The Two Essential Elements of a Great Pitch
In the high-stakes world of fundraising, founders often overcomplicate what makes a pitch successful. A great pitches boil down to just two critical elements: numbers and a story.
The Numbers
By the time you stand in front of investors, your numbers are set in stone. These metrics—whether they're user growth, revenue, retention, or burn rate—reflect decisions and actions already taken. They're trailing indicators of your company's efforts so far.
The work to make your numbers compelling should have started long before you entered the pitch room. Since we can't change what's already happened, I won't focus on how to improve your metrics in this post. Instead, let's talk about the element you can control in the moment: your story.
A Great Story - Not Saying the Wrong Things
Fundraising shares a surprising similarity with bowling. As someone who's spent considerable time in the gutters of various bowling alleys, I've learned an important lesson: staying out of the gutter is more important than throwing a perfect strike.
In bowling, if you avoid the gutters, you're almost guaranteed to knock down at least one pin. With enough turns, you could eventually hit all ten pins simply by staying on the lane. Similarly, fundraising isn't primarily about saying all the right things—it's about not saying the wrong things that land you in the gutter.
I'm continually amazed by founders who start with perfectly good pitches, only to land themselves in the gutter with one unfortunate statement or action. Just like bowling, once you're in the gutter, recovery is nearly impossible.
Three Scenarios: Combining Numbers With a Winning Story
Let's examine three common scenarios where your storytelling approach can transform otherwise challenging numbers into a compelling narrative.
Scenario 1: When Your Numbers Are Small
Early-stage startups face an unavoidable truth: your initial numbers will be objectively unimpressive. No matter how encouraging your early metrics might seem to you, they're likely minuscule compared to established companies—and often negative when considering the opportunity cost of your talented team.
Consider what your founding team could earn at McKinsey or another prestigious firm compared to what your startup is generating in its first year. This perspective puts those early numbers in stark context.
The critical mistake founders make is presenting these small numbers through the lens of: "Look how great our metrics are and how fast we're growing!"
When investors hear this, they think: "These founders are either out of touch or intellectually dishonest. Next."
This rejection often comes disguised as "You're too early" or "We typically look for companies with [insert unattainable metrics for your stage]." But the real issue is that you told the wrong story given your numbers.
The Winning Approach:
Frame these early metrics through the lens of hypothesis testing: "We started this journey to test these key assumptions. While we are laser-focused on repeatability in preparation for scale, we're seeing encouraging early revenue and retention."
This strategy accomplishes something powerful—rather than trying to elevate your performance to meet investor expectations, you intentionally minimize current performance while setting expectations that future performance will only improve. You signal that your numbers aren't compelling because they are not intended them to be; your numbers go from signifying your state and instead signify your trajectory.
Scenario 2: When Your Numbers Have Plateaued
This typically happens in between Seed and Series A stages. The common mistake is attempting to distract investors with alternative metrics rather than acknowledging the trajectory change directly and explaining why you expect future growth.
Most experienced investors have seen this pattern before—it's often an expected part of the startup journey. By demonstrating intellectual honesty about what's happening and logical integrity around what will move your critical metrics forward, you build trust and alignment.
The Winning Approach:
Directly address the plateau with explanations like:
"We were scaling rapidly but started outpacing our working capital, so we had to temporarily slow down"
"We've fully saturated our initial channel, and we need this capital to unlock the next growth vector"
Scenario 3: When Your Numbers Are Genuinely Strong
When your numbers are genuinely strong and scaling, the story becomes all about the size of the opportunity. The mistake is underselling the opportunity at this stage. This mistake is particularly common among underrepresented founders who are oftentimes too cautious about appearing to oversell their business. Here's the reality check: investors typically discount whatever projections you present by about 50%. If you've already discounted your own projections by 50%, you've effectively penalized yourself by 75% compared to other founders.
The Winning Approach:
When you have genuinely impressive metrics, tell a compelling story about the future and the size of the opportunity. Where does the business go from here? Why should investors believe these strong numbers will persist or improve? Paint the vision of scale that these early indicators support.
The Bowling Strike of Fundraising
Remember, a successful pitch combines two essential components: your numbers (which are largely fixed by the time you're pitching) and the story you tell around those numbers (which is entirely in your control).
Master both elements, and you'll dramatically increase your chances of walking away with a check. Stay out of the gutters, and you are virtually guaranteed to hit some pins.
The key isn't to throw a perfect strike every time—it's to stay on the lane long enough to knock down all the pins.
This post is part of my ongoing Knowledge Arbitrage series, where I share insights from my experience on both sides of the fundraising table. What storytelling challenges are you facing with your current metrics? Share in the comments below and I will help where I can.
Insightful, thanks for sharing.
This is fantastic