A 7-step method for running effective pitch meetings

Iddo Tal has an infectious enthusiasm for fundraising. He believes that when startup founders know how to raise money, they can find the freedom to approach investors with confidence and raise the capital they need to grow their company.

Tal developed his methodologies in the course of leading five startups over more than 20 years. His biggest success story was invi Labs, a smart messaging app that was acquired by Google in 2018, which integrated the technology into Google Messages. By the time he stepped down as product manager in 2020, the platform had more than 600 million users worldwide.

This article is based on an episode of Foundersuite’s How I Raised It podcast, where Tal shared his seven-step method to managing a meeting with investors, including actionable tips for effectively following up on promising pitches.

When Tal began pitching investors in Silicon Valley, it took him some time to understand the dynamics at work in those meetings.

“Would you enjoy being in a meeting day after day with people trying to hard sell you the entire time?” he asked.

He recalled trying to hard sell the room for the full hour-long meeting and watching as investors’ shoulders tensed. “I was trying to teach investors every bit of information I knew about the market and the business, and this is such an ineffective method,” he said.

Over time, he created a framework that changes the dynamic. It works so well, he said, that even if the investor is not a good fit for your startup, they might just introduce to you their contacts.

1. Open with two to three minutes of small talk

Begin the meeting with a few minutes of chitchat to create rapport. Let the investors talk about something that interests them, or look for a common interest.

If you’re pitching on a Zoom call, take a look at what’s in the investor’s background — a diploma, a photo, a trinket — and ask them about it.

2. Frame what will happen during the meeting

Before you get into your pitch, lay out what they can expect from the meeting. This shows investors that you are organized and prepared, and it keeps you from rambling.

Tal recommended that your framing should sound something like this:

Hey, [investor], thank you so much for inviting me here. I believe we have an hour, right? So how about we do the following:

For five minutes I’ll give you my pitch with the deck. After that, we’ll take the biggest part of the meeting — about 30 minutes — for your Q&A. And then I’d like to spend 10 minutes asking you questions. In the last 10 minutes, we’ll define the next steps together. How does that sound?

“I haven’t met an investor who has said no to that,” he said. “I see their shoulders relax. They know that they have to be quiet for five minutes, and after that, this is their show to ask questions.”

Revisit your framework between each of the following steps — Tal called this “microframing” — reminding the investors of what is coming next and confirming that they are ready to move to the next portion of the meeting.

3. Practice a five-minute pitch

Practice giving your full pitch in five minutes. Tal suggested preparing no more than 12 slides and making sure they include all of the important elements. In addition to what you actually say about your company, how you say it will communicate your organized approach to the investors in the room.

4. Use the Q&A to invite investors to think out loud

The aim of this 30-minute segment is to let the investors use questions to process their own thoughts about your pitch. Often, one question will lead to an idea that will spin off another idea.

“This is where the magic happens,” Tal said. “In a good meeting with investors, the investors start to sell you on what we can do together.”

The key to making this work? Be quiet. Answer their questions directly and concisely, and allow your answers to enable their thought process.

Tal offered an example of investors asking about burn rate: “Many times this was just for me to say $60,000,” he said.

The temptation, however, is to begin explaining why the burn rate is $60,000. Offering an explanation the investors didn’t ask for quickly kills the whole dynamic. If you feel that an explanation would be helpful, ask permission to share it before you dive in. Something like, “Would you like to hear the breakdown of the burn rate?”

Only answering exactly what is asked takes a lot of practice: “I visualize a big pile of $1 bills, and every word I’m saying is a dollar, and I have a limited amount of bills.”

Tal said he likes to have one question to which he can respond with “I don’t know.” Sometimes, this opens an opportunity to play with a financial model or include investors in a mini creative working session where you can demonstrate what it’s like to work with you as a founder.

5. Ask these 7 questions to get closer to a close

1. Who makes the decision to invest?
2. What is the average amount you invest in a startup? What’s your sweet spot?
3. Is there anyone else you would like me to meet? (This is a great question to assess how investors are feeling — you’ll know the difference between “No, I’m excited about this deal and I make the decisions” and “No, there isn’t.” Hint: The latter is not a great sign.)
4. If, and only if, you sense from their answers that they are excited, but haven’t yet decided, ask: Would you be interested in meeting our team or seeing our offices?
5. Do you feel comfortable investing in SAFE notes?
6. Are you aware that we are incorporated in Canada/Singapore/Delaware/etc.?
7. Is there a timeframe for when you typically invest in deals? (You may be surprised by the answers.)

Ask these questions in addition to doing your own homework. You should walk into the meeting knowing what stage the investor works in and who they’ve invested in previously. It’s also helpful to talk to other founders they’ve worked with.

6. Define the next steps

Before you enter the final stage of the meeting, take one last moment to microframe.

This could sound like: “Thank you for answering my questions. I know I asked a lot, but your answers were very helpful. Now that I have the complete picture, the last step is to take about 10 minutes to define the next steps. Are you ready to dive in?”

Base your next steps on the answers you heard during your Q&A. For example:

• It sounds like I need to meet with Rachel on your team for due diligence. I have a full data room ready to go; would you like me to send that along with our session notes?
• I understand that your investment sweet spot is around $200,000. Is that a fair amount for our deal?

At the end of the meeting, be sure to thank the investors. Now it’s time for follow up.

7. Follow up on the same day

Tal advised following up on a pitch meeting on the same day. In fact, he sometimes walks out of a meeting, opens the hotspot on his phone, and sends follow-up materials from the investors’ parking lot.

“If you blink, you’re going to lose, and that’s the energy you want to reflect,” he said.

Your follow-up email should include anything you agreed to in the next steps — access to your data room, materials you discussed, or the answer to your “I don’t know” question. If the investors indicated they are ready to write a check, you can also include a pre-signed SAFE note.

Tal puts a deadline on the note for the timeline agreed upon in the meeting plus a buffer of three days, and he sends it pre-signed, making it as easy as possible for the investor to sign off.

He recommends using an e-signature program like HelloSign to automate the process, send daily reminder emails, and show whether the investor has opened the note. If a few days go by with no activity, he knows it’s time to reach out to the investor and offer support.

It’s crucial to stay on top of the follow-up process. “I used to get out of meetings thinking that was a great meeting,” he said. “And people said, ‘OK, what’s the next step?’ And I said, ‘I’m waiting for the investor to get back to me.’ That’s a failure. That’s a bad meeting.”

Bonus tips (or how to not drop the ball)

Momentum is the oxygen that fuels the fire of fundraising. Without it, deals sputter and die. One way to keep the momentum going is to make fundraising your No. 1 priority in life.

No matter what you may be doing, he says, “When you get an email from investors, drop everything and answer the email. This is not the time to drop balls.”

“Run fast,” Tal said. Create a huge pipeline, an abundance of investors, a full calendar of potential meetings.

“You are a machine,” he says. “You have to create more and more opportunities with investors in your space, in your stage, that are great people to work with. And you need to run fast to keep the momentum.”