I Pitched My Brand To Investors 2 Months Ago… Here’s What Happened.

2 months ago, I sat in a Zoom Call with a few investors in a panel.

Some of these investors are people who we know that started and exited their own companies.

If you are an entrepreneur or follow them, you would've seen some familiar faces.

It was an amazing experience that I encourage everyone to pursue if you are on the journey of creating your own brand.

Here’s what I did going in, and the feedback I received from them.

My Strategy

My brand started as a supplement brand, so my main focus was to provide the benefits that I believed made our brand special: minimal ingredients with efficacious dosages.

While it sounds similar to many other brands in the space, our products typically have 3–5 main ingredients and that’s pretty much it.

We had a minimalistic approach, and I wanted this because of my own background experience with supplements.

I received feedback from others who listened to a practice pitch of mine, where I made some edits due to suggestions from others.

Based on the feedback I received, I made the recommended adjustments.

There was a feeling in my gut that my positioning for my pitch was a little off.

While I envisioned my brand similar to how Native (the minimalistic deoderant brand) brands itself, other brands do similar in my space.

Transparent Labs, for example, is one.

I prepared to start my pitch presentation with my story of how I got started with fitness (it helped my depression and changed the trajectory of my life). Then, I presented the common complaints about customers in the industry based on Amazon reviews.

This, I believed, would provide me with a strong transition to my solution.

And with that, I was ready to present.

The Feedback

The Investors had a lot to say about my brand.

A lot of it was constructive criticism, which was extremely helpful for me to think like an entrepreneur, and to understand what investors are looking for.

Initially, based on feedback from others, I assumed they wanted to hear about the differences based on the “features” and “benefits” of my products.

But they ultimately wanted to hear more about my story and who I serve.

One of the investors was super excited about the story I told in the beginning and told me that my entire presentation should’ve revolved around that.

The investor told me that my story is a story many potential customers are experiencing right now.

I shouldn’t have focused on the features and benefits, because they were additions to the product.

I should’ve focused on who I serve.

And if I had results based on who I served, they would’ve considered investing.

While I didn’t get any investor INVESTED at this time, I received validation on my brand — investors and viewers alike said I have something special with my brand.

In addition, the investor who enjoyed my story is in touch with me now. He has helped me A LOT since then, providing me insights through videos and conversations.

While this might not be a major win to some, surrounding myself with these big names for a 30-minute presentation experience and getting advice from them was worth millions of dollars.

And while the constructive feedback was very constructive, it didn’t dishearten me at all.

It got me excited.

I’m going to try to get into another panel next month with a clearer positioning.

I am looking forward to the future of our brand.

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**Originally posted on Medium**

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