Creating a good pitch is an art form; it requires time, focus, and a clear vision of your startup. The main components of a good pitch are describing a problem, explaining your solution, and including the size of your addressable market.
Determine a problem
A key part of any great pitch is determining a pressing problem. Companies that fail to solve a critical problem offer services or products that are nice to have but aren't a necessary part of people's lives. This makes them more dispensable and ultimately less profitable. The more severe the problem is, the more valuable your solution will be.
Example Problem: People throw away an average of several thousand dollars' worth of food each year because it expires or isn't used efficiently.
Several thousand dollars wasted is a big problem to a lot of people. Naturally, a solution to that problem would be very valuable.
Introduce the solution
The next step to creating a great pitch is to introduce your solution to the problem that you've identified.
Example Solution: My solution is an app that scans groceries as they're purchased and sends users an alert when items are near expiration.
The key here is to articulate the solution simply while addressing the problem directly.
Articulate the market size
The market size is the second most important component of your pitch. Don't narrow your market size down to an impossibly targeted group (thus eliminating many potential customers).
Example Market Size: Our problem of wasted groceries could apply to each household in the U.S., which would make our market size 114,235,996 heads of households. This number is much better than say, the number of adult women who use the internet (and thus may be more technologically inclined) in the U.S (79 million).
Put it all together
A successful investor pitch combines problem, solution, and market size in two to three succinct sentences.
Example Pitch:
"On average, over 114 million households in the U.S. throw away $3,000 worth of food each year due to inefficient purchasing and food usage. Our solution is Eat This Now, an app that scans groceries as they're put away and provides alerts near each item's expiration date with a suggested recipe."