So you’re wondering how to find a startup investor? Perfect, your exactly where you should be. At PitchSkills we help entrepreneurs to find & convince investors.

Before you go ahead and talk to investors, there are a few things you should know. To make it more concrete, a few things you should never do.

Never.

Here are the 10 mistakes startups make when talking to a startup investor: 

#1 They don’t know how they will spend the investment

Sure. It’s tough to know how much money you’ll be spending exactly. That’s now what a startup investor wants to know.

They want to know a rough estimate of how you’ll be spending your money. Let’s say you want to raise $500,000 with this startup investor and he/she is asking how you’re going to spend the investment. Your answer should be something like this:

• $100,000 marketing online
• $20,000 marketing offline
• $180,000 sales
• $160,000 operations
• $40,000 overhead

Startup investors don’t want to know every single detail. They just want to understand your strategy.

#2 They mention every detail of their business

You know startup inside out. Great work! That doesn’t mean you should bore your startup investor with every single detail.

Startup investors are usually extremely busy and don’t have a lot of time for you. If you want to make a startup investor excited about your startup, you should keep it short and simple. No unnecessary details.

No product specifications. Only if he or she asks for it of course!

#3 They didn’t practice their pitch properly

When it comes to pitching a startup there is a huge myth going on:

‘I’m a smooth talker. It’s best if I freestyle my pitch’

Never. Do. This.

As I mentioned, startup investors are busy people. They want to get to core if your business case as soon as possible. Don’t waste time with ‘uhh’  and ‘ ehhh’. Practice your pitch and convince the startup investor within 2 minutes!

#4 They don’t know their competition

If you want to destroy your meeting with a startup investor as soon as possible, there are only 4 words you have to say:

‘We don’t have competition’.

Trust me. You’re guaranteed that the startup investor will be leaving within the next 5 minutes. See, it could be true that there is no company which does exactly the same thing as you do. But there is always competition.

Every service or product which (partly) offers the same benefits as yours is one of your competitors!

#5 They don’t know their financials

Although startup financials are usually all based on assumptions, they’re important.

It shows the startup investor that you though about the future, and that you’re capable of making decent projections. Not knowing your financials is another good way to shorten your meeting with the startup investor significantly.

Always prepare your financial projections for the coming 3 years.

#6 They talk benefits instead of features

Many entrepreneurs feel like the technological features of their product are important to mention to startup investors. This is a big mistake.

Instead of telling them how it works, you should focus on what it can do for them. An example:

Don’t say: The new iphone has a 1300:1 contrast ratio

Do say: The new iphone has a breath taking HD screen which you can use to watch the newest movies.

#7 They agree with everything the startup investor says

Most startup investors are former entrepreneurs who did pretty well.

So yes, it makes sense that you have a lot of respect for this person.

However, respecting somebody isn’t the same as thinking of somebody like a guru. It’s okay to debate with an investor. This shows you thought everything through.

Alongside this shows that you’ll stick to your plan instead of switching plan every week.

#8 They tell the startup investor EVERYTHING is great

So your startup is going to be the next AirBnB or Facebook?

Good for you.

Want my advice? Don’t tell this to the startup investor.

Startups who call themselves the next big thing are likely not going to get anywhere. It shows the startup investor that you’re either naive or arrogant.

Being ambitious is great, but being unrealistic is a big nono. It’s perfectly fine to discuss potential risks in your business, actually it shows you’re well prepared!

#9 They focus on the slides instead of the startup investor

When you’re pitching your slides  to a startup investor, it’s important to stay engaged with the people in the room.

Many entrepreneurs go into ‘powerpoint presentation mode’ and start rambling all the text they prepared.

Don’t get me wrong, preparing your pitch is a must, but make sure to engage the startup investor and get him or her to talk as well.

#10 They ask startup investors to sign an NDA

Asking startup investors to sign an NDA is a big nono.

The damage of sending an NDA is usually greater than the benefits it can bring. 

It tells the investor you’re lacking experience. Alongside, startup investors will simply get frustrated if you bring it up.

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PS: Did your startup already raise funding? Check out The Ultimate Pitch Guide, it will prevent you from making expensive mistakes when pitching to investors.

Here are the Best Free Business Powerpoint Templates Of 2018.

Well, they’re actually better than Powerpoint templates. They’re Canva templates.

Canva is a free online tool which enables you to create incredible presentations without any designing experience. Powerpoint presentation templates tend to be difficult to adjust, but with Canva you can adjust anything you want with the touch of a button. 

