Small Business Toolbox: Before You Pitch: 13 Questions to Ask Yourself

What you need to prepare when you're pitching your company to a funder or investor

EA Consultants

For Founders & Investors

A pitch deck is not a presentation. It’s an argument. Every slide is a claim, and investors are listening for the holes. The question isn’t whether your slides look good — it’s whether your thinking holds up when someone pushes on it.

Most pitch frameworks tell you what to cover. This one asks you to go one level deeper: not just “do you have a slide on the market size” but “can you defend how you got to that number.” Not just “do you have a team slide” but “have you named the gap in your team and told us what you’re doing about it.”

Before your next pitch — to investors, to partners, to a grant committee, to anyone who needs to say yes — work through these thirteen questions. Answer them out loud, not just in your head. If you get stuck, that’s where to spend your preparation time.

THE 13 QUESTIONS

1

Your Audience

Who exactly are you talking to in this room — and have you tailored this pitch to them?

2

The Problem

Can you say the problem in one sentence? And does that sentence make someone in the room lean forward?

3

Your Story

Why are you the right person to solve this — not just interested, but specifically suited?

4

The Solution

If I described your solution to a stranger, would they understand it in 60 seconds?

5

Proof It Works

What evidence do you have that real people want this — not just that they said they would?

6

The Business Model

What does one transaction look like, start to finish, and what’s left over after costs?

7

The Market

How did you arrive at your market size number — and what slice are you realistically going after first?

8

Getting Customers

What does your first sale look like, and your tenth, and your hundredth — are those the same process?

9

What Makes You Different

If a well-funded competitor copied your idea tomorrow, why would customers still choose you?

10

The Team

Who is missing from your team right now, and what’s your plan for that gap?

11

Where You Are Today

What have you proven, and what does the next 12 months need to prove?

12

The Ask

What specifically are you asking for, and what will it unlock that you cannot do today?

13

The Numbers

Do your projections reflect what you actually believe, or what you think investors want to see?

A NOTE ON Q&A

The questions above prepare you for your slides. But the Q&A is where pitches are actually won or lost.

Credible answers beat perfect answers. Investors don’t expect you to have solved everything. They do expect you to know what you don’t know and have a plan for it. “We’re still figuring that out, and here’s how” is a stronger answer than a number you can’t defend.

Silence is fine. If you don’t understand a question, ask for clarification. If you need a moment to think, take it. Rushing to fill silence with words you haven’t thought through is how founders undermine themselves.

Follow-up questions are a good sign. If an investor is asking follow-up questions, they’re interested. Treat the Q&A as a conversation, not a cross-examination.

FOR INVESTORS & REVIEWERS

If you’re on the other side of the table, these same questions work as a listening framework. The most useful feedback you can give a founder isn’t “your market size slide was unclear” — it’s “I didn’t understand how you arrived at the $40M addressable market figure, and I’d want to understand that before going further.”

Specific, honest feedback — even critical feedback — is more useful to a founder than encouragement. The best thing you can do for someone who is about to go raise money is tell them exactly where their argument breaks down.

EA Consultants  •  eac-global.com