SHAPE-SHIFTING WHEN PITCHING INVESTORS

How can you turn around a prevention question? It’s all about the promotion answer.

PROMOTION QUESTION

So, how do you think you’re going to get at this market?

PREVENTION QUESTION

How do you plan to defend your market share, given how competitive the landscape is?

PROMOTION ANSWER

We’re playing in such a large and fast-growing market that it’s bound to attract new entrants. We hope to gain increasing share in this attractive market by leveraging our startup’s unique assets …

PROMOTION QUESTION

How do you want to acquire customers?

PREVENTION QUESTION

What is your customer-retention strategy?

PROMOTION ANSWER

We’re improving our daily and monthly active user numbers each period for a net customer growth rate of x percent. We plan to accelerate this rate by promoting the following customer growth strategy …

PROMOTION QUESTION

Are there any thoughts on scaling your sales process?

PREVENTION QUESTION

How long will it take you to break even?

PROMOTION ANSWER

We’re actually managing the business for aggressive top-line growth, with a good deal of sales momentum so far. Here’s what our sales forecast looks like. Our goal is to expand our margins as we grow our top line throughout this forecast period …

PROMOTION QUESTION

What does success look like?

PREVENTION QUESTION

What is your execution plan to prevent losses?

PROMOTION ANSWER

Ideally, we will accomplish much more than that. We aspire to achieve the following vision for the business. So far, we have seen these indicators of progress toward our goals. Here are our plans for further expansion …