Want to learn how to crush your next business presentation?

Here’s how you can use these business presentation templates

1. Visit Canva.com

2. Register a free account

3. Click create a design

4. Click on ‘Presentation’

Here are the 10 best business presentation templates of 2018

You’re amost there! Only 3 more to go. Let’s continue with the Best Free Business Powerpoint Templates Of 2018.

Use these free business presentation templates

Are you excited about one of these business presentation templates? Great!  Here’s how you can use them:

1. Visit Canva.com

2. Register a free account

3. Click create a design

4. Click on ‘Presentation’

Now you’ll be able to discover many cool business presentation templates for free.

Want to be able to present like a professional startup pitcher? Or do you want to improve your public speaking skills?

Check out the Ultimate Pitch Guide now!

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PS: Did your startup already raise funding? Check out The Ultimate Pitch Guide, it will prevent you from making expensive mistakes when pitching to investors.

Are you looking for the best startup websites of 2018? Perfect, you just found a pot of gold. See, many startups invest a lot of money to get the perfect startup website.

They hire the best designers and the best developers. Although that definitely is a great strategy, I have a better one for you.

The best part? It’s free.

This article will reveal what you can learn from the best startup websites of 2018. This article reveals the best startup website designs of 2019.

Here’s a question to you:  Why would you reinvent the wheel to build the best startup website of 2018 all from scratch? Instead, you should focus on learning from the other startups who paid thousands of dollars for their websites.

How to build a website just like the best startups websites of 2018 in 4 steps:

1. Analyze the best startup websites of 2018 below

2. Make notes of what you like (and what you don’t like)

3. Add your personal flavour to it

4. Design your own webpage with a great tool called Divi (I will explain more about this later)

Want to receive 40 quick ways to improve your pitch skills? Click here.

Are you enjoying the best startup websites of 2018?

Awesome. It would be awesome if you could share this article, it would help me to grow PitchSkillls.

Simply hit one of the buttons bewelow.

Still enjoying the best startup websites of 2018?

Great, I’ve got a few more for you!

How to build replicate the best startup websites of 2018 with no coding experiencie?

Also interesting:

Best Law Firm Website Design

Best Non Profit Website Design

Best Bakery Website Design

Best Restaurant Website Design

Did you like this article? Share it through the buttons below. It would help me a LOT and I would be really gratefull!

PS: Did your startup already raise funding? Check out The Ultimate Pitch Guide, it will prevent you from making expensive mistakes when pitching to investors.

This is becoming pain full. He lost my attention when he mentioned he is the founder, CEO and CFO of his startup. The jury members of this pitch competition clearly felt the same, as I saw them wandering off while mumbling and and looking and the clock.

This 23 year old guy who just graduated launched his startup 2 months ago and wasn’t making any revenue. Yet he felt obliged to proudly mention he is the most important person in the company, before he even explained what his startup is doing.

Many startup founders are extremely excited about their startup love to mention their importance to the company. Although it’s a good thing to be proud about your startup, you should be care full. Investors, especially informal investors, don’t like startup founders who are a little bit too fond of themselves. This article discusses the 4 types of startup pitchers which are unpopular with investors or startup competitions.

#1 The ‘I am super important’  founder

I just mentioned this one, he (or she) loves to talk about job titles. He acts as the founder, CEO and CFO, and his buddy will be the CTO and CMO.

Don’t. Ever. Do. This. Just tell investors you’ll be doing the financials, and your friend will be developing the tech and the marketing. And yes, when people ask you can tell them you’re the one with the final say in the company.

Let’s face it, you’re a startup founder and (most likely) didn’t generate millions of revenue yet. It’s quite ambitious to use these types of job titles until your startup experienced significant growth.

#2 The ‘I love details’ founder

‘My name is Tony, I am the founder of Tony Ltd. and today I want to discuss my business with you. I invented a smartwatch which has great specifications. It has a white bracelet with black leather, it has 8.2 gigahertz batteries and works on a intel 5 processor.’

BORING.

I’m sorry for being rude. But I figured it’s better to hear this from me than from potential clients or investors.

When you do a startup pitch, it’s all about making investors (or jury members) excited. You’re trying to get people excited about you and your company. Your goal should NEVER be to disclose all it’s features or its technical specifications.

Want to learn how to construct a powerful pitch? Click here.

