Pitching at Venture Atlanta is an incredible opportunity for your tech company to gain valuable exposure and secure funding. Venture Atlanta has helped hundreds of founders connect with top investors, raise funding, and scale their businesses. But to make that happen, you need more than a good idea. You need a knockout pitch.
Whether you’re polishing your investor pitch deck or figuring out how to stand out from the crowd, these startup pitch tips, pulled from our Board of Directors and Venture Atlanta CEO, Allyson Eman, will help you show up ready.
And if you’re looking for more, check out Allyson’s advice on how to perfect your pitch during her time on the Austenpreneur podcast.
How to Pitch to Investors
Before we get into the first tip, it’s important to know how to structure your pitch. We’ve put together this worksheet to help you structure a compelling venture capital pitch to potential investors.
As you work through the sections, ensure each part of your pitch is clear, concise, and persuasive. Remember, the goal is to make a strong case for your venture while engaging your audience effectively.
Tip #1—Start With Your Story
The number one rule of a successful startup pitch is to get personal. That means crafting your narrative to make investors care about not just your business, but you as a founder.
“You’ve got to tell your story, and tell it passionately.”
- Allyson Eman, CEO at Venture Atlanta Conference
Investors’ attention span is only about 20 seconds long. That means you’ve got to hook them from the moment you begin speaking. One effective technique: lead with a punchy stat or KPI that shows traction, then weave in your origin story and vision.
With that in mind, keep your deck around 10 slides long. Obviously, there will be some information missing because of the length. THAT IS OK. The goal of the pitch is to get the investors intrigued enough to want a second date. You can delve into more details then. And, if they want more information or clarification on something, they’ll ask for it!
Tip #2—Keep the Deck Crisp, Clean, and Focused
You should avoid having a cluttered investor pitch deck that doesn’t flow logically or help support your story. Here’s what you should include in your pitch deck:
- Highlight your unique value proposition in one sentence
- The problem you are solving & how you’re solving it
- The ideal customer profile
- Use visuals instead of long text blocks
- Clearly defined proof points
- Showcase traction with metrics (but skip the pie chart clichés)
- Include only 2–3 direct competitors, not every player in the space
- How much money do you need from investors, and why? Have a clear ask
Depending on the pitch format, you may not have time to touch on all of these. So, rank each of them in order of priority. Spend time with the key ones that truly differentiate your business and quickly highlight the others.
Here’s board member Peter Franconi, with his thoughts on what you need for a pitch:
"At a minimum, you need a simple statement: I help [ideal customer profile] solve [specific problem] and generate [concrete ROI]. If there’s more time, then you can go into the traction (finances or KPIs) and why your team is the right one to solve the problem and scale."
- Peter Franconi, Principal at Fulcrum Equity Partners
CHEATCODE: No More Than ¼ of Your Slides Should Be Filled with Text.
Tip #3—Treat Your Pitch Like a First Date
The goal of your pitch isn’t to land a term sheet on the spot—it’s to earn that crucial next meeting. That mindset shift can completely transform your startup pitch preparation.
During the pitch, be specific about what you’re asking for (funding, partnerships, intros), and follow up fast.
“It’s really impressive when a founder does what they say they’re going to do.”
- Allyson Eman, CEO at Venture Atlanta Conference
Here are a few of the takeaways from our board members about what makes a good presentation great:
- The passion and authenticity of the presenter
- Knowledge of numbers and business drivers
- Having a lot of energy
- Practice
- Clear delivery in a smooth but upbeat manner
Here are some insights from board member Kim Seals about what separates a great pitch from a good one in her mind:
"The passion and authenticity of the presenter came through and made us want to learn more about the company."
- Kim Seals, General Partner, The JumpFund
Etiquette Tips for Before and After the Pitch
In terms of pitch etiquette, there are a few things you should do.
Before the Pitch
- For 1:1 meetings, send the deck a day or two in advance. This will allow the meeting to run more efficiently because the investors will have some context going into it.
- Practice. Make sure the pitch is worth their time (and yours!) by showing up as ready as you can be.
- Make sure you have prepared for these common investor questions. Investors may ask questions in a follow-up meeting, or they may put you on the spot immediately after the pitch. In case it’s the latter, you need to have answers and information ready!
