Pitch Perfect: Transforming Business Metrics into Compelling Stories That Secure Funding

You know your experience as an entrepreneur intimately. You know the risks you’ve taken, the sacrifices you’ve made, and the impact you want your business to have on your audience and customers. While you know your entrepreneurial journey is compelling, how do you cut through the noise and tell a story that leaves an impact when pitching your business in a room full of investors?

Women entrepreneurs face hurdles in building a thriving business, but also in securing the right support needed to take it to new heights. Bias and systemic barriers are very real aspects of growing your business, but effectively sharing your business story can help investors understand your vision and back it. 

This guide offers clear strategies for storytelling that will help you successfully nail your business pitch, dives into the unique challenges women face in pitching rooms, and shares how The Forum’s programming is levelling the playing field. 

What Investors Are Looking For

When gearing up to pitch your business, make sure it aligns with what investors are looking for. 

Here are three tips to have your business be the type of business an investor says “yes” to:

1. Know the Market

When speaking about your business, you want investors to know you have a deep understanding of your product or service and the market. 

After conducting thorough market research and analysis, educate investors on the size of the market, its growth potential, how your business is the answer to customer pain points, how you plan to mitigate risks in the market, and how your business will not only grow but thrive in the competitive landscape. Don’t just speak about the benefits of using your product or service, illustrate why your business is the answer to a customer’s problem, and why an investor doesn’t want to miss tapping into an opportunity for explosive growth.

2. Know Your Numbers

Numbers may not be your strong suit, but you’ll need to know your business’s financials if you want to nail your pitch. Consider tapping a team member or mentor for support, and immerse yourself in the numbers and gain a solid understanding of your financial history and revenue goals from six months up to five years. While you want to keep this aspect of your pitch streamlined and simple, these projections should include a sales forecast, expenses, cash flow, revenue, and break-even point.

3. Know Your Team’s Strengths and Areas of Improvement

Investors want to know about the people who make your product or service a success. Speak about your team’s skills, areas of expertise, and qualifications, but don’t gloss over weaker elements; a growing business isn’t free of challenges. Investors will want to know how you are addressing the areas of improvement and how that will impact your company’s growth.

How to Marry Your Business Numbers With Your Unique Story

When formatting your pitch, you want to take investors on a well-structured journey that will establish a connection to your business while keeping them engaged. 

Here are four tips for building a compelling story around your business information:

1. Know Who You’re Speaking With

No two investors are the same, so it’s important to do your research and learn about the person you’re pitching. 

Learn about their investment history, make sure your business is aligned, and tailor your pitch to them. Also, remember that raising capital is not just about what your business has to offer; it’s about building personal relationships with investors you can connect and communicate with. If you and an investor have similar work backgrounds, hobbies, or other interests, speak to that when building a relationship and pitching them.

2. Structure Your Story Properly

Your pitch should stick to a clear structure that every investor can follow and should focus on presenting the problem, providing your solution, and speaking to the impact of that solution. 

Start with an attention-grabbing hook and set the stage for presenting your hopeful investor with the problem you’re solving. Use data, a personal anecdote, and real customer experiences to connect emotionally and explain the urgency, relatability, and vastness of the problem. Then, set up your business as the necessary solution to the pain point. Be clear in your explanation and carefully walk investors through your product or service. When speaking to the impact of your solution, speak about how disruptive your product or service is, the results it yields, and how it makes customers’ lives better.

3. Use Visuals Strategically

Keep investors engaged by using visuals that will help them quickly understand your business’s vision, goals, and metrics. 

By using bullet points, graphs, dynamic charts, interactive designs, images, and infographics in your deck, highlight your financial projections, market size, growth trends, profit margins, and revenue. While the design of your deck should be eye-catching and visually appealing, these elements should complement the journey you are taking investors on with your storytelling while enhancing your vision and value.

4. Communicate Thoroughly

Not all investors will see the value of your product or service right away. Make sure you clearly outline your customers’ pain points, how your business is the solution, and why this is a big opportunity for gains. When preparing to be asked prevention-focused questions, address the concerns investors have while reminding them of yourbusiness’s successes and growth potential.

The Unique Challenges Women Entrepreneurs Face in Canada

While the rate of women's entrepreneurship has steadily increased in Canada, women-led businesses receive only 4% of all venture capital (VC) funding. Additionally, women-founded companies outperform all-male teams by 63%, yet this glaring imbalance persists. This disparity can make it incredibly difficult for women to see their business reach their full potential, especially when navigating a season of growth and expansion. 

