BDW: How To Pitch Your Ideas

Hi, I’m David.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Investor/Advisor to 55 startups
$30M+ raised


The beginning:
Grab me.


Tell me quickly
what you do
and
why I should care.


Make it painfully obvious that
I should pay attention.

How?


Establish credibility


Example: Vanilla


"By the time I had analyzed my 1,000th disk head
crash, I figured someone should fix the problem. It
wasn't until after MIT that I finally got the right idea: a
head that flies on a cushion of air. Maxtor and IBM
have both tested our heads, and cannot make them
crash. Our company, Air Disk, has 20 people, has
been shipping heads for two years, and is profitable.
We're looking for our first venture round."


A startling fact


A quick personal story


Example: Take Comics


Contradict conventional wisdom


Others?


Make me laugh


Play on a known fear


Be appropriately different


Make me think.

(and so on, there are dozens more)


How do you like this?

"Mega Technologies provides network management tools
that ensure network safety and reliability no matter where
the equipment is installed. Using advanced software, our
tools allow network managers to remotely diagnose and
configure user systems."


How do you like this?

"Mega Technologies provides network management tools
that ensure network safety and reliability no matter where
the equipment is installed. Using advanced software, our
tools allow network managers to remotely diagnose and
configure user systems."

BLECH!

Oh yeah? How would you say it?


"On Tuesday, May 14, 1998, eBay went down for 2 days. It
was my job to get it back up. I spent 48 hours with no sleep,
and said, ‘never again.’ I started Mega Technologies to build
the tools and technology to keep the world’s largest sites from
ever crashing. eBay uses us, and so does CNN.”


The middle:
Show me.


Show, don’t tell.


“We make software that analyzes
dozens of Internet sites and displays
useful statistics about artists.”


Illuminate the problem


Explain the pain.


Twist the knife.


Show the solution.


Example: Next Big Sound


The end:
Ask me.


Almost every “presentation” (in the
business world) is given in order to
accomplish one simple thing.

Do you know what it is?


Get another meeting.


End with a call to action.


Back to the Next Big Sound


Some Final Thoughts


People will listen or read.
They will not do both.


About Bullet Points
•Stay away from bullet points.
•64% of studies conclude that most statistics
are made up. Just as often, people will choose
to read instead of listening to you.
•According to Gartner, bullet points suck.
•Right now, you are reading. But are you also
listening? Because that’s really hard to do.
•Making people choose to either read or listen
is generally a bad idea.
•What is the fastest land animal?
•This page has way too much stuff on it.

Bullet points.
The best slides enhance what you’re saying.


Be speciﬁc, not general.


Don’t use non-words. Generic
language can be deadly.


Don’t lie.
By the way, exaggeration is lying.


Don’t rely on things outside of
your control.


I’m really only going to
remember two or three things
you said.


Beat me over the head with
your key points.


Singing at Carnegie Hall isn’t easy.


Let’s watch some pitches.


Homework!


BDW: How To Pitch Your Ideas

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