Business Plan Pitch
Senior 6 · Entrepreneurship
Business Plan Pitch
Lesson 2 of 4
25 min
The Imbuto Dry team from Lesson 1 has been invited to a youth business competition. They will have seven minutes to pitch, then five minutes of questions from three judges: a banker, an investor and an agricultural expert. The prize is a grant and six months of mentoring. They have a month to prepare. (Illustrative.)
Good pitches are not improvised. This lesson shows how to prepare one: what to find out first, which items the pitch must cover, and what the people on the other side of the table are looking for.
| Preparation | What it involves |
|---|---|
| Content | Knowing the business plan thoroughly; choosing the few facts and figures that matter; checking every number |
| Materials | Slides or a poster, product samples, handouts; testing the projector, laptop and venue in advance |
| Personal (psychological) | Rehearsing until the pitch is natural, preparing answers to hard questions, managing nerves, dressing appropriately |
Definition
Traction: evidence that the business already works in the real world: sales, paying customers, repeat orders, users, signed agreements or partners. It is the strongest proof a young business can offer.
Example: "We sold 1,200 packs a month in a three-month trial" is traction; "everyone will love our snacks" is not.
Definition
The ask: the precise request at the end of a pitch: how much money (or what support), on what terms, and exactly how it will be used. Use of funds: the breakdown of how the money asked for will be spent.
Example: "Frw 12,000,000 for four dryers, a sealing machine, working capital and marketing."
| Item | Question it answers | Imbuto Dry (illustrative) |
|---|---|---|
| Problem | What painful, real problem exists, and for whom? | Farmers lose fruit in peak season; shoppers want healthy snacks |
| Solution | What do you offer, and why does it solve the problem? | Solar-dried fruit, no added sugar, 100 g packs |
| Market | Who are the customers, and how many? | Kigali supermarkets and school canteens |
| Business model | How do you make money: price, costs, margin? | Sell at Frw 1,500 a pack; cost Frw 800 a pack |
| Traction and status | What have you achieved already? | 1,200 packs a month in a trial; 40 farmer-suppliers |
| Competition and advantage | Who else serves these customers, and why will they choose you? | Imported dried fruit; ours is local, fresher and cheaper |
| Marketing and sales | How will customers hear about you and buy? | Tastings in shops, school contracts, social media |
| Team | Why are you the people to do this? | Two founders with food-processing training; a mentor |
| Financials and goals | What will sales, costs and profit be, and by when? | Break-even at 2,000 packs a month; 4,000 by month 12 |
| The ask | What do you want, and what will it achieve? | Frw 12,000,000 to reach 4,200 packs a month of capacity |
| Investors look for | Lenders look for (the "five Cs") |
|---|---|
| Team: skills, commitment, honesty | Character: the borrower's record and reliability |
| Market: large and growing | Capacity: cash flow enough to repay |
| Traction: proof customers pay | Capital: the owner's own money in the business |
| Advantage: hard for competitors to copy | Collateral: assets or a guarantee if repayment fails |
| Return: how and when they gain | Conditions: the purpose of the loan and the market around it |
Tip
Every number must answer "so what?" "We sold 1,200 packs" is a fact; "we sold 1,200 packs a month, so we are already 60% of the way to break-even" is an argument. Follow each figure with what it proves.
Worked example 1: estimating the market
Imbuto Dry's team counted its target customers: about 60 supermarkets that could each sell 150 packs a month, and 40 school canteens that could each take 50 packs a month. (Illustrative estimates.)
Step 1: potential monthly market.
Step 2: the share their goal implies. A goal of 4,000 packs a month is of that market.
Evaluate: 36% is a very large share for a new brand. A judge will ask why. The team should either show evidence (for example, signed letters of interest from shops) or present a more cautious goal alongside it.
Worked example 2: break-even, profit and the use of funds
Each pack sells for Frw 1,500 and costs Frw 800 in fruit, packaging, labour and transport. After expansion, fixed costs will be Frw 1,400,000 a month. (Illustrative.)
Contribution per pack: francs.
Break-even:
Profit at the 4,000-pack goal: francs a month, or a year.
| Use of funds | Frw |
|---|---|
| 4 solar dryers at 1,500,000 each | 6,000,000 |
| Sealing and labelling machine | 2,500,000 |
| Working capital (fruit and packaging stock) | 2,000,000 |
| Marketing (tastings, point-of-sale material) | 1,500,000 |
| Total ask | 12,000,000 |
Check: . The trial's 1,200 packs a month are of break-even, a fact worth saying aloud.
Warning
Three claims that make judges stop listening. "We have no competitors" (every business competes with something, even the customer doing nothing); "if we get just 1% of Rwanda's population…" (a guess, not a plan); and profit forecasts that rise steeply with no evidence. Replace each with evidence: named competitors and your advantage, a market built from counted customers, and forecasts tied to capacity and sales so far.
Y Combinator, "Kevin Hale - How to Pitch Your Startup" (a lecture of about 28 minutes). Watch the first part, on making an idea clear and simple and on the questions investors need answered. The examples are American technology start-ups, but the advice on clarity applies to any pitch.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa: the competition case, the pitch-deck storyboard, the tables, the worked examples and the practice items. The "five Cs of credit" are a standard lending checklist, explained here in our own words. Imbuto Dry and all its figures are illustrative (2026).
