Notes from the 'Pitch and Polish' Workshop from MIT's Entrepreneurship Forum

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?

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Notes from the Executive Summary Workshop

1. An executive summary is to a business plan what a resume is to a job search.

• The difference is that the person reading it has no job description and no pre-concieved notion about the business.

The Executive Summary speaks of

• The potential investor opportunity.
• Partners and employees.
• It is a resume for the full plan and answers the 3 Whyss:
• Why this?
• Why now?
• Why this team.
• Why do we need a business plan:
• To get Financing
• Find a strategic partner
• Explain to the customers/suppliers
• It is the business result of planning.
• It tells
• Who are the customers
• Why does one need your services/product?
• What is the cost of the product or service?
• It is a selling document on
• Your vision
• Your image
• It is defensible.
• A business plan has the following sections:
• An executive summary explaining the opportunity.
• Market Research
• The economics
• The marketing plan.
• Design and Development
• Manufacture and Operations
• The Management team
• The schedule
• Risks/Problems and Assumptions
• The Financial plan
• Appendices
• Technology is NOT a section
• 1. There must be a cover page with
• The company name
• The address
• Telephone number
• Confidentiality
• Security
• Number of Copies
• There must be a table of Contents
• The Executive Summary
• This is not an introductiion
• This is not a preface
• This is not the highlights
• IT IS A BUSINESS PLAN IN MINIATURE
• It's size can be 2 to 5 pages
• It is logical, clear, interersting, exciting
• It reads like a resume.
• It answers
  
• Who the customer is
  
• What is the vision
  
• What are we doing
• Where is the market
• How much $$$
• It describes the business concept, the opportunity and the strategy
• It describes the product, the market size and the startup costs
• It explains the payoffs.
• The body of the plan describes
• The market opportunity
• How big is this market?
• The trend, How fast it will sell and how the busines will grow.
• Why is this the right time: Convergence of the opportunity solution

The Market Analysis Section describes

• The existing and planned products
• The market segments
  
• Market players and the competition
• The competetive advantages
• The marekt share of the current players
• Your potential market share.
• If you win, who will be hurt and what will they do about it?
• What is your market strategy?
• Pricing and Distribution
• Price and margin
  
• Distribution must match strategy/pricing.
• Sales tactics: Who is the 1st customer, 2nd...?
• How will you reach your customer base?
• Advertising and Promotion
• Development Plan
• What is the status of product development?
• What development is needed?
• Describe the time and resources required.
• Do you need to produce a complete product?
• What are the development risks and difficulties
• What are the product pipeline plans?
• Describe your action plan.
• What you'll do and when.
• What are your credibility testors?
• What is your sequence to build value?
• How will you eliminate or reduce dependency?
• How will you coordinate schedules and gain value recognition?
• Appendices:
• Separately bound.
• Resumes of management team
• Product Literature
• Trade and Business press
• Patents
• Testimonials
• Technical information
• Confidentiality
• Technical- Techinical person discussion

Finetuning the plan:

• H ave it reviewed by an independent reader. This personmay be
• A retired industry professional
• A customer
• A consultant
• A professor
• It is usually read in the following sequence
• A- First Reading- Like a Resume
• B- Second Reading-For Justification for an investment
• C- Commitment to the plan.
• First Impression
• Idea too good to ignore
• Financial promise too good.
• Good reputable team.
• Action plan which is credible and focussed.
• The details must give an assurance of insight commitment and follow through.
• The format and style must be passionate but sane.

Reasons for failure

• Insufficient market
• No credibility to technology:
• Too wild.
• Too blue sky.
• Not protectible- Do patent search
• Too mundane
• Investment too large for promise.
• Failure to understand the market
• Too optimistic.
• Too naive about hurdles
• A runoff in all directions
• Not ambitious enough
• Regulatory barriers not addressed
• Gaps are filled by hand-waving.
• No promise
• Team not credible.
• Cosmetic reasons for rejection
• Not understandable
• Too much jargon
• Naive projections
• Misspellings, grammar
• Too long
• Ignored basics
• Forget marketing, my technology is best
• Naive writing
  

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