#3 The Reader

I kind of feel sympathy to the reader. The reader is usually an intelligent person who understands the power of words to the fullest. The reader writes his text weeks in advance and keeps on rewriting until everything is perfect. I love it.

However, this is only 50% of the work. After you’ve written your text it’s time to prepare to do the best startup pitch you’ll ever do. A good startup pitch should ALWAYS be done without reading your text. Investors and jury members of startup pitch competitions won’t ever take you seriously if you don’t even take the effort to prepare and practice.

Want to learn how to powerfully practice your pitch

#4 The Freestyler

‘I know everything about my startup, I’ll just figure out what to say on the spot’. Or ‘I am an easy talker, I don’t need to prepare my startup pitch’.

I can’t believe these people still exist. Yes, it helps if you’re an easy talker, but the content of your pitch is extremely important. Relying on your small talk skills to do the work is lazy and ignorant.

Whenever you’re pitching your startup, you should know what you’re going to say and have practiced it at least 50 times.

Did you like this article? Share it through the buttons below. It would help me a LOT and I would be really gratefull!

PS: Did your startup already raise funding? Check out The Ultimate Pitch Guide, it will prevent you from making expensive mistakes when pitching to investors.

Here are the best startup pitch competitions you should consider joining in 2018. For each startup pitch competition we explained a few details:

• The name
• Why you should participate
• What you can win
• How much exposure it will generate you, based on their
• amount of website views per month
• Location
• Application URL

Since some startup pitch competitions offer more value to each type of startup, we decided to order the list alphabetically.

Enjoy the list and consider applying to the ones in your area.

By the way, are you looking to build a website for your startup? Have a look at Pixpa.com

Here are the best startup pitch competitions of 2018

#1 Arch Grants Startup Competition

#2 BETAPITCH

#3 CodeLaunch Startup Expo

#4 Elevator Pitch FEST

#5 Founder Showcase

#6 Get In The Ring

#7 G-Startup Worldwide

#8 Hatch Pitch

#9 Hello Tomorrow Challenge

#10 MIT 100k Entrepreneurship Competition

#11 New York StartUP! Business Plan Competition

#12 PitchForce

#13 QuickPitch Competition

#14 Startup Battlefield

#15 Startup Pitch Night

#16 Startupfest $200K Investment Prize

#17 SXSW V2V

#18 TechCrunch Disrupt

#19 The Startup Conference

#20 U Pitch Competition

#21 Startup Of The Year

#22 Startup Runway

Did you like this article? Share it through the buttons below. It would help me a LOT and I would be really gratefull!

PS: Did your startup already raise funding? Check out The Ultimate Pitch Guide, it will prevent you from making expensive mistakes when pitching to investors.

Are you looking for the perfect investor pitch? Then you’ll be happy to learn that PitchSkills created a free Pitch Creator.

A free pitch creator? Yes. This free pitch creator helps you to strategically build your pitch, in a way that is exciting to investors.

A problem many startups face, when they do an investor pitch, is that they’re flooding investors with (the wrong) information. In my life I’ve seen many investors zooming out during investor pitches, purely because the pitcher was telling the wrong things.

A great investor pitch checks 3 boxes:

• You say the right things
• You say them in the right order
• You say it with the right body language & intonation

If you’re able to nail these 3 points, you’ll be able to pick an investor you like.

So how do you accomplish this?

As I just mentioned, at PitchSkills we developed a Free Pitch Creator. It’s actually pretty easy. Simply click the button below, and the Pitch Creator will be launched. The Pitch Creator will ask you questions about your startup, which will help you to formulate the right pitch.

We’ve tested the Pitch Creator with a bunch of entrepreneurs already, and they created some awesome pitches!

What you will get by using the free Pitch Creator

• Which 6 topics should be included in EVERY pitch
• Which details you should (and should not!) discuss in your pitch
• How you should structure your pitch

What you need to do

Simply click on the button below and the Pitch Creator will be launched into your Facebook Messenger. The Pitch Creator will explain everything else. Good luck!

Is your startup looking for an investment? Perfect! That means you’re probably wondering how to get in touch with an investor. Or more specifically: ‘how to get in touch with an angel investor’. See, there are several ways of getting an investment:

• Venture capitalists
• Private equity companies
• Crowdfunding platforms
• Angel investors

When you’re a startup and you don’t have a great track record yet, the first 2 options are dismissed. Venture capitalists won’t talk to you until you can show at least a 5-figure monthly revenue. Private equity companies won’t be bothered unless you’re making at least a few millions per year.

