I was listening to several founders deliver their pitches, and it struck me. Most of them are doing their “ask” wrong and seriously damaging their chances of success.

Let’s look at their mistakes and how they could improve this critical step in their pitches.

This article is part of our series on pitching. Check out all the other articles HERE.

How would you react if I asked you to pay for a subscription to Feel the Boot moments after arriving on the website? I suspect you would be put off. You would not have had enough time to judge whether this content was worth the price.

That’s precisely what it feels like when you ask for an investment commitment at the end of your deck. It’s way too soon.

The Problem with Your Ask

The “ask” is the point in your pitch when the founder presents the investment opportunity. They show the slide and say something like:

We are raising a $2 million seed round. Our preference is to do this on a capped SAFE. We are looking for a lead investor to negotiate the terms and valuation. We already have $400,000 soft circled.

The next words spoken are where I see the problem. The founder usually says some form of:

• Do you want to invest in our company?

• Can I count on your investment?

For almost all investors, the answer is no, even if they are interested in the opportunity.

Before committing to an investment, angels and VCs need to know far more about you and your company than they learned in your short pitch. They are likely to pull back when you put them on the spot to make an immediate commitment.

But getting a check was never the purpose of pitching in the first place. You want a second meeting where you have more time to go deeper into the business.

So, ask for that. Say:

• Is this opportunity something you would like to explore?

• Are there other people in your organization I should meet?

• I would love to set up a follow-up meeting to share more about us and to see how you can contribute to our success beyond any investment.

• Asking in this way has two advantages.

First, it is easy and comfortable for the investor to say yes. Agreeing to another meeting is much easier than deciding to write a check.

Second, it shows that you are a sophisticated founder. You understand the next steps and how the process works. Investors like to work with founders who know what they are doing.

Asking for Questions

Another mistake I see at this point in a presentation is asking for questions. It seems natural; you are at the end of your deck and starting to wrap things up.

However, you are also trying to get them to agree to move forward towards an investment. If they have difficult questions, that can completely sour the mood.

Instead, ask for questions periodically throughout the pitch. Don’t let the investors stew on some concern as you plow through your deck to the end.

Taking questions also engages the audience. It wakes them from their passive stupor and gets them back in the conversation.

Ensure you have either answered all the issues or committed to getting back to them with answers before you reach the ask slide. That way, they will feel comfortable with the information you provided about your company before you make the ask.

And now, when you finally get there, you will ask for the right thing.

TechCrunch has a helpful article on creating an effective ask slide.

Until next time, ciao.

After this, you might want to check out our article on Ten Common Startup Fundraising Mistakes (and how to avoid them).