After the Pitch
- Stick around. Some investors will seek you out after your pitch if they think your company poses an exciting opportunity.
- Follow up in a timely manner. Thank the participants, send the deck one more time, and address any action items or questions that came up in the meeting.
- Be respectful and smart. Not every meeting will go the way you want, and, as we’ve already shared, you will hear a lot of “no’s” on this journey. Don’t burn any bridges in the process.
You want to develop a working relationship with investors. Take them up on connecting with their connections and continuing to follow up.
The venture capital community is smaller than you think, so it’s important to maintain a good reputation. And even if this opportunity didn’t pan out, it could connect you to an opportunity that will.
Tip #4—Customize Your Pitch For Your Audience
This is one of the most important startup pitch tips. You should always tailor your delivery depending on your audience and which investors you are pitching to. You don’t have to overhaul your message, but tweak your focus based on who’s in the room.
Some investors care most about financials. Others want to see a big vision. Do your homework and connect on a personal level.
“Using canned LinkedIn messages doesn’t work anymore. Investors can tell, and they won’t engage.”
- Allyson Eman, CEO at Venture Atlanta Conference
Pro tip: only apply to events or funds that make strategic sense. Start here with our Venture Atlanta pitch application guide
Tip #5—Think Beyond Capital
While most pitches end with “We’re raising $1M…,” it’s worth getting creative with your ask. Can investors test your product? Make intros? Provide advisory support?
Giving them an immediate way to engage, like buying a product or signing up, builds momentum and excitement in your brand. And remember: investors back people, not just companies.
Tip #6—Avoid These Common Mistakes
We’ve seen hundreds of pitches. The best ones stand out for the right reasons. The worst? They all tend to make the same errors. Here are some startup pitch mistakes to avoid:
- Overhyping your market without backing it up
- Claiming to have no competition
- Spending too much time on competitors
- Packing your presentation with too many slides
- Being overzealous with financial models
- Assuming investors know everything about your industry
- Trying to use humor if you’re not funny
- Including the dreaded SWOT analysis
- Asking questions in an auditorium, like “How’s everybody doing today?”
- Expecting the conversation to stay high-level
- Failing to tailor your message
- Skipping the follow-up
- Showing up underprepared
- Talking about an exit
Most importantly, for your overall expectations of your venture pitch, here is what board member Mike Dowdle had to say:
"Don’t expect a yes. Do expect lots of no’s. But remember, you only need one yes."
- Mike Dowdle, Founding Partner of Circadian Ventures
Invest your time in becoming the most prepared version of yourself prior to the pitch. Resources like Y Combinator’s Startup School and watching TED Talks about giving exceptional presentations will help you feel more confident about your pitch.
CHEATCODE: Pitch Day Checklist
Want to make sure you're pitch-day ready? Here’s a quick hit list of all the items you need to include in your pitch.
- One-sentence value prop
- Know your KPI/stats (and include them at the beginning)
- Strong hook
- Clear deck with minimal text
- 2–3 competitors only
- Personalized messaging
- Specific ask
- Clean, practiced delivery
- Immediate follow-up plan
- Non-gimmicky descriptions
- Show tangible growth
- Short explanation of your industry
The Best Startup Pitch Tip: Apply to Pitch at Venture Atlanta 2025
We hope these six pitch competition tips will help your startup pitch preparation and help you understand how to pitch to investors. The core thing to remember is that you’ve got to differentiate yourself and prove that the issue you’re solving is personal to you. If you can nail that, you’ve got a great chance at strengthening connections with investors and hopefully securing funding.
But the final tip we want to give you is the pitch at this year’s Venture Atlanta conference! As one of the nation’s largest venture capital conferences, we support the Southeast’s most promising tech companies by connecting them to the capital, talent, mentorship, partnerships, and customers that they need in order to be successful.
Pitching at Venture Atlanta is a highly sought-after experience. Our alumni companies have collectively raised $7.9B in capital and achieved $20.8B in successful exits.
Applications for the 2025 Venture Atlanta Pitch Competition are now open. If you’ve got the traction, the story, and the vision, we want to hear from you. Apply now!
If you’re not ready to pitch this year, we still encourage you to attend the conference. You can learn a lot from watching other companies pitch and hearing the investor Q&A. Additionally, the networking opportunities at Venture Atlanta are unparalleled, even if you’re not on stage.
