Why do great technical products fail to get funded?

How do customers not understand this product could change their lives?

It’s frustrating, I know. I have experienced this kind of response far too often pitching customers. I have also observed this in many founders, entrepreneurs who tend to get stuck in the detail. We know this product will literally solve your problems, but where is the enthusiasm, why are you not buying?

I remember one pitch where I was describing a complex technical architecture to a room of execs. Midway through, I noticed them checking their phones. Then one guy leaned forward and said, ‘Listen, I have a busy schedule can you get to the point.’ That moment taught me something brutal: clarity isn’t enough if there’s no emotional charge.

If you are a entrepreneur, product leader, sales executive or just someone with an idea, the following insights will help you frame your idea so anyone will understand. I will not go into a full breakdown of how to pitch step by step, that is too in depth for this article. Instead I will focus on one thing you can change that will drastically improve your engagement from the first sentence. Master this, and you’ll instantly boost your pitch’s power.

The boring approach:

“We are a X platform that does Y”…

I most often encounter a start to a pitch that is “We are a X platform that does Y”… Nothing wrong with that approach—nine times out of ten you have effectively communicated your product. People understand what you do and that’s great. The problem here is that you have started a pitch in the worst way possible and it’s not because you didn’t communicate the concept well enough. The problem here is the audience has no opportunity to feel anything from that sentence.

Great speakers get to move crowds because of their ability to tap into the emotions of those people, they are able to inspire and motivate because the audience has had an emotional response to what they have said. The master speaks directly to your truth, lighting a spark deep within that motivates action. The recipient has to feel like this is for them, they have to be motivated to get involved.

The emotional trigger

There are two approaches to getting someone to feel something from your pitch. You have what I call direct or indirect emotional triggers.

Direct

A direct emotional trigger will hit on a pain, belief or ideology of that person. Something so personal to them they feel a deep emotional reaction to your pitch.

Indirect

An indirect emotional trigger will hit on an understanding of a problem, past experience hearing other people talk about or perhaps a current trend that is impacting industry. The indirect nature of this tigger is that it won’t be relatable to them as an individual but they will feel inspired or motivated because you have spoken to their awareness of the problem, and they want the opportunity to solve it themselves.

Understanding your audience

The challenge here is to understand where your audience sits. Are they a direct or indirect recipient?

This kind of insight comes from analysing your audience as much as you can before starting. This means actively listening, and asking questions that will help you come to the conclusion without giving away your idea (something I may write about in the future—let me know if you’d like content on this).

It could also mean doing research of the person before you meet them. Anything that you can do to build that narrative. If you have no opportunity for discovery and you are pitching cold, maybe at an event or networking then it is almost always good to start with the “Why”.

A why statement

Now what is a “Why” well I can tell you that the “We are a X platform that does Y” is not a why. That is a “What” statement. Practical, but not emotional. A why speaks to, “Why solve this problem in the first place?” It connects to something so deep so visceral that it makes you want to know more.

A why statement will sound like this.

“The power demand for AI compute is increasing exponentially and data centres are producing extraordinary amounts of heat. With AI models getting larger and more compute intensive the problem will only become much worse. That’s why we are building next generation hardware that is more energy efficient and can handle large scale compute all with one chip.”

I could have started with the “What”, but it wouldn’t have anchored you into the problem we are solving. This is a good example because the technology is very detached from personal issues. Who except for an extremely small amount of technologists cares deeply about hardware?

Framing your product around a why, identifying the problem you are facing first will catapult your ability to move crowds into action. The aim is to get them on the edge of their seat begging for you to reveal more. As soon as that hook has landed you will have the opportunity to get into details.

I hope this was helpful to you as it was impactful for me to discover. Of course, this is just one part of the puzzle. There’s so much more I’ve learned about the timing, pacing, and psychology of a winning pitch. But those are stories for another time…

If you need help identifying your why and catering your pitch to customers or investors then I’m happy to help, schedule a time in my calendar or if you are in London UK, lets grab a coffee - I’d love to hear about your story.