That brings us to the next option: crowdfunding. Although there are multiple crowdfunding success stories, the reality isn’t as great as it may seem. Over the past few years, I’ve talked to quite some crowdfunding platforms to research the opportunities.

They confessed, successfull crowdfunding campaigns usually start with an investment of 30% from their own network. This helps you to gain some momentum and boost your social proof. This makes sence, since I wouldn’t invest in a crowdfunding campaign if it’s only at 1% of their achieved goal. ‘Something bust be wrong with this company’.

30%. That means if you’re raising $250.000,- you already need a $75.000,- deposit from your own network. That’s quite a lot.

But let’s say you were able to cover the first 30% and you’re ready to conquer the world. I have some bad news for you: you’ll have to put in a LOT of work to get the other 70%. Again, crowdfunding companies confess you need to put in at least 2-3 months of fulltime work to activate and update potential investors. This means you’ll be out of business for 2-3 months. Unless you’re able to skip a 2 months of sleep, this means your current operations will suffer a lot.

That brings us to angel investors. Angel investors are usually former entrepreneurs who exited one (or several) of their companies. They know what it’s like to set up a business, and they can be of great value to your startup. Another benefit of angel investors is that they won’t be pushing you to exit your company quickly, they like to see you build it. Additionally they’re more than happy to open up their network and bring you a strategic advantage.

So we’re looking for angel investors. Where do we start?

How to get noticed by investors

There are many ways to get in touch with angel investors. There are pitch events, social drinks and of course your own network. However, there is a much quicker way which will save you a LOT of time and money.

It’s called the Dux-Soup method.

Dux-Soup you said?

Correct.

Dux-Soup is a tool which enables you to get massive attention from from angel investors. This tool automatically visits LinkedIn profiles of people of your choice. In the past, I’ve used this a lot to get in touch with Angel Investors. I would have Dux-Soup open the profiles of MANY angel investors at the same time.

It’s actually pretty simple:

1. Download the Dux-Soup tool
2. Open your LinkedIn account
3. Search for ‘angel investor’
4. Click the ‘Visit profiles’ button.

Click here to get the Dux-Soup tool.

What happens next is beautifull. Since LinkedIn notifies you whenever a person checked out your profile, these people will be aware of that. Now you get noticed by the angel investor, it’s time to get their attention.

How to get attention from investors

Simply having a notification ‘Person X checked out your profile’ isn’t enough. You have to make your profile stand out. To increase the impact of your ‘notification’, there are 3 things you should do:

1. Change your LinkedIn Title

Below your name you’ll see an option to add a title. Make this title outstanding and interesting to potential investors. A great title which the founders of Uber could have used would be: ‘Booking Taxis with the touch of a button – We’re open for investments’

2. Have a clear profile description

In your profile description it’s your job to Pitch your startup in a few sentences. Don’t make the mistake of telling everything, keep it to a few sentences followed up by an invitiation to get in touch with you such as: ‘Does this seem interesting to you? I love to talk to new people, feel free to send me an invitation!”

3. Add a video pitch to your profile

Add a video pitch of your startup to the top of your LinkedIn profile. If you’re only going to do one of these 3 tips, I would recommend you to do this one (of course you should do all of them, but you get the point). Not only does this communicate your startup to potential investors, it also helps your own network to know what you’re looking for. 

They might see your video and know a person you should talk to. Having a video of your pitch on your LinkedIn profile is absolutely powerfull! Have a look at the ultimate pitch guide to create the perfect (video) pitch.

How to get in touch with an investor

So now you have an optimized LinkedIn profile, and you have angel investors checking our your pitch, it’s time to make a move.

Connect with investors on LinkedIn

Of all the people who checked out your LinkedIn profile; add them on LinkedIn. Add a message to your invitiation which explains you came across their profile while browsing LinkedIn, and you thought they had an interesting profile. Once they accept your invitiation it’s time for the next step.

Send a message to your fresh connections. You’ll notice that after using the Dux-Soup tool on a high frequency, investors will start to add you on LinkedIn as well. Combined with the people you added on LinkedIn yourself you have quite some interesting people you can reach out to. Send them a personal message which shows that you actually studied their profile. An example:

‘Hi John,

Thanks for connecting on LinkedIn. I came across your profile when I was browsing LinkedIn and I noticed you have quite the track record. Really interesting! I noticed you started quite some companies yourself and you’re doing really well. Especially your company XYZ seems like an amazing concept!

