The most obvious answer being “to secure the funding they are looking for”, but our feedback might surprise you, it did us. For a lot of our SME clients they perceive the most value is from the feedback given by the Angels.
When a business pitches at one of our events, we ask the Angels to score the business in various areas, mark an interest – so they are included in all syndicate discussions and provide comments/feedback.
We pass on all comments to the business – good, bad and indifferent. We are of the firm opinion that all feedback is useful. It helps businesses to shape future pitches and focus on delivering key messages.
There is nothing worse (or so we’ve heard) than a business pitching to a room of Angel Investors, to then leave but receive little to no feedback on how their proposition was received by the Investors.
We believe that if someone decides not to invest then the business should know why. If it’s that the business was not in their sector of expertise, or they just weren’t excited by it, then altering their pitch is unlikely to change the outcome. However, what if the Investors were confused by what your product did, they didn’t see the opportunity or were distracted by the delivery? Would taking these comments on board give the business a better chance of securing funding the next time they pitched?
We find that refining a pitch following the good, bad and indifferent feedback to be really effective in gaining interest at the next pitching session. That is why we contract with our SME clients for a minimum of 2 pitching sessions, giving them a much better chance at securing funding.
If you’re looking for funding, we still have lots of pitching sessions before the end of the year – just get in touch.