I've sat through a lot of pitches. Most of them blur together within a day or two. The few I still remember have one thing in common, and it isn't the slides, the numbers or how polished the speaker was.
It's that I could see they believed it.
You can see when someone feels it
The pitches that land with me are the ones where the excitement shows in the founder's eyes. They don't look like they're reciting information about their product. They look like they feel it with every part of their body. Sometimes they seem so happy to be talking about what they've built that it almost wouldn't matter if nobody else were listening.
You can't fake that. And in my experience, it almost always comes from the same place: a story.
The story is your proof
Every strong pitch has a story behind it. The story is what tells your audience that this idea has been properly thought through, that the problem is real, and that your customers genuinely feel it.
It's most powerful when you've lived it yourself. If you've worked in an industry for years and watched the same problem come up again and again, and you know what it costs, people will believe you, because you've been there. That carries more weight than any statistic.
You don't have to have experienced the problem first-hand, though. What matters is that your audience can recognise themselves in it. If you're solving a process problem inside a business, almost everyone has struggled with something similar, whatever industry they work in. If it's a problem with a product people use every day, they'll have their own version of it. When people can pull a bit of themselves out of your story, your pitch starts to stick.
Clear and simple beats clever
The second thing a compelling pitch needs is clarity about what you actually do. It's tempting to describe your business in the most impressive way possible, but complicated sounds like a complicated business.
Think about Uber. You could explain it a hundred different ways, talking about platforms, networks and on-demand mobility. But at its heart, it's a type of taxi. Say the simple version first. Once people understand it, you can take them anywhere you like.
A clear, simple story is the foundation everything else sits on.
You don't have to be a natural performer
People often assume a great pitch needs a confident, charismatic speaker. Being engaging certainly helps, but it's a bonus, not a requirement.
Founders come in every personality type. Some are quiet. Some really don't enjoy public speaking. That's fine. Audiences can look past nerves when the substance is there. If you have a good product, a real problem and a story behind it, that will carry you a long way.
My rule of thumb: hit the pain
If I had to boil it down to one rule, it would be this: make people feel the pain your idea solves.
People don't remember figures. They remember stories. Numbers matter, and investors will ask for them, but the story is what makes your pitch memorable enough for them to want to ask.
One thing you can do tomorrow
Look at your pitch and check where it starts. Most founders rush straight to their solution. Instead, spend more time showing the problem, ideally through a real story, either your own or a customer's.
I know "storytelling" is a bit of a fashionable word at the moment. But there's a reason it keeps coming up. When your audience feels the problem, your solution doesn't need much selling.
If you'd like to try your pitch out loud and get feedback, come along to Pitch Perfect Tuesdays, my free monthly pitch night on Zoom. And if you're not sure what your story is yet, book a one-on-one session and I'll help you find it and tell it.