I’m currently launching a startup myself and I would be genuinly interested in your thoughts on this. I would love to get in touch with you and ask you a few questions.

Alongside, we’re currently raising an investment as well. Our helps people like you and me to [benefit]. We’re ready to launch and are looking for an investment to increase our sales & marketing power. If you like I can send you the pitch deck so you can have a look at it.

Have a great day John!

Best regards,

– Your Name’

Conclusion: Get in touch with angel investors

I’ve met many angel investors over the past few years. Often times this wasn’t even to raise an investment, but to learn from them. Even if an angel investor decides not to invest, they’ll be happy to leverage their network to bring you in touch with the right investor (or a potential partner). However, getting an angel investor to invest of your startup will be a big step towards succss.

Angel investors can be of great value to your business. They love discuss business opportunities and helping starting entrepreneurs. Get in touch with them!

What is the best 3 minute investor pitch ever? That’s a tough question, since every pitcher has his own style. In this video you can see a pitch which can be described with one word: ‘Energy’. Although this pitching style isn’t applicable to every industry, it surely fits Willie’s personality and his company.

 A while ago I stumbled upon a Youtube video called “Big Willie G’s Startupfest Pitch”.

This video had over 80.000 views and after watching the first 10 seconds I understood why. This guy is brilliant. And I wasn’t the only one. If you read the comments you’ll see that many people mentioned this must be the best 3 minute investor pitch ever.

StartupFest is a pitching competition for startups. The startups compete with each other for investments. It’s their job to capture the attention of investors in the room. And boy, that’s what Willie G did.

Although I love the pitching style Willie G has, there are a few things which you can do different. From a technical point of view this isn’t necessarily the best 3 minute investor pitch ever, but we can learn a lot from it.

Let’s start with the good stuff.

AVOID THESE 30 PITCH MISTAKES

The 30 Mistakes You Should Avoid When Pitching To An Investor

Learn from the best 3 minute investor pitch

#1 He starts with a bold opening

As you can read in the article ‘How To Start Your Pitch,’ a bold statement is a good choice to start your pitch. It grabs everybody’s attention and makes the audience excited. Willie takes this statement to a whole new level. He screams in a cheerful way which definitely grabs the attention.

#2 He brings energy into the room

This one probably doesn’t need any explanation. Willie is full of energy and he likes to show it. Being energized is a good thing since it reflects on your audience. If you’re energized and happy, so is your audience.

#3 He makes you imagine

Willie makes you experience the situation which requires ‘Party On Demand’. By using the impact of storytelling he makes his audience excited about his company.

#4 He knows his numbers

Now there’s a lot to say about Willie. He might not be formal enough to be the CEO of an investment fund, but he does know his numbers. Willie has no problems mentioning the expected profit and the cost of acquisition. He might be funny, but he knows what he is talking about.

#5 He has humor

Again, this one doesn’t need explanation. Willie uses a lot of humor which works out perfect. It lowers the guard of the jury and the audience. This makes the audience listen to what he has to say, which is crucial for a great pitch.

#6 He plays with intonation

Willie is well aware of the power of intonation. He varies a lot in tone height and volume. This is a great strategy since it keeps the audience excited. As long as you keep surprising the audience with what you have to say, they will keep on listening.

#7 He talks to you, not to a room full of people

Willie isn’t the most formal guy. The way he talks doesn’t give the feeling he is talking to a large audience, while in fact he is. The way Willie talks make it look like he is talking to a group of friends. Again, this is a great strategy because this makes him even more likeable.

#8 His style matches his product

Willie knows his own product and he loves it. Even better, his pitch reflects his product. Willie clearly sees his 3-minute pitch as a 3-minute party. And he’s right! His pitching style completely resonates with the subject.

Be well aware that you should pay attention to who you’re taling to. If you’re pitching a financial institute to a group of financial experts, you shouldn’t copy his style. Instead, apply the strategies which are applicable to your subject.

#9 He enjoys his own pitch

Right from the start you can tell Willie enjoys being on stage. He likes the attention but he also likes what he has to say. He is proud of his company and he isn’t afraid to show it. This helps the audience to believe in his company as well.

I mean, you aren’t proud of your company, why would we pay attention to your pitch?

