exchange for value proposition.
• Create a diagram that demonstrates the process between you, the
customers, and key partners.
• Example:
Groupon.com
www.boardofinnovation.com

9. YOUR MARKET
• Who is your customer?
• Specify your target customer persona
• How big is your market?
• Tell your addressable market size.
• Explain how you got them
• Who is your competitor?
• How and why are you better? What is your secret sauce!?

10. MARKETING
• What is your market-entry strategy?
• How are your going to reach your early adopters?
• What is your customer acquisition plan?
• Be creative. Most investors dislike ideas that have a high burn rate
for marketing
• Even though your business idea is promising and scalable,
you must elaborate on the small steps you will execute to
successfully enter the market.

11. BUSINESS ECONOMICS
• Don’t confuse the judges with excel tables!
• Investors are looking for key numbers:
• What is the initial required investment to start your business?
• What is your pricing strategy? Can you back it with your customer
surveys?
• When do you forecast to breakeven?
• How many products / services do you need to sell to breakeven?
• Show a graph of where / when your
• Costs (customer acquisition costs) are going to decline. Be ready to
explain why.
• Cash flow’s are positive

12. KILLER SLIDE!
• Give a reason for us to believe that you are ready to… ROCK!
• End your presentation by mentioning:
• That you have successfully identified a customer pain point
• That you have a prototype (landing page) that you created over the
weekend.
• That you found a clear market entry strategy, and that you need (x)
amount of money to begin your venture.
• And of course… Thank you!

13. WE WISH YOU THE
BEST OF LUCK !
If you have any questions…
Nezar Kadhem  nezar@entertheclub.com
Tomas Paulauskas  tomas@entertheclub.com