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From these past months spent discovering the funding process of a start up, I learned one important lesson: you need to have a good ("elevator") pitch.

First of all, what is a "pitch"? It is the most concise and catchy message possible, that summarizes what your company is about and why it is a good investment target.

I imagine there are hundreds of pages all over the web with interesting advice on how to build a pitch. The post which caught my attention, and which, after my conversations with Angels investors and VC partners, seems most realistic, is this one: VC Pitch Tips .

What I would like to highlight among those suggestions are the following:

- Your message is targeting investors. As in any form of marketing, you first have to learn about your target and then adapt your message to what your audience would like to hear.

Example: an investor doesn't care much about how cool or "avant-garde" your technology may be, but they will definitely be interested in the fact that your company addresses an existing need, that there is a proven market for what you offer and that what you offer has a value ten times greater than what is already available.

- Make this elevator speech the intro to whatever you will say when approaching an investor. You need to say what you have to say in a couple of sentences. Very often investors won't take the time to go through pages or slides of materials unless they realize immediately that the subject is worth their time.

- Have a well structured story which shows that you understand each important point as well as factors which represent a risk for the success of your venture. Your ability to cover each point precisely will determine the level of confidence the investor will have in your ability to carry out your plans... and get a return on their investment.

For the rest I will let you enjoy John Zagula and Rich Tong's posting. I think it is an excellent briefing for whoever wants to go ahead and raise funding for a start up.