The hostel owner Deidre Mathis won her 12th pitch competition on November 14.She showed the judges that she knew her business inside and out, and she was prepared when they asked her tough questions about scalability and risk management.Mathis told Business Insider that knowing her business meant knowing her numbers, and that's essential for anyone pitching their business in a competition or to investors.Click here for more BI Prime content.The moment Deidre Mathis walked onstage, her presence captured the room differently than her competitors'.She used her every word and movement to fill the space before her, projecting her voice loud enough that she could have been heard from the back of the room without a microphone. People seemed to sit up a little straighter to give her their full attention.Her stance looked controlled, with her feet firmly planted in her silver statement heels. Every so often, she paced to the beat of her pauses, from one side of the stage to the other, looking directly at the judges.She didn't use any props or slides. Everything she needed was within her ' the pitch deck in her head, her warm and assertive voice, and the power she carried in her posture. Thirty seconds into her pitch, you could tell that everyone in the audience would want a piece of what she was selling.This was the 12th pitch competition Mathis, 33, has won in the two years since she startedher hostel business, Wanderstay, adding $25,000 to her $50,000 in total winnings. Wanderstay, which is in Houston and will soon expand, offers shared dorms and private rooms for $35 to $60 per night.Her confidence was just the outer layer of what made her pitch a success. Underneath was dedication, preparation, and hard work. You can't fake the perfect answer to a question a judge thought you wouldn't predict. And you certainly can't fake an instant response when asked about scalability and risk management.Business Insider talked to Mathis after her pitch (and right before she was announced as winner) at Mastercard and Bank of America's Grow Your Biz competition on November 14. She said that while her degree in broadcast journalism has really helped her with presentation, there are some basics every entrepreneur needs to know before they pitch.Know your numbersMathis said knowing her business meant knowing her numbers, and it's essential for anyone pitching their business in a competition or to investors.At her very first competition, in 2017, Mathis won $1,500 in 30 minutes. She said people could tell how passionate she was about her idea and impressed by how much research she'd done. The stats, you might say, speak for themselves."You cannot ever do a pitch without knowing your numbers. All the fluff stuff is cute and it's nice. But what's important are your numbers," she said.During her Grow Your Biz pitch, Mathis not only inserted her numbers, but she also told her story through the numbers. She explained how she found a market opportunity from a lack of low-cost travel accommodations in the states (Hostelworld lists 272 hostels in the US, compared with 17,045 in Europe). She said her hostel has been profitable every month since she opened it and earned over $150,000 in revenue in the first year.Mathis studies her numbers at least once a month. She said it was essential for entrepreneurs to know the answers to questions like: What's your return on investment' What are your customer-acquisition costs' How much are you making' How fast is the business growing'"At any moment, if I were to meet with an investor or somebody who wanted to invest in the company, those are the questions they are going to ask," she said.Mathis said many investors have tried to meet with her, but she's declining them for now. She knows investors will want to rapidly open new locations, and she's not ready for that step just yet. She's on a mission for slower, more steady growth and plans to open her second location next year. But she does want to sell to a major company eventually.Watch Mathis' full pitch in the video below.SEE ALSO:Women-owned businesses are tapping into millennial-friendly growth markets like houseplants and hostels.SEE ALSO:'Top Chef' star Padma Lakshmi told us how she manages her time to avoid getting overwhelmed. Here's her advice for finding your career focus.Join the conversation about this storyNOW WATCH: Taylor Swift is the world's highest-paid celebrity. Here's how she makes and spends her $360 million.
Click here to read full news..
