Loading...The following are my takeaways from the pitch and polish workshop held a few weeks ago.
Making The Elevator Speech
- Who are you? Are you a crank or are you for real?
- What is the industry? What is the problem or pain?
- Identify a category
- Connect with the person in some way. Get a referral if the person says 'no'.
- What is the market size? Get a dollar figure.
- Hint at the value proposition.
- Be focused. Mention the market you are going after.
- "Cool product" is the 'Kiss of death'.
- If you have an exclusive licence, then and only then mention it.
- Give an instant picture of the product.
- Hint on its working.
- Sizing the competition
The worst answer "No other company is doing ..."
Second worst: "30 others are doing the same thing..."
The right answer:
"Several are doing it, but ours is three times faster..."
- Market Size : Anything less than 1/2 a billion is usually bad.
- Most people are unwilling to say 'No'. Expect a lot of 'Maybes'.
- Passion is a huge part of your pitch.
- Its about Money: Business value, competitive advantage and market size.
- "A warm introduction is better than a cold call"
- Be kind to your network
- Dont get into details unless you have a clue as to whether the person undestands your product.
- Use touch points: Contacts in the real world, people you can call, how you have guaged the market.
- Tell her, what business you are in.
- Build credibility: "One person in our team..."
- Give the person a taxonomy of the business space." This market is broken into..."
- Do not promise the impossible.
- Be clear as to what the business does.
- Who is the target customer?
- Don't identify yourself in a category stuffed with startups.
- Make eye contact.-Guage your audience.
- Throw in a story/anecdote to engage your audience. The VC must be able to repeat parts of your pitch.
- Consumer products usually don't have an economic value proposition.
- How do you deal with the gatekeeper? Talk about interoperability challenges if applicable.
- Be clear about your pricing model.
- Tell them why Google can't buy you.
- Two months to search for funding is a rule of thumb. Try to make the pitch real-life expandable. You must be able to flip the deck and extend beyond 10 months.
- Remember, you must "throw in as many hooks, as if harpooning a whale".
- Try to minimise the number of open issues.
- Get away from areas littered with dead bodies. Figure out why they died. Learn about the incumbents and their failures.
- Next, talk about why you are different in the eco-system.
- Remember, there are no new ideas. They have all existed before in some form.
- Try to convince the person that the world has changed.
- Clue the person on the following:
How are you solving the problem?
Your entry strategy into the market. How will you get there?
- Mention money raised if any.
- Get your assets out early in your pitch.
- Lead with imagery
- Get a natural flow: What points do you need expressed? What is expandable? Shirnkable?
- Value creation and value capture.
- Remember, life is not fair.
- Show poise, confidence and maturity
- Are you a geek or a business person? Where do you fit in your team?
- It it a product or service? hardware or software?
- Watch your pronouns: I, we they.
- What are they missing?
