How to Pitch to Investors: Step-by-Step Process

When I started, I thought a well-written plan was the key to winning investor interest. I’d obsess over phrasing, polish every section, and expect people to be impressed by the level of detail.

They weren’t. Most didn’t even open the whole thing.

What I learned later is that nobody cares about your plan until they care about your idea, and your pitch is what gives them a reason to care in the first place.

Once I stopped trying to explain everything, things changed. I focused on showing how the business fits into something they already care about. That’s when the conversations got sharper with more questions, more interest, and actual follow-ups.

This blog explains how to pitch to investors in a way that earns attention first.

How do you pitch a business plan to investors?

What gets investor interest isn’t how detailed your plan is; it’s how well you can communicate the core of it in under ten minutes. The steps below walk you through how to pitch a business idea to investors.

Step 1: Turn your business plan into a pitch deck

Start by reducing your business plan for investors into a 10–12 slide deck. Include only what investors need upfront: Problem, solution, market size, business model, traction, team, and your funding ask.

Each slide should answer a single question. Keep the language plain. Avoid adding any detailed explanations. If it doesn’t help someone say “yes” faster, leave it out.

Take a cue from Mixpanel’s early deck. They focused on a sharp problem (product teams couldn’t track behavior), showed a working product, and laid out a clear revenue model. It helped them raise $65K from Y Combinator and later $77M from top firms.

If you’re looking for a solid pitch deck, Mixpanel’s early slides are a great reference for how to keep things short and persuasive.

In case you're still figuring out how to make a pitch deck that flows logically, start by outlining each slide around a single question an investor might ask.

Step 2: Choose pitch format options: Live, virtual, or leave-behind

Before creating your pitch, decide on the format: live presentation, virtual meeting, or a deck sent without a presenter. Each pitch format changes how your business plan presentation is received, so the approach needs to match the setting.

In a live setting, you're the focal point. Use your slides to support your narrative, not to duplicate it. Keep visuals simple to maintain audience engagement.

Virtual pitches demand meticulous preparation. Test your technology, ensure clear audio and video, and be ready to adapt to the lack of physical cues.

For leave-behind decks, clarity is paramount. Your slides must convey the message independently. Incorporate concise explanations and ensure each slide stands on its own.

If you're unsure how that looks, check out this pitch deck example roundup featuring real decks from Airbnb, Uber, and more, each built to land without a live presenter.

Investors are increasingly time-constrained. A 2022 study revealed that the average time spent reviewing a pitch deck decreased by 24% from the previous year, giving founders just under three minutes to capture interest.

Tailor your pitch format to make every second count.

Step 3: Lead with a problem statement

Don’t start your pitch with your product. Start with the problem it solves. Investors need context before they can judge the value of your solution.

Describe the problem in specific terms. Who has it? How widespread is it? Why does it matter now?

For example, IHL Group reported that inventory distortion, like stockouts and overstock costs, cost global retailers $1.1 trillion annually. That’s the kind of data that makes a problem feel urgent and worth solving.

Once you state the problem, stop. Don’t start solving it yet. Let the weight of the issue land before you move on.

Step 4: Explain how you solve it (Solution)

After you’ve clearly defined the problem, show how your business directly solves it. Start with a plainspoken summary, such as what you built and what result it delivers. Then, explain how it works in practice.

This doesn’t mean listing features. Walk through what happens from the user’s point of view. What were they doing before? What changes after they use your solution? Be specific about the process, speed, accuracy, or cost reduction.

For example, Gusto recognized that small business owners waste hours managing payroll and compliance. Their platform automates payroll runs, tax filings, and benefits without requiring manual entry. That’s why they’ve grown to 300,000+ customers and a $10B valuation.

Use this slide to show that your solution is practical, aligned with the problem, and built to scale.

Step 5: Show you know the market and market size

Fixing a problem is great, but if only ten people have that problem, it’s not a business. Investors want proof that the need is wide enough to grow. To make your case stronger, break your market into layers.

Here’s how to frame your market size.

