Translator: Bharadwaj Swaminathan Reviewer: Denise RQ
Have you wondered how to secure funding for your business idea?
Or find the right team?
Well, tonight I'm just here to share six thoughts
on how to pitch your business idea.
The first point is this: who are you pitching to?
Have you thoroughly researched this investor or group of investors?
Do you know if they're interested in your line of business?
Who are you pitching to?
The next thing you need to know is:
you need to sell yourself first, then your idea,
because people buy people first, before they buy ideas.
What are your skills? Where are your talents?
What have you done in the past?
What are you bringing on board?
Sell yourself first, then your idea.
The third thing you need to note is:
What is your edge? What is your point of difference?
What is your uniqueness?
Now, this unusual tree you see, can be found in Socotra,
an archipelago in the Indian Ocean.
It's unique. Its different. Know your difference.
Now for me, my edge is my passion for travel.
I have a dream to visit every single country in the world.
And to date I have been to 43 countries on 5 continents.
Travel affords me the opportunity to learn about other businesses.
Travel increases and deepens my knowledge.
Travel informs me of what's happening in other parts of the world.
Travel definitely exposes me
to other cultures and other ways of doing things.
Only three weeks ago, I was in Finland,
and I returned with a completely new perspective on architectural designs.
This is a picture of me standing at the Gullfoss Waterfalls, in Iceland.
And this is one of me in Columbus, that is
in the European Space Agency's testing laboratory in the Netherlands.
and trust me, I'm not in space, I was just pretending to be in space.
This is another picture of me bungee jumping
over Auckland Harbour Bridge,
and believe it or not, I am the first Ghanian
to bungee jump over Auckland Harbour Bridge in New Zealand.
(Applause)
Now this is a picture of me hiking on the Great Wall of China.
I absolutely loved it.
And finally, this is me standing
next to the Library of Congress, the largest library in the world.
The Library of Congress can be found in Washington D.C.
The next point you have to ask yourself is
what personal commitment have you made?
Have you put in your money? Resources?
Because nobody will invest in you
if you haven't put in money, time, and effort into your idea.
What personal commitment and sacrifice have you made towards this idea?
This is an interesting photo of me, en route from Accra to Marrakesh.
When I actually started travelling around the world,
I was doing it the hard way.
So yes, you saw very interesting pictures,
but this is how it all began.
And on this journey, it was about 40 hours actually,
and believe me, nobody had a bath during the entire 40 hours.
So you can imagine how smelly the bus was.
The next point you have to note is:
What is your exit strategy? How will the investor make money?
You have to have a very clear plan from the beginning
of how they will be rewarded.
Are you going to sell off shares, or sell the company?
What is your exit strategy?
The sixth point is: learning never ends.
You have to learn, learn, and always learn,
to refine your idea, to improve upon it, you have to always learn.
I would like to leave you with this very important point,
which is that people buy people first,
before they buy your ideas.
Thank you very much.