How do you pitch an Impact Startup?

If you’re building a startup focused on energy transition, reducing waste and emissions, or health and wellbeing, it can be challenging to pitch.

As a pitch coach, having trained over 700 impact startup and scale-ups, the most common question I hear is; “Should I focus on the impact, and the emotion behind the proposition? Or should I focus on the business opportunity?”

The answer lies in 3 parts: Audience, Mindset, and Personal Story.

1. Tune the pitch to the audience - or find the right audience!

The secret to creating any great pitch is not to start with the content or the slides. It’s always about focusing on;

Who’s the Audience? What do they care about? What are their ambitions, and how does what you have to offer help them reach their goals?

This especially matters for an impact startup. If you are growing fast and pitching for investment, you might find yourself pitching to a classic VC. If you give an impact pitch – sustainability, reduced emissions, patient wellbeing – you might miss the mark, because the VC is interested in one thing: An Opportunity.

Take a step back and ask yourself – what are VC’s trying to achieve?

Their job is to invest other people’s money. That means their decision making is largely rational: where are the 10x returns? Which markets are biggest, and which startups have the strongest teams to solve the biggest problems?

In that case, you’ll need to make a classic startup pitch; The Pain you’re solving and how big it is; Your unique Product; The Traction your building, or Validation of the solution; Why this is the Team to make this a success; and your Ask.

However, at times you have the other extreme. In years past I coached on The Green Challenge, a startup competition focused purely on CO2 emissions reduction. The pitch for that competition was all about impact, and the judges assessed the pitch on these criteria;

What aspect of emissions are being reduced, with what product? What volume of CO2 emissions will be cut? What validation process has been done to prove emissions will reduce, and why is the team driven to reach this reduction of emissions?

The winning teams pitched less of the TAM, SAM and SOM, and more of the emotional aspect of potential results. Less about Business Model, and more about Vision. Less about Revenue Growth and more about Growing Impact.

The conclusion? Take your time to assess: what role does impact play in the goals and business of the people we are pitching to? Whether that’s customers, or investors, adjust the pitch to their interests, showing how you help them achieve their goals.

And if your pitch doesn’t match with classic VC’s – look for Angel Investors or Impact investors. They still want good returns when they put money in, but see ‘returns’ as a balance of money, and environment/wellbeing/society.

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2. Mindset: Think like a Silicon Valley Startup

David Batstone, who founded Not For Sale and is a 2-decades impact investor, told me in my podcast interview with him;

‘Why is it that companies who mess up the world can make as much money as possible, while companies that do good are supposed to be charities?’

His focus is very specifically “Impact Entrepreneurship” and he encourages those focused on impact to present themselves as the best in class at what they do – not a company expecting goodwill handouts.

Having the mindset that people should buy or invest because of a good cause is the path to being seen as a charity. Instead, focus on being the best in your field, and pitch the business that way too.

The founder mindset to approach the pitch with is: ‘This is an attractive business and proposition to invest in: and it’s doing good for the world.’

Example pitches:

- The Great Bubble Barrier

- NuVentura

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3. What’s your story?

The founder’s story is often forgotten, yet so important in any pitch. It’s essential in an impact startup pitch.

I’m often asked: ‘Why do they want to hear about me? Isn’t the focus on the business?’

The answer is a very human one. No matter whether you’re pitching to an Angel, Impact investor or VC, you’re pitching to a person. And as human beings, we love and are hooked by stories.

When pitching, you’re under time pressure. Often you’re given no more than 3 minutes to present. Yet investing some of that precious time into telling Why you are doing this will elevate your message instantly.

How have you or people close to you experienced the Pain you’re addressing? Did you learn about this problem in your study, see it happening while traveling, or while you were growing up?

What was the tipping point that made you decide: ‘OK, enough, I’m going to do something about this.’

The key is the balance between the rational and the non-rational. Yes, a personal story makes impact, but only when combined with the more rational, quantified elements of the story. Yes, a big market size and traction will impress – but why are YOU doing this?

Your personal motivation and enthusiasm should not be underestimated!

Example pitch: Nectir

To sum up.

I believe there will come a time when doing something positive for the environment, society or health will be an integral part of any startup. Making impact will not be a ‘nice to have’ but a key component of the proposition built into the startup.

Until then, any founder focused on startup can benefit from adjusting to the audience; having a market-leader mindset; and sharing their personal story.

Keep looking for those impact focused investors and partners – and the Upstream event is the perfect place to find them!

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About David

David Beckett is an International Pitch Coach, who has trained over 2800 Startups and Scaleups to win over €490Million in investment. He's also trained more than 38,000 professionals at companies such as Vodafone, Tommy Hilfiger, PwC and Netflix in 32 countries, as well as over 30 TEDx speakers. David is the creator of The Pitch Canvas©, and author of the books Pitch To Win and Blue Moon Pitch.