It’s always amazing to me that no matter how many times I advise entrepreneurs about their pitches to VCs and angels, they still think they have a better approach and that approach invariably includes spending far too much time on the problem and solution and practically no time on market validation and business model. It doesn’t matter whether the entrepreneur is given 5 minutes or 15 minutes, it happens time and time again, so much so, that by the second slide I can usually predict where things are going, and it’s not pretty.    

It’s my opinion that the problem/solution should be a slam dunk and take no more than 30 seconds to get across.  Why? Because if the problem you’re trying to solve is a real problem, then your listeners will get it right away the minute you say “between 16 and 33 percent of children between 11 and 14 are obese and unhealthy weight is responsible for more than 300,000 deaths a year.” We got it.  No need to keep going on and on about the problem.  So how are you going to solve it?  “HopeLab has developed and is marketing Zamzee, an online rewards system powered by physical activity and recorded to the kid’s personal profile through an activity meter. Kids using this meter are about 30% more active than nonusers.”  Your slide has a picture of a kid using the meter and you’ve gotten across your solution.  (By the way, Zamzee is a real product developed by teens.  Check it out.)

Now you have plenty of time to talk about the most important things that investors want to hear:

• Do you have a big market that you’ve validated with real customers?
•  Do you have a way to make money?
•  Do you have a team that can make this happen?
   

Too many entrepreneurs claim that they’re not given enough time to explain their businesses in a pitch.  Frankly, that’s a bogus complaint.  If you can’t explain your business in 30 seconds, then you obviously don’t understand it.  If you’ve really done your homework and gotten out in the field with customers, you know exactly what are the key success factors for your business and you’ll be able to tick them off quickly.  On the other hand, if you don’t know your business and you haven’t figured everything out, then investors like me will know that by the second slide and you will have missed an opportunity.

Bottom line: the more you know about your business, the less time you will need to explain it.