Presentation Zen posted a good review about the presentation aspects of David Rose’s TED video about pitching your company to VCs. I watched the video, and would like to add a summary of some of the content that David is talking about.
- It’s all about you. The content of the presentation is about the substance of your business. But VCs look for things you are not directly presenting, but convey in between the lines about yourself.
- Integrity, realism, coachable were 3 characterization that stood out from the 10 or so “you” criteria David was listing (including more obvious ones such as passion, knowledge, etc.). Be a person that stands with both feet on the ground and is open to learn.
After discussing “you”, David moves on to discuss a structure of a pitch presentation. Many elements are not new (market, team, financials, etc. see video for details), but he adds useful thoughts to all of them (I use the words “don’t” alot):
- Start immediately with a very, very brief description of what you actually do, so the audience is not guessing through your talk but rather can focus on the content
- Don’t “pop” the buildup of excitement by going back, making a mistake, stalling.
- Don’t say anything that is not true (linked to the integrity point) above. (My addition, say “I don’t know” if you’re not sure)
- Don’t make the audience think/wonder about number inconsistences between slides, even if they are not errors (net sales, versus gross sales for example). It distracts, “pops” the flow
- Use real concepts instead of abstract ones, also in financial forecasts. Instead of cleaming 0.5% of a $1bn market, why would someone buy 1 product, how many customers do you think you can get, hence, what would your sales be.
- Give the audience a something to compare your idea against, to validate it (a comparable company, etc.(
- Finally, do a verbal wrapup (maybe with only a company logo on the slide), rather than a crammed slide that invites a repeat of the entire presentation
