How to demo a mobile app to investors

Live phone demos fail in familiar ways. The mirroring cable is the wrong one, the conference Wi-Fi drops AirPlay, a notification from your group chat appears over the onboarding screen, and the video call shows a blurry phone held up to a webcam. So founders retreat to a pre-recorded video, which works but proves nothing: anyone can make a video of an app.

Running the app on a cloud device in your browser keeps it live and removes the hardware.

1. Prepare the demo build

Upload the build you want to show: for React Native or Expo, a release build or a simulator build with the JavaScript bundled in; for native apps, an iOS simulator .app or an Android .apk. Point it at a stable backend with realistic demo data, and keep real payments and real customer data well away from it. Create a demo account that lands on an interesting screen, not an empty one.

Rehearse on the Devices page with your dev server stopped. This is the same device the investor will see, so a clean rehearsal is a clean demo.

2. In the meeting

On a video call: start the session in your browser and share that window. The device is a web page, so it shares as cleanly as a slide, with no camera pointed at a phone and no notifications from your own life. If an investor asks to try it, click Collaborate, choose Can control and paste the link in the chat: they drive the app from their own browser while you narrate.

In the room: open the session on your laptop and put it on the projector like any browser tab. No cable to the phone, no mirroring app.

Either way, run through the demo once before the call starts so the device is warm and on the screen you want to open with.

3. The leave-behind link

After the meeting, the best thing you can send is the app itself. Open the app’s Share tab and click Share this app, then choose Send a link. Name and Expires are on the first screen; the rest are under More options:

Name: the fund or partner, such as “Northwind Ventures”. Only your team sees it, and a link per investor means you can revoke one without touching the others.
Build: Pin to a build, so they see exactly what you showed, not tonight’s half-finished upload.
Expires (On a date…): two or three weeks out, which also gives the follow-up a natural deadline.
Max session duration: generous enough for a real look, such as 15 minutes (900 seconds; the field takes seconds).
Audio: Sound only if the product involves sound or video.

Put the link in the follow-up email next to the deck. The investor opens it on a laptop or a phone, taps Tap to Start and uses the real app on a live device, with no TestFlight invite and nothing to install. The Session history page lists each share-link session with when it ran and for how long.

4. In the deck or the data room

A link works anywhere a URL does: on the product slide, as a QR code for a printed deck, or on the data-room page. On Team and Business you can go a step further and embed the live app on a private page of your own site, so the product sits next to the metrics it explains. The embed guide shows how.

Things that go wrong, and how to avoid them

The backend is down. The demo is only as live as its server. Use a staging environment nobody deploys to during your raise.
The demo account is a mess. Reset it before each meeting, or create one per investor.
They tap into the unfinished feature. Pin a build where it is hidden, rather than hoping they don’t find it.
The link gets forwarded. That is often good news. If it isn’t, Regenerate link gives it a new URL and keeps the settings, and Revoke turns it off.

Frequently asked questions

Does the investor need an account? No. The link opens in any browser with no sign-in.

Can I show the iOS and Android apps? Yes, with a link for each platform’s build.

What if our product is a TV app? Apple TV, Android TV and Roku apps demo the same way; investors use the arrow keys or the on-screen remote.

Is this better than a recorded video? Use both: a short video in the deck sets up the story, and the link proves the product works when nobody is driving it for them.