Pitching Tips for Founders Raising Venture Capital

• It takes a convincing pitch to win investors over if you want to raise venture capital in 2023. 
• Investors and experts said to keep your pitch short and show how your business is different.
• Insider spoke to five founders who raised venture capital to get tips on a winning pitch.

It takes a convincing pitch to win investors over if you want to raise venture capital for your business in 2023. 

In 2021, VC investment nearly doubled year-over-year, with a record $128.3 billion funneled into startups, according to PitchBook data. Investment dollars dropped this year as economic uncertainty brews and a potential upcoming recession in the US looms, but funding is still available.

A perfect pitch should establish you as an expert in your field, connect investors to your story, and provide a clear sense of your business model. That’s according to Alison Wyatt, an angel investor who invested in the working-mothers community HeyMama.

She also suggested founders tailor their pitch to the investors they’re addressing. “Lean into the things that they think about, that keep them up at night, and the problems that they want to solve,” Wyatt previously told Insider.

When creating your pitch deck, a short, simple presentation is most effective, data from the document-sharing platform DocSend found. Clearly stating what sets your business apart works best for founders seeking pre-seed and seed funding.

Insider spoke to five founders who have raised venture capital — three of whom closed their funding rounds this year. Here are their tips for a winning pitch.