So, I’ve seen Prasad pitch quite a bit recently during his fund raising process. And I have to admit, the view from this side of the table is pretty different from the venture capitalist’s side. Thus is born the 12th tip for startup entrepreneurs pitching their business to venture capitalists – and this one is actually useful!
VC Pitch Tip 12 – Have the ability to complete your entire fund raising presentation in 10 minutes
I know that I mentioned in my last VC Pitch Tip that your fund raising presentation should be short. This is a slightly different topic – regardless of how long your formal pitch is, you should be able to deliver the entire pitch in 10 minutes if needed. Yes, most VCs will give you an hour or so to make your presentation, but I guarantee that there will be times when you have to be able to deliver a convincing pitch FAST. There are many reasons why this could happen:
- The VC is running late
- You luck into a quick meeting at a conference
- This is a follow up meeting with several VCs to quickly get them up to speed after one partner has already gotten excited about you
- You have some outside expert coming in for a particular diligence discussion and you want them to quickly know what the businesses is about
- Or, best of all, you are having such a good conversation with a potential funding source that you get really behind in your presentation.
There will always be a point in your fund raise when you need to very concisely bring someone up to speed on your startup. And there are so many outside people involved with the diligence that you will need to repitch and repitch, even when the actual pitch isn’t the core reason for the meeting.
As I’ve watched the pitch process from the other side of the table, I’ve really begun to appreciate how impressed investors get when an executive can articulate the important parts of their strategy, product, market and business plan is a very concise, direct manner. There are some pitches I really remember well from my time as a venture capitalist – and only now do I realize it was because the executive made such a brilliant impact with so few words, slides and so little time.
Getting your entire business into a 10 minute presentation is very hard. It requires an amazing amount of practice. But, you might as well practice because you’re going to have to pitch over and over if you can’t do it right the first few times…
June 17th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Excellent point. Venture Capital firms want to have the basics down in an well defined easy to understand point. This leaves more room (time) to delve deeper into the questions (interrogation, lol) of your business plan of execution. This is a great thing. The more you let the VC press into your plan the more you will get out of the presentation and the more they will get about understanding you and the reason your business venture is solid. Welcome questions – even when they are tough. You need it to grow!
Your best days are ahead,
Blake Robbins
http://www.empoweryourbest.com
Venture/Angel Capital Funding Needs? Visit http://empoweryourbest.com
Direction for Your Start Up or Expansion? Visit http://empoweryourbest.wordpress.com
June 17th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Hey, nice post, really well written. You should write more about this.
June 18th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
“Getting your entire business into a 10 minute presentation is very hard. It requires an amazing amount of practice.”
Very true and, as you also say, the number one piece of advice entrepreneurs get on raising money is to keep it short and sweet. But entrepreneurs need to internalize the truckloads of work it takes to get to those few slides and 10 minutes. Too often, in the rush to be brief, conciseness is replaced by the superficial, helped by "advice" that emphasizes the slick instead of substance. Be clear about the long version before developing the short one. Focus on building your product and business. Take the time to be brief.
June 19th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Since this post refers to my 10-minute pitch, I felt it only makes sense to share the extend of preparation.
To get to a 10-minute pitch took me a number of practices. It started with a 30-40 minute pitch and the more I presented, the more I learned what investors cared about what they would like to see in the first presentation: the high level subjects and their specifics. With each presentation, the details went into the appendix and the strategy with 1 to 3 tactics were left in the slides. Even though I have presented over 50 times, I still review the slides before a presentation. It helps me get in the zone, get the message down and complete the presentation in 10 minutes.
Since the details are in the appendix, you can always bring them up when an investor wants to dig deeper into a topic.
June 19th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
True, true
June 29th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
@Healy –
Go to Hollywood. Think about the opening to Battlestar Galactica.
The first 4 words "Previously on Battlestar Galactica…."
Its not so much a pitch as the opening to every well-run meeting. If you think about this as a 10-min pitch you are missing the larger insight:
* You need to get everyone on the same page.
* You are setting the stage for the rest of the conversation.
* You are establishing what the meeting is about.
So this 10-min pitch can be adjusted to only talk about the aspects of the company relevant to *THIS* meeting. (Also makes it easier to talk about.)
Also think about advertisers. Why do you see same commercial over and over again? Why do politicians have the same stump speech?
Because they need to repeat, repeat until you the listener get exactly what the message is.