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Forget Elevator Pitches, The New Trend is the WhatsApp Pitch Your winning pitch is now that short WhatsApp note that you have to send across

By Sanchita Dash

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

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There was a time when everyone was stunned by the elevator pitch. For how could one put together their entire business concept and pitch it to an important investor, in a matter of minutes? Well, what if now thanks to the short messaging platform, you just got a few seconds of the attention span of an investor?

Welcome to the new trend of pitching over WhatsApp. You meet a prominent investor, one that you have been dying to get in touch with, and he/she tells you to send a "WhatsApp note" about your company which could lead to a further conversation about investments?

While you might get the chance to have a meeting with the investor and sit in with a detailed presentation, your winning pitch is now that short WhatsApp note that you have to send across.

We have the answers. Entrepreneur India spoke to startup founders about how to create a concise yet winning pitch for WhatsApp communication.

Keep It Short & Simple

Everyone is on WhatsApp now. We are all communicating through WhatsApp, so it would come as no surprise that a message on the platform could be an initiation to a conversation on investments.

Chander Verma, Founder, and CEO, Plunes.com too believes that over the years, WhatsApp has emerged as a favored message app for improving business prospects and has proven to be a credible platform to connect with like-minded investors. "A business pitch to be sent to a VC via Whatsapp needs to be concise to spark investor interest. With a view to keeping the investor glued to the note, the language used should be crisp and simple and the words should be to-the-point," he said and added a word of caution – it is important to keep text to a minimum else there are chances of going off the track which can lead to losing of VC interest.

Considering a VC's time is precious and he/she could be receiving thousands of business pitches ever day, keeping it short and simple is the key to success here.

Share What You Have Achieved

The message however short has to be inclusive of your achievements. Amjad Khan, founder and CEO, Milestone Group said that one can even speak about their achievements, while keeping it honest. "We need to make it a point that the sentences are not too elaborate with complicated words. This works exactly like a PowerPoint presentation," he said.

The proof of concept of your business should come across well in the message. If you have set out and achieved the same, share examples of your success stories.

Verma believes that you will need to convince the investor of the market potential of your proposed business and how it can ensure an attractive Return on Investment (RoI) on funds invested. "When you pitch to a prospective investor, imagine yourself in his position. This will help you understand the viability of your business idea from his perspective. Understand the USP of your product or service," said Verma.

Talk Facts Through Images/Videos

For any investor, the facts and figures of your business hold utmost importance. At the end of the day, for an investor the numbers do the talking.

Khan advises that one should bring up the numbers right in the beginning where the VC sees the scope of the business, it would work. "Also, the other thing that is important here is understanding the demand of the market. If you have a business that caters to a current need or trend in the market, this also gets the attention," he said.

Agreeing with him, Nischey Grover, Founder, Acousterr Infotech Pvt ltd, said that is important to keep the financial data ready. He said that they project their return user ratio and average session time is extremely healthy, which strongly asserts that there is a real need for this application.

Here is where, images and videos come to your rescue. With the help of images or videos, you can share elaborate information in a succinct manner. "Whatsapp pitches allow us to send screenshots/short video of our cool deep learning based technology which does impress and interest a lot of people. . We keep our Google Analytics screenshots handy as well," said Grover.

Sanchita Dash

Entrepreneur Staff

Former Senior Correspondent, Entrepreneur India

In the business of news for 5 years now. Making my way across India thanks to my career. A media graduate from Symbiosis, Pune, I have earlier worked with Deccan Chronicle (South India's leading English daily), T-Hub (India's largest incubator) and Anthill Ventures (a speed-scaling platform). 

Stories, movies and PJs are my thing. 

If you hear 'The Office' opening score randomly, don't worry it's just my phone ringing. 

 

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