VC Pitch “Rules”
I often get emailed requests to include content in my posts. While I can’t always oblige I do look for interesting content to repurpose or link to or build a large post around.
Today I received the following links from Laura Fitton on a topic near and dear to my heart – giving effective venture presentations. One of my very first posts for VC Adventure was on this topic, and much of Laura’s advice corresponds well to my thoughts on the subject.
Some of my personal favorites from her lists (I’m paraphrasing – see the links below for the full original):
- your powerpoint isn’t “your presentation”
- once you’ve cut down your presentation to its desired length, take out a few more slides (you won’t miss them and neither will the investors you’re pitching)
- always keep in mind the outcome – your entire presentation should be geared toward serving your audience and the result to which you’re trying to drive
- end by encouraging next steps (rather than the throw away summary “this is the greatest deal ever” slide)
- vary your tone, speed, inflection, etc.
- don’t memorize your speech (I love this one! I worked with an entrepreneur once who had a photographic memory; he would literally memorize his pitch and then read it back – you could actually see him reading in his mind while he gave the presentation. It was particularly fun to interrupt him mid-slide and then watch him read through what he had already said in his mind before starting to talk again – taking it from wherever he was interrupted!)
More at the links below. I don’t know Laura personally, so this isn’t an endorsement of her services (that’s entirely up to you), but I did enjoy reading the “rules” and thought I’d post them here for all to enjoy.
http://home.comcast.net/~pistachioconsulting/10ThingsPitch.htm
http://home.comcast.net/~pistachioconsulting/Break10Rules.htm