How to improve your pitch and secure funding: advice from investors

Anuar Lenzat, Hokage RS Bootcamp venture studio, investor relations manager at Activat VC, @lenzat

1. Hone your presentation skills. Make your pitch more engaging and clear to keep the audience's attention.

2. Clarify your valuation. Explain the basis for your valuation. Justify it with a comparative analysis of competitors and convincingly demonstrate why your figure is fair.

3. Define your audience. Precisely identify your sub-segment—who are your paying customers. Describe them in detail, for example, by age, social status, and other important characteristics.

4. Consider bootstrapping: perhaps at the early stage it is better to do without investment and first test the business to understand its viability and whether you need external resources.

Valery Grishin, Head of Development at Devcit Acceleration, startup tracker, @grishin.traction

1. Prove the concept. It is important to demonstrate proof of concept—show that your idea works and brings value to both stores and users. An example is selling furniture through your platform. If users purchase products through your service, this will be proof of success.

2. Focus on small segments. Start by choosing a small segment and demonstrating successful deals, then expand your market.

3. Study existing players. Carefully analyze why other projects with similar ideas failed to achieve success. This will help you avoid their mistakes and find a more sustainable model.

4. Show perseverance. If something doesn't work, don't be afraid to change your business model and try new approaches. Perseverance is a key trait of a successful startup founder.

General recommendations:

— study analogs: if there are similar startups, find their founders and learn what worked for them and what didn't. This will help you refine your idea more deeply
— find your unique model: find the business model that will lead your startup to success.