trendpreneur

I had the pleasure a couple of days ago of attending a pitching workshop at the British Library, organised by Techcrunch and UKTI. (It’s part of the lead-up to Geek’n'Rolla). As well as meeting some awesome fellow entrepreneurs, there was a lot of solid advice on pitching, tailored towards the TC-style 2 minute pitch.

Having previously attended Bill Joos’ pitching seminar here in Edinburgh, tailored towards a full VC presentation, it was interesting to see the marked similarities between the London and Silicon Valley take on things.

Here are a few of the key points from the workshop (note – I’m clearly not a pitching expert, so please don’t take this as gospel!).

• Don’t be vague.
• Don’t be slide-heavy.
• Don’t be negative.
  
• Engage the audience.

Let’s drill into these a wee bit.

Clarity and Focus

If you’re vague, nobody’s going to have a clue what you’re on about. If nobody understands what you’re on about, they’ll tune out, and more importantly they won’t talk to you or about you – let alone remember you. (Except, perhaps, as the waffly guy.)

On the other hand, sketching the big picture rather than painting all the details is the whole point of pitching. So how do you pitch with crystal clarity but without saying too much?

Focus on the key elements of your pitch

Depending on who you’re pitching to, and your aim, stick to a solid outline. You want to determine:

• which key topics you need to cover; and
• what you want your audience to walk away with.

A standard list of things you might want to cover when pitching your startup to an interested audience of investors (nicked wholesale from the TC workshop):

• The identified market gap (What problem are you solving? Where’s the pain?)
• Your solution (What’s your painkiller? What’s special about it – your secret sauce?)
• How you’ll make money (and in some pitches, how you’ll begin doing so)
• Why you’re the ones to do it (’About the team’)
• What you want (Why are you pitching?)

Depending on your exact business there are different things you can cover here. Focus on what makes you unique and interesting; brainstorm every possible point under each heading, then cut out the chaff to leave nothing but punchy, impressive and informative statements.

People forget; it’s human nature. Here’s where the audience takeaway part comes in; according to Bill Joos, you should aim to get people to remember three things about your presentation, nothing more. So pick the three most important points from your pitch and repeat them at the end, making sure they stick in the audience’s mind.

(Bill also advises that you write the last slide of your presentation first. Start with the end.)

Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em

Have a beginning, a middle and an end to your presentation. In Bill Joos’ words: Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, tell ‘em, then tell ‘em what you told ‘em. You can do this without repeating yourself horribly. To use an imaginary example:

• Intro: “We’re creating a contact manager for solo musicians.”
• Problem: “…Musicians often find it hard to keep track of all the venue and festival managers they’ve dealt with, especially if they’re independent…”
• Summary: “Helping solo artists get more gigs by staying in touch.” (This could be your intro instead, as it points at the key user benefit, but if you don’t say what you’re creating in the intro people will be very confused until you get to ‘your solution’.)

Slide rules

The five points above are your five slides. Add a splash slide with your name, company logo, etc, and a summary slide. Seven slides, more or less, to cover everything? It certainly forces you to be clear and brief.

(A side note, having a final slide with just “Questions” on isn’t always the best move, if you have a good summary slide.)

Less is more

Some presentation advice gives you five slides per ten minutes as a yardstick. This workshop, however, says seven or eight slides are fine for two. You don’t have long on each slide, so keep the content simple and clear. When you add a bullet point, ask yourself ‘is this really necessary? What does it add to the presentation?’

Design considerations

Keep your slides readable; a minimum of 30pt is recommended. Don’t cram bullet points and tiny text into every corner or the audience will do nothing but read the slides. Images are great, especially pictures of your product or diagrams/graphs that illustrate your point.

If you’re interested in drop-dead awesome slide design, check out slide:ology.

Our product doesn’t…

Focus on what your product does do. There might be problems, uncertainties and negative points to make, but this isn’t the time for it.

Engage!

Engaging the audience is a mix of content and delivery. If your audience is a group of VCs scrolling away at their Blackberries, listening to the twentieth pitch today, you need to give them a reason to sit up and listen – and intravenous coffee injections don’t come cheap. If you’re pitching to a more general audience you need to help them relate to your problem, your solution and why you’re there.

We’re like YouTube… on acid

Analogies can be a mixed blessing. I’ve heard conflicting advice saying “for gods’ sake don’t pitch yourself as the <x> for <y>” yet also that it can be an instant grabber, a way for people to get what you do in a sentence, and cause them to listen up. Again, I think this depends on your audience, and certainly your product.

If people constantly ask you “Oh, so you’re like <x> then?” you’re probably in a good place to start out by saying “We’re the <x> but/for/to/in…”, instantly stopping that question and giving the audience an immediate frame of reference. “We’re the Flickr for video”, “we’re the YouTube for teachers”, etc, etc.

On the other hand, if your product is superficially like another but with a lot of differentiating features that can’t be easily summed up, you might harm your pitch by drawing an analogy. People will get hung up on you being like YouTube etc, and probably ask silly questions and draw the wrong conclusions as a result.

Accessorise

Some businesses are really well placed to demonstrate their uniqueness through props. This can be overdone to a cheesy extent, but it can also be very memorable. Dragons’ Den is a great example of how to use props and how not to; I still remember a “living scenery” pitch which had human tables and plants as part of the owner’s demonstration. If you’re selling software it isn’t quite so easy, but if you really want, people can make costumes for anything.

Deliver

Public speaking tips are ten a penny, but here are the main ones given at the TC workshop:

• Limit the use of humour
• Project to the back of the room
• Vary your pitch (You’re excited about this stuff. Sound like it!)
• Talk more slowly (I think I need to get that tattooed on my hand)
• Use pauses
• Don’t fidget
• Avoid distracting mannerisms, don’t play with your notes
• Make eye contact with your audience

As well as your actual pitch delivery, you need to dress the part – wear something that makes you feel confident and reflects the environment you’re pitching in. If you’re not sure, you’re not going to alienate anyone by wearing a suit. Also, everyone notices shoes (more’s the pity).

Don’t be afraid to have notes. Notes keep you on target and remind you to cover key points. But never read out a speech, either from the screen or paper. With enough practice you can memorise what you’re meant to cover, but watch some pitches; those who have learned their speeches by rote come across far worse than those who speak with genuine knowledge and enthusiasm point to point.

Question time is a must, but don’t get into conflict with people. “Take it offline” if needs be; similarly if you’re asked a detailed and fairly boring question.

The main tip though was to practice. In front of your mirror, your mum, a camera, an audience, etc – practice makes perfect. Personally I’m going for as many pitching opportunities as I can, so that when it really really matters, I’ll be a pro. (Maybe.)

A side note: Don’t perform improvised comedy when you’re trying to perfect the art of business pitching. You’ll find yourself talking about market share on stage, and suddenly leaping into a pirate accent when you should be talking about piracy protection. No, really.

Further Reading

• Venture Hacks’ Pitching Hacks
• slide:ology on Amazon
• Garage Ventures’ Perfecting your Pitch (pdf)
• Bill Joos’ The Art of Pitching