Startup Circle: How is Easy To Pitch helping startups raise capital?

The hardest part of building a startup is not making the product but selling it. And not only to the market but also to the VC, Angel or anyone willing to invest in the idea. Many founders get stuck at step one because they lack the experience, connection and more importantly, a pitch. Priyanka Madnani and Nikhil Parmar founded Easy to pitch with the idea to make the ‘founders pitch ready’. They aimed to help them reduce the chances of rejection by prepping them.

The company offers a comprehensive range of services for making a strong pitch presentation. These include building investment decks, and financial valuation along with grooming founders. Read more about the startup, from Priyanka Madnani, Co-Founder and CEO, Easy to Pitch.

1. What is Easy to Pitch about? Tell us about the team.

Easy to Pitch works as a one-stop pitching solution for startup founders and entrepreneurs looking for raising capital. We are primarily known for the instant building of business plans, founder grooming, and pitch decks to create powerful success stories. Based on the idea to make the ‘founders pitch ready’, Easy to Pitch goes beyond creating conventional pitch decks. We work on the valuation aspects as a long-term helping hand to maximize the chances of fundraising.

2. How did you come up with the idea?

Easy to Pitch was incepted out of our experiences. Before this, I started Cheapest and Nearest – a vendor listing platform that made us go through the struggles of preparing a professional yet impactful pitch deck for funding. This made us realize the need for making the ‘founders pitch ready’.

India is one of the biggest emerging startup hubs globally. According to the estimates, it has the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world which is expected to grow at an annual growth rate of 12-15% YoY. Given the present market dynamics, there is a huge gap between the number of startups establishing and incubators and accelerators preparing them for fundraising. We, thus, wanted to solve that.

3. What are the changes you bring into the market?

We aim to become a first-of-its-kind platform in India. It will guide in various ways to the entrepreneurs. Simply put, we are the first-mover in the marketplace and thus have an advantage in enabling founders and entrepreneurs to become "pitch-ready". The startup founders can get tech solutions instantly on the dashboard. They don’t have to struggle to reach the right mentor, guidance and organization or institution to help them improve their pitches. Further, they don't have to connect to anyone. In the market, we bring a change by providing instant solutions to the entrepreneurs for their startup journey.

4. What is your business/market growth?

We focus on digital and offline marketing strategies. So, we are collaborating with several incubators and accelerators and also organizing virtual and offline startups-oriented initiatives. We invite top entrepreneurs and industry leaders to discuss the challenges that a startup goes through in the initial stage. Thus, helping them build a winning business idea.

On the digital front Easy to Pitch is a name that goes well with our SEO strategy. Any entrepreneur searching for information related to pitching will eventually land on our webpage that raises brand awareness. Furthermore, our exclusive helpline initiative is also gaining huge popularity among the founders who need instant guidance in their entrepreneurial journey at zero cost.

There is a steep surge in the number of startups existing in the country. According to a report, the Indian startup ecosystem has grown immensely from 24K startups in 2014 to a projected number of 55K by the end of 2020. This exponential boom in the startup ecosystem is widening the gap between the number of startups and accelerators. Moreover, the ‘Atma Nibhar Bharat Abhiyan’ is giving a tremendous push to aspiring entrepreneurs to come up with innovative and problem-solving ideas and build a sustainable business around it.

5. The pandemic has affected every sector. How are you coping? How are things now?

Easy to pitch has not been affected much by COVID-19 as its services were always provided virtually seamlessly. Since we managed it single-handedly, performing most of the work as a freelancer, there were only ‘fortunate challenges’ like increasing the demand for services. Now, we plan to onboard 20 more employees shortly, but hiring the right candidate is one of the biggest challenges.

6. What are your plans?

Besides the startup founders and entrepreneurs, it is also planning to acquire a budding student entrepreneurs base who are passionate about building a startup and focuses on their holistic grooming before they face the investors for fundraising. The company also sees a huge potential in entrepreneurs emerging from tier 1 and 2 cities is planning to expand its footprints to Chhattisgarh, Raipur, Telangana, Nagpur, Dehradun, and many other emergent markets.

7. Funding

Easy to Pitch is a bootstrapped startup and now we are looking to raise. It caters to more than 11 cities across the country including Delhi, Gurgaon, and Mumbai with its innovative pitching solutions.