What you can improve to this best  3 minute investor pitch

Although I love Willie’s pithc, there is room for improvement. From a technical point of view, I’m not sure whether this is the actual best 3 minute investor pitch ever. However, there’s a lot we can learn from him.

I listed 3 things which would have improved Willie’s pitch.

#1 Use the power of a pause

Willie is excited about his company and makes him talk on full speed. A lot of energy in your pitch is good, but you should know when to hit the breaks.

Willie could have improved his pitch by pausing a few times after an important sentence. By giving your audience a bit of time to digest your words you increase the impact of your words.

#2 Mention the experience of you and your team

Willie didn’t talk about his experience or the experience of his team. Since investors usually care more about the team than the product, this is a missed opportunity. Being an investor, I would love to know why he (or his team) is making this to a success.

#3 Mention your revenue

During the Q&A Willie mentions that his company is already generating a serious amount of revenue. Amazing! This is such a big achievement; Willie should have mentioned during his pitch. That would have made his pitch even better.

Concluding thoughts on ‘the best 3 minute investor pitch’

Although I genuinely loved Willie’s pitch, you should not copy everything blindly. Please consider your industry and analyze who are in your audience.

I’m excited to hear what you think about Willie’s pitch. Did you like it as much as I did?

If you want to take your pitch to the next level, check out The Ultimate Pitch Guide.

If you enjoyed this content, hit that share button below. It would mean a lot to me and it helps others to see the content as well.

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Are you afraid of public speaking?

Public speaking is public enemy number one. Research shows that we fear public speaking more than we fear death. This means that the person doing the speech at our funeral suffers more than the person who just died.

It’s not weird that many of us hate public speaking. The attention of a large audience staring at you can be daunting. Research by Statistic Brain shows that 74% of us are afraid of public speaking.

74%. That’s a lot of people.

Evolution made us afraid of public speaking

Researchers of Psychology Today states that our fear of public speaking goes back thousands of years. In the past, when humans were chased by large dinosaurs and other scary animals, living in a group was the only way to survive. If you would ever be separated from your group, this would be a guaranteed death.

Although nowadays we aren’t chased by predators anymore, this same theory still applies. Whenever you’re separated from a group, you feel left out. On a deeper level, we’re not afraid of public speaking, we’re afraid to get rejected by the group.

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Even the most brilliant people on earth are afraid of public speaking

I want you to know it’s okay to be afraid of public speaking. Heck, the most brilliant people on earth fear it!

Just to give you a few examples:

• Warren Buffet
• Mahatma Gandhi
• Thomas Jefferson
• Abraham Lincoln
• Harrisson Ford

All these people have admitted that they are afraid of public speaking. Some of them did some form of public speaking every now and then, but they were terrified.

I bet you didn’t expect that.

It’s okay to be afraid of public speaking. It’s better to overcome it.

A study shows that people who aren’t afraid of public speaking:

• Earn 10% more than people who are afraid of public speaking
• Have 10% more chance to graduate college than people who are afraid of public speaking
• Have 15% more chance to get promoted to a management position than people who are afraid of public speaking

If these people are so successful while being afraid of public speaking.

What if they would have loved public speaking?

I know you don’t believe me when I say: ‘you can learn to love public speaking’. But hear me out. I want to share a personal story with you.

When I was 12 years’ old there was a group of kids playing soccer right across the street. When my parents suggested to go play soccer with them, I wouldn’t. I never played soccer and I thought they would laugh and yell at me.

After seeing those kids playing soccer every day, I decided to ask them if I could join. They said yes! Even though I wasn’t good (I was terrible) they appreciated the fact that I still tried it. In fact, I even got a complement from one of them, he thought I was really brave for trying!

The next day I played again. And again. And again.

I lived in that town for 7 more years, and I played soccer with them almost every day. After a while I got pretty good and I started to enjoy the game. Initially I was afraid to try it, after a while I LOVED it.

I was afraid, but they appreciated my efforts. Eventually I got better and I loved it!

The same works with public speaking.

Have you ever seen a really nervous person doing a speech? What did you do? I imagine you didn’t yell at him. Instead of being mean, you understand why he/she is afraid. Since 74% of us is afraid of public speaking, we actually feel connected to that person.

 So go out there. Grab your stage.

Evolution made us afraid of public speaking. Research shows that there are a lot of benefits for those why try. Let’s stand up and expand our boundries. Let’s leave the comfort zone!

Is there an opportunity to do a pitch for your company? Do it!

Is there an opportunity to present a project to your boss? Do it!