• Total Addressable Market (TAM): Total market demand if your product reached everyone it possibly could
• Serviceable Available Market (SAM): The portion of that market you can serve with your current business model
• Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM): The share you expect to convert in the next few years

This shows investors you understand both the scale and the limits of your opportunity.

Let’s say you’re building a software tool for independent fitness coaches. Your TAM might be the entire global fitness tech market, which was valued at $62 billion in 2022.

However, your SAM could be narrowed to self-employed coaches in the U.S., and your SOM might be the 50,000 coaches reachable through existing platforms or partnerships.

Use numbers that come from actual reports or market research. If your business is early-stage, it's fine to say the numbers are directional. What is important is that you've done the thinking.

End this slide by connecting your market size to your revenue model. For example: “If we capture 5% of our SOM at our $30/month subscription rate, that’s $900K in annual revenue by year three.”

Step 6: Lay out the business model

If you want to learn how to pitch a business idea to investors, you can’t stop at the product. You need to explain how it makes money. This is where you walk investors through your revenue model, step by step.

Start with a clear description of your revenue model: Are you operating on a subscription basis, charging per transaction, earning through advertising, or utilizing a freemium approach?

Detail your pricing strategy: Specify how much customers pay, the frequency of payments, and what they receive in return. If you have multiple revenue streams, outline each one, emphasizing your primary source of income.

Explain customer acquisition and retention: Describe how you plan to attract and keep customers. This includes marketing strategies, sales channels, and customer service approaches.

Provide financial projections: Share realistic forecasts for revenue, expenses, and profitability over the next few years. This demonstrates that you've thought through the financial aspects of your business.

Netflix operates on a subscription-based business model, offering unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows for a monthly fee. That decision did two things: it made the product easy to say yes to, and it gave the company a steady stream of monthly revenue they could plan around.

With that consistency, Netflix stopped just licensing shows and started creating its own, quickly turning into one of the biggest studios in the world. Hits like Stranger Things and Narcos were funded by a model designed to keep people subscribed. By 2023, they had passed 230 million paid users.

Step 7: Share your traction and momentum

At this stage, investors want evidence that your business isn’t just an idea. It’s moving.

You don’t need millions in revenue, but you do need proof that people care. That could be paying customers, waitlists, retention data, successful pilots, or signed letters of intent. Choose whatever best shows that you're not starting from zero.

Early traction is important. When Calendly raised its first outside funding, it already had 10 million users and strong organic growth without a sales team. That growth validated demand before anyone reviewed a spreadsheet.

If you're pre-revenue, meaning you haven’t started charging customers yet,

focus on the kind of activity that shows genuine interest: People using the product without reminders, coming back on their own, or telling others about it. That tells investors there’s something here worth watching.

Step 8: Show the team behind the plan

This part of your pitch answers a critical question: Can your team actually do this?

Investors will evaluate resumes. But they will also look at whether you and your team understand the space, know how to get things done, and won’t freeze the moment things go sideways.

That means highlighting experiences that directly reduce risk. For example:

• Has someone on your team built a similar product or scaled a company before?
• Does the team have technical depth, sales experience, or partnerships in your target industry?
• Have any of the team members worked together before, or shipped anything as a team?

Avoid stuffing this slide with generic bios. No one cares where you went to school unless it connects to what you’re building. What they want is proof of capability.

When Notion raised early funding, investors looked past the product and focused on the team’s track record. They had experience building complex tools and had already made tough decisions, like stopping growth to rebuild the product from the ground up.

If you’re a solo founder, that same logic applies. You may not have a whole team yet, but you should still show how you're covering critical gaps, whether it's a technical advisor, an early hire, or someone guiding your go-to-market.

Step 9: Talk about financials, funding, and exit strategy

By this point, investors know what you’re building. Now, they want to know if the numbers hold up.

Start by laying out your basic financials: Projected revenue, expected expenses, gross margin, and cash runway. If you're early and don’t have revenue yet, use simple, bottom-up estimates based on your pricing, target customers, and acquisition strategy. Focus on how you plan to hit your goals.

Next, talk about your raise. How much are you looking for? What exactly will it fund over the next 12–18 months? Be specific: For example, "$300K to hire two engineers and launch v2 of the product." Avoid generalities like "fuel growth" or "scale operations."