There are a few variables that explain why women entrepreneurs can have a complicated experience:

Unconscious Bias

To be judged, doubted, or dismissed before having the opportunity to educate investors on their business idea and vision for growth puts women entrepreneurs at a significant disadvantage when seeking funding. 

Implicit bias in pitch rooms is a common issue, with women often being viewed as less competent, even when they are pitching the exact same business idea as a male entrepreneur. Additionally, women-led businesses are often viewed as riskier to invest in or less profitable than male-led businesses because they tend to be smaller in scale and may have other business objectives, such as sustainability or social initiatives, aside from profit.

The biases, assumptions, and stereotypes that affect women—especially those who live with multiple intersections of identity like race, class, ability, and/or sexual orientation—create higher standards and harsher evaluation criteria for women-led businesses when pitching. This results in more barriers for women entrepreneurs when attempting to secure the financing they need.

Limited Access to Networks

Navigating the VC industry as a woman entrepreneur or investor is a lot about who you know, but building connections doesn’t always come easily. 

The vast majority of VC investors in Canada are white and male, many of whom have access to wealth and received an education at exclusive universities. This creates an ecosystem and a close-knit series of networks where people with similar backgrounds work with, associate with, and endorse each other, creating opportunities for unconscious bias to present itself when funding women-operated businesses and hiring women in the VC industry.

In Canada, women make up 17% of decision-makers at venture capital firms, 12% at private equity firms, and 16.7% are angel investors. Under these circumstances, women investors have difficulty breaking into the VC industry, navigating the industry’s male-centric culture, and funding businesses they believe have great potential. 

A Unique Raising Experience

When pitching, investors typically ask men more promotion-focused questions. These questions tend to inspire conversations around the potential for growth, market disruption, and opportunities for gains. However, women are often asked more prevention-focused questions. These questions often encourage conversations around risk, potential challenges, and vulnerabilities. While both lines of questioning are important, being asked more preventative questions can create a limiting pitch experience as promotion-focused questions typically yield better financing results. 

In other instances where women may have initially raised funding, their attempts at raising subsequent funds can also come with roadblocks. In a study conducted by New Power Labs,research showed that women-operated businesses that successfully secured investment from women investors are significantly less likely to receive additional funding than businesses initially funded by male or mixed-gender investment teams. Additionally, the quality of a woman founder’s pitch and competency were perceived as lower when she was supported by women investors only. For women, biases can be so deep-rooted that they impact their ability to raise the appropriate amount of funds needed to grow their business.

Levelling the Playing Field: The Forum Capital Roadmap and The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch

Women entrepreneurs shouldn’t have to out-pitch bias and unfair systems. 

That’s why we’ve created dedicated programs and support networks that help them expand their skillsets, create capital strategies, and connect with the right opportunities: 

The Forum Capital Roadmap helps you prepare for fundraising by providing practical education and strategic guidance through two specialized pathways. 

If you're preparing for your first round, you'll learn equity financing fundamentals, clarify your business model and funding needs over the next 18-24 months, and build skills to identify and engage investors effectively. 

If you've already raised capital and are preparing for your next round, you'll focus on advanced topics like investor rights, term sheet negotiation, and deciding between funding options like bridge rounds versus Series A.

The program addresses the reality that on average, women launch businesses with 53% less capital than men by offering you specialized training on storytelling, pitch development, and investor communications. You'll gain access to a toolkit for building your personalized fundraising roadmap, connect with a supportive community of women entrepreneurs, and receive mentorship from industry experts–all delivered through free virtual sessions to make it accessible regardless of where you are in Canada.

The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch helps you address one of the biggest barriers women entrepreneurs face: connecting with folks who can open doors to the right funding opportunities. 

As Canada’s leading pitch program, it provides you with a comprehensive journey from education to mentorship to potential investment, all designed to help you build confidence and refine your pitch while connecting with a supportive community.

If selected as a Semi-Finalist, you'll receive 1:1 mentorship from experienced entrepreneurs and presentation coaching to help you prepare for live pitch events in Toronto and Vancouver, with all travel expenses covered. The program culminates at The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch Finale, where each Finalist receives prize packages to accelerate their business growth and impact.

The Odlum Brown Forum Pitch gives you the platform, mentorship, and community connections needed to fast-track access to capital while building lasting relationships that can support your business growth long-term.