Pitch Canvas

Use our Pitch Canvas to help you craft a story for your business and structure a pitch for early-stage investors.

45min

Every stakeholder to a business has a different concept of its value; you must, therefore, target your pitch appropriately. The information that early-stage investors (including founders) expect to see is captured in the Business Value Concept:

Source of Value – Is it needed, unique and defensible?
Potential of Value – How big and secure is the prize?
Realisation of Value – Is it doable and how would we do it?

Based on this framework, we have designed a canvas that you can use to develop a pitch for early-stage investors:

How to use the canvas to create a new slide deck

The canvas can be used alone, but it is most effective when used along with teammates to capture different ideas, collect feedback and accelerate the development process. We recommend 9-steps for developing a pitch using the canvas:

Understand your audience’s needs
- What is important to your audience?
- What are their objectives?
- What are their no-go’s?
Formulate top-level key messages for each audience need
- What is your argument for each need?
- What evidence do you have for each argument?
- What top-level key messages can you derive from your arguments and evidence that you can use to convince them that you can meet their needs?
Craft a story using the canvas
1. Mark the blocks in the canvas where you can communicate and emphasise your top-level key messages;
2. For each block in the canvas craft a key message that answers the questions in the block and conveys your top-level key messages;
3. Add arguments and evidence for each key message inside a block;
Create & practice your draft text storyline
1. Create a one-sentence link from one block to the next;
2. Present your draft canvas to others in under 3 minutes (20 seconds per block max);
3. Collect feedback;
Add/change the blocks of the canvas as needed
1. Add blocks for aspects such as market traction or social impact, as needed;
2. Re-draft your storyline as needed;
Add visual elements to each block
1. The visual for each block should be simple and convey the key message(s) of the block;
Practice your draft text+visual storyline
- Present your draft canvas to colleagues in under 3 minutes (20 seconds per block max);
- Collect feedback;
- Adapt the text & visuals;
Create your slides
1. Start a new slide deck and translate your canvas story into slides;
2. Add details, supporting evidence and sources;
Practice pitching your slide deck
- Present your slides to colleagues in under 10 minutes (1 minute per slide max);
- Collect feedback;
- Adapt the slides.