Lastly, if you’ve thought about a long-term exit, like a possible acquisition path or IPO down the line, say so. This doesn’t need to be a detailed roadmap, but investors want to know you’ve considered how their money eventually comes back.

This part of your pitch shows how financially literate you are.

Step 10: Expect pushback and prepare to follow up

Even the best pitch doesn’t end with a handshake and a giant novelty check. It ends with questions. Lots of them. And that’s actually a good thing.

When investors ask for follow-ups, they want to test how you think, how prepared you are, and whether you actually understand your own business. Some questions will challenge your big assumptions. Others will dig into numbers you conveniently left off the slides, like CAC, churn, payback period, and whatever else makes founders sweat.

You don’t need every answer, especially if you’re early, but you do need a clear take on what you’re tracking and how you’re learning.

Before the pitch, get your follow-up docs in order. That means a deeper financial model, your go-to-market plan, hiring roadmap, and any slide you cut at 2 a.m. because “it felt too long.” You'll thank yourself later.

One founder who shared their experience pitching to angel investors on Reddit put it this way:

“I was surprised that a lot of startups that presented were pre-revenue but got more engagement from the angels, whereas I have revenue, and there were only a few short comments… The lesson I took is—even if you've got something good to pitch, no one will listen to you if you don't present the information well and in the format that investors expect.”

Source: r/startups

You’ve got the structure. You know what to say and in what order. However, knowing how to present a business plan to investors clearly and with confidence is what makes the pitch land.

Nail the pitch presentation with these tips

You can follow every step perfectly and still lose room if your delivery feels flat or unclear. These tips will help you present with focus, handle questions without scrambling, and show investors you’re ready to run the business.

1. Talk, don’t read

What convinces investors isn’t perfect phrasing; it’s clarity. Speak like someone who understands the business well enough to explain it without leaning on the slides.

If you pause to remember lines, you’ll sound uncertain, even when your idea is solid. Keep your tone steady and conversational, and focus on the substance of each point.

2. Stay on time, 10 mins max

The average investor decides whether to continue within the first ten minutes, often sooner. That means your pitch needs to open strong, follow a clear structure, and reach the funding ask without delay.

Treat ten minutes as a hard boundary, not a soft goal. Rehearse until your delivery feels clean without cutting corners. If you can’t hit the mark in time, it’s a sign your story still needs editing.

3. Keep slides clean

Your slides should serve one purpose: to reinforce what you're saying. That means each one should focus on a single idea, with minimal text and clean visuals that guide attention, not distract from it.

Investors want market size, traction, and revenue models to be shown quickly and simply. A well-designed deck allows you to lead the conversation without relying on dense content.

4. Know your numbers without looking

When investors ask about those numbers, they’re evaluating how you define success, how you build assumptions, and how closely you’ve been tracking real performance.

Every number should come with a short, logical story. If your CAC is $150, be ready to walk through where that number came from and how it changes with scale.

5. Don’t oversell

Investors expect honesty about where you are, what you’ve done so far, and what you’re solving next. You don’t need to impress them with vision. They hear that from every founder.

What cuts through is a grounded explanation of why now is the right time, what signals you've already seen from the market, and how you're managing the parts of the business that are still in progress.

You just need to be clear, structured, and prepared. That’s what keeps investors engaged and opens the door to honest conversations. If you’ve got the content down but want help sharpening how you present it, the right support can make a real difference.

Need additional help?

You can do everything right and still get nowhere. That’s because a pitch that works for a SaaS seed round won’t work for a marketplace raising a Series A. Though the rules are the same, the expectations are different.

Sometimes, you’re too deep in the weeds to know what’s missing.

PlanGrowLab specializes in providing that external perspective. We work with founders across the board, whether you need to sharpen your business plan, build solid financial projections, clean up your pitch deck, or just want someone to review your plan before you hit send.

If your pitch deck needs to feel tighter, clearer, and built for the investors in front of you, we’ve got you covered there, too. Whether it’s your first meeting or your fifth round, we’ll help you focus on what adds value.