You might be sweating the first time, but trust me, you’ll love it!

Give yourself a headstart and get The Ultimate Pitch Guide. It will help you to create the perfect pitch to convince an investor, your boss or your colleagues. Good luck!

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The best startup blogs help you to stay motivated.

The best startup blogs help you to growthhack your business.

The best startup blogs make you more efficient.

Here at PitchSkills, I help startup founders to design the perfect pitch.

Having your own startup can be a lot of fun. However, if you’re a startup founder, your life isn’t  all roses.  You’ll face many tough decisions, lots of stress and many sleepless nights. To get yourself going, you will need some inspiration every now and then. The best startup blogs out there are exactly what you need.

To help you hang in there, I’ve created an overview of the best blogs every startup founder should read. Turn on the coffee machine, brew a nice cup of coffee and enjoy these startup blogs. I’m 100% sure they’ll enrich you as a startup founder!

The best startup blogs of 2017

Gary Vaynerchuk

#1 2017 Key to Small Business Social Media Marketing

#2 Document, Don’t create: Creating Content that Builds Your Personal Brand

#3 How To Network On Instagram Direct Message

4 Hour Work Week

 #4 Marie Kondo — The Japanese Tidying Master

#5 Mr. Money Mustache — Living Beautifully on $25-27K Per Year

#6 My Evening Routine for Optimal Relaxation and Sleep

Copy Blogger

#7 20 Types of Evergreen Content that Produce Lasting Results for Your Business 

#8 3 Advanced Ways to Craft Better Sentences

#9 5 Writing Techniques that Stir Your Audience to Action

Social Triggers

#10 5 Steps to Building A Passion-Filled, Profitable Online Business

#11 I Had The Depressing Realization That I Got Fat… So I Fixed It

#12 How Austin Roberson Landed 25 New Clients Who Pay $299 Per Month Each (For a Total of $7500 in Recurring Revenue)

Grasshopper

#13 6 Low-Budget Marketing Tactics for Cash-Strapped Small Businesses

#14 The Ultimate List of Small Business Software & Tools

#15 The Small Business’s Checklist for Getting Started with Online Marketing

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

#16 Productivity advice for the weird

#17 Please… stop writing about how “vulnerable” you are

#18 LOL at this avocado toast advice from a millionaire

Smart Passive Income

#19 SEO in 2017: Proven Content Ideas That Attract Backlinks – The Smart Passive Income Blog

#20 3 Tiny Shifts That Made a Huge Difference in My Business

#21 SPI 263: Laddering Up: How to Build a 7-Figure Business by Building a $7K per Month Business

Entrepreneurs Journey

#22 Here’s How I Made Enough Money To Live Anywhere In The World

#23 I Noticed A Pattern Behind Why Only Some People Succeed In Business

#24 The Perfect New Business Opportunity If You’re NOT An Expert

Under 30 CEO

#25 7 Stoic Principles Every Entrepreneur Must Embrace

#26 4 Lies Your Parents Told You About Money and Life

#27 Two Powerful Strategies to Live Better and Be More Productive

Suitcase Entrepreneur

#28 How to Achieve Financial Freedom With The Five Bucket Method

#29 Five Secrets Of The World’s Most Productive People

#30 How to Quit Your Job and Travel The World On A Quest For Authentic Food 

 On Startups

#31 Secret To SaaS Success: Recognize That You’re Not Selling Software

#32 Advice and Insights for Entrepreneurs

#33 37 Pithy Insights From Street-Smart Entrepreneurs

Both Sides of the Table

#34 Why Great Executives Avoid Shiny Objects

#35 Never Let Anybody Tell You to Shut Up

#36 Mark Cuban on Why You Need to Study Artificial Intelligence or You’ll be a Dinosaur in 3 Years

Duct Tape Marketing

#37 Is Your Comfort Zone Holding You Back?

#38 3 Types of Content That Gets More Traffic, Links and Shares Than All the Others

#39 Secrets to Finishing What You Start

Mixergy

#40 What changes after a $50,000,000 cash exit?

#41 Learn from Proven Entrepreneurs

#42 How Craig Malloy built and sold Lifesize for $405M (and then bought it back)

Neil Patel

#43 How to Get 300 Real, Targeted Instagram Followers Per Day

#44 How to Do SEO for a “Tiny” Website That Doesn’t Have Any Visitors or Money

#45 10 Free Google Tools All Content Marketers Should Use

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