A pre-pitch checklist for life science founders.
Pitch deck? Check.
Solid science? Check.
But walk into the room underprepared on these five things, and it won’t matter. Make sure you have these five things right before you walk in the room:
1. A one-sentence answer to “what do you do?”
If you need two sentences, you’re not ready. Investors hear dozens of pitches. The ones that land start with absolute clarity on the problem and who’s solving it. Write it down. Say it out loud. Time it.
2. A specific ask (not a range)
“We’re raising between $3M and $5M” signals that you haven’t done the math. Know your number, know exactly what it buys you, and know what milestone it gets you to. Investors fund milestones, not burn rates.
3. Your single biggest differentiator with the evidence to prove it
You have one sentence to say why you win. Not three sentences. Not a 2×2 competitive matrix. One sentence, backed by something real like a patent, a dataset, a clinical result, or a partnership. If you can’t say it in a sentence, it’s not a differentiator yet.
4. Your top three competitors, and why you beat each one
“We don’t really have competitors” is a red flag. Every investor knows you do. Walk in knowing who they are, what they’re good at, and why you win against each.
5. How you handle the silence, the soft no, and the monthly update
Then the pitch ends, but the process doesn’t. Investors watch how founders behave between meetings. Do you follow up with substance? Deliver on what you said you would? Are you easy to champion internally? Your story has to work when you’re not in the room.
Ready to put these into practice?
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