Raising funds for your business part 2: The Pitch, by MOB Business Mentor & Coach, Francesca Hodgson
Hey Mobsters,
Back in December I wrote a blog to introduce you to the basics of fundraising and included some helpful lingo and key terms you should know. If you want a refresh then you can read the blog here.
In my December blog we talked about the language of fundraising, the types of funding you can consider, introduced you to the pitch and outlined ways you can take control of the process.
In this blog we will focus on the Pitch.
Firstly, what is a Pitch?
If you are new to this, it may not be obvious, therefore your Pitch would typically include the following:
1. Pitch Deck (a c.12 page landscape presentation which covers the core of elements of your business),
2. Elevator Pitch - your short sharp verbal or written summary which takes you c. 30 seconds to deliver.
3. Financial Modeling
Most importantly the role of your Pitch is to get you the meeting with any prospect investor.
The above awareness is critical as so often I see Pitch decks containing reams of heavy text and detail. Please remember when it comes to pitching less is typically more so long as you have presented a clear macro overview of your business and a strong rationale.
What goes into a Pitch / Pitch Deck?
Below are your core elements of a pitch deck:
Title Slide: Name of company, date, ‘Fundraising Pitch Deck’, also include the financial disclaimer: ‘Capital at Risk’.
Problem statement (or the reason your product or service exists)
Your Vision and Mission statement (the Vision is your ‘North Star’ it should be bold and far reaching. Your Mission statement is how you are going to work towards your Vision). More about Vision and Mission in my blog Vision, Mission and thePower of Personal Brand.
Your solution
About you, your team - why you have the expertise to deliver
The market opportunity
Traction to date
Financials - If you have actuals include them, otherwise this is a projected forecast, key details are to outline revenues and costs.
The competitive landscape
The ask: How much are you raising, what equity are you giving away, are you eligible for SEIS/EIS?
The use of funds
Closing slide with contact details
Also if your pitch includes a physical space, include layouts of the space if possible. In addition if you have intellectual property, make sure you mention it in your pitch.
Key points to note:
Less is more when it comes to your pitch, remember that your pitch is purely to get you the meeting.
Try to avoid too much copy or lengthy detail.
If you have a product or service where you feel the detail is important then my advice is to put in appendix slides where people can access the details should they wish.
Make it visually impactful, your presentation is a reflection of you and your business. In 2025 poor design can be avoided by using template tools such as Canva or Pitch.com.
Your elevator pitch
Always be ready with this, you never know when you may get an opportunity to pitch. Make sure it's impactful and engaging and get it down to 30 seconds or less. You can use free tools like Chat GPT to help you refine your pitch. Remember if you are struggling with length you can paste it into chat GPT with a prompt that reads ‘now reduce this elevator business pitch by 50% word count’.
Financial Modelling
If you are not an accountant this may seem daunting but don’t be scared. Every entrepreneur and business owner needs to know their numbers inside and out:
- What are your operating costs?
- How much revenue are you generating?
- What are your Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC?) i.e how much do you need to spend to get a customer?
- How much are your products and or services?
- How much have you invested to date?
- When is your company profitable or when does your company breakeven?
- What is recurring revenue (i.e subscription revenue) and what is one-off revenue? (i.e an individual ticket sale)
Above are a few basic questions you should know the answer to or have at least considered. Beyond this you can do some basic modelling in excel but at some point you will want a robust financial plan that includes taxes and factors for things like depreciation and amortisation.
Equally from your Financial Plan you can generate the all important statement of Cash Flow. Cash is king in business and the worst thing is to run out of cash, so planning ahead will help you understand how much cash you need and will justify your ask amount in your pitch.
There are specialist providers that help early stage business and offer very reasonable rates for business modelling. I have people I can recommend in my partner network, if you need more support feel free to reach out to me.
Where to send you pitch
Once you have a pitch you need to identify investors who you would like to speak with and craft your reach-outs. This is something I can offer support with or connect you to partners in my network. Warm investor introductions are always helpful but equally know you can reach out cold so long as you are strategic in who you want to speak with and craft a compelling pitch.
There are also plenty of accelerator programmes and pitch events for you to apply to across London and the rest of the UK. My advice is just to google and ask within your network. Once you have your pitch you can start to share it with those close to you.
I hope this has helped clarify the pitch. Whether you are fundraising or not, I find the process of crafting a pitch useful to help further clarify goals and ambition. It is common to hear advice such as ‘you don’t need a business plan’ and I agree you don’t. Whilst a pitch is not a business plan, I find both crafting a pitch and writing a business plan can help with business development. For example, how much have you considered your competition to date? Taking time to think through all areas of your business can be exceptionally helpful and rewarding.
Good luck Mobsters, I hope this has been helpful and as always I love hearing about you and your businesses in comments. So if you are fundraising let me and the MOB know about you and your business, as you never know who is watching and who may be able to help.
Please connect with me via Linkedin and instagram, details below. If Linkedin, please add a note to your connection request to let me know you are a member of the MOB.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesca-hodgson/
https://www.instagram.com/we.are.ambition/
If you have found this week's session helpful and want a mentoring session specific to your business: then please email me francesca@weareambition.ventures. As a member of the MOB I am offering 20% off business mentoring sessions that are booked in Feb. Drop me an email and we can find a time that works for you.
Recommendation of the Week:
Richard Branson, Screw it, Let’s Do it.
What is Mums Who Build?
Mums Who Build is a dynamic community for entrepreneurial mums, providing support and resources to help mothers launch and grow their businesses. Whether you're navigating fundraising, pitching to investors, or refining your business strategy, get in touch with our resident Business mentor and coach Francesca Hodgson, who’s aim is to empower mums in business.
Through coaching, networking, and exclusive access to opportunities, Mums Who Build is the community helping mums turn ideas into thriving businesses—because motherhood and entrepreneurship can go hand in hand!
Join our network of ambitious mums and start building today!
who is mobster francesca?
Hi, I am Francesca Hodsgon, Founder of We are Ambition and mum to Oliver and Harry who are now 11 and 7. I am an exited tech founder on a mission to help millions of people find mental clarity and to inspire and support business leaders of the future.
It's a pleasure to be a guest writer and resident business coach for The MOB (Mums Who Build). Every week I will be sharing my blog to help motivate and inspire you to build the life and future your want in motherhood. If you have a question you can drop me a DM anytime.
