BizSugar.com › Startups › Starting Up: Learning to Pitch

Ken Gaebler knows that winning investor money is all in the pitch. A serial entrepreneur, Gaebler has raised $24 million for seven companies since 1995. Now, he sits on the other side of the conference-room table, as president of private-equity firm Gaebler Ventures in Chicago — and routinely watches newbie entrepreneurs present their ideas in a bid for funding.

The best presentations come from entrepreneurs who have thoroughly prepared for that big meeting or chance encounter — and are expecting the difficult questions. And whether you're speaking to a room full of venture capitalists or a lone angel investor, it's critical to have a compact description of your great idea, business investors and consultants say.