wow! the art of the pitch (tgi full deck)

1.WOW!
The Art ofThe Pitch
Adam Lorant
[email protected]
Sandra Wear
[email protected]
Photo: Tauron32

2. Agenda
Know Your Audience
Build Substance
The 4 Ts
Package Style
The Pitch Pyramid
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Source:Pennstatelive
WOW !!!
3. Tune your pitch for your audience
Co-founders
Employees
Professionals
Partners
Customers
Investors
Media
Your mother
Source:KaffeeTrauma
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4. Know Your Audience
PLEASE.Before you prepare a pitch or a presentation or a web site.
Understand who youre talking to;
What questions they want answered; and
What you want to get out of the meeting.
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5. Source: Rapid City Public Library
People buy in to a Great Story.
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Storytelling is an Art, not a Science.
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Telling a Great Story:Substance, Style.
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8. WOW !!!
Source:Pennstatelive
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9. Substance
10. Style
11. Creating Substance:The 4 Ts
Technology
Team
Traction
Treasure
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Technology
Team
Traction
Treasure
Technology
Team
Traction
Treasure

Whats your secret sauce?

13. Why do I care? 14. Whats new, original and different about your product? 15. First/Best/Only 16. How easy is it for a competitor to replicate? 17. Know-how or PatentsRisk vs. WOW
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Technology
Team
Traction
Treasure

What domain expertise does the management team have?

19. Where are the experience and expertise gaps? 20. Who are the advisors & board of directors?Risk vs. WOW
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Technology
Team
Traction
Treasure

How well do you understand your customer?

22. How many customers do you have? 23. What do customers say about you/your product? 24. What is your customer acquisition strategy and cost to acquire customers? 25. How painful is the problem for the customer and whats the cost to switch from their current solution? 26. Whats the customers cost/benefit?Risk vs. WOW
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Technology
Team
Traction
Treasure

How big is the market?

28. How much money do you need to raise? 29. How fast are you going to get to revenue & profitability? 30. Whats your pricing strategy like? Risk vs. WOW
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31. Investment Return Graph
Revenue
Break Even Q11
2,000 Customers
$1,000 per customer
4,000,000
3,000,000
Beta
Q4 $2.5M spend
Alpha
Q3 $2M spend
Rel 1 Revenue
Q5$3.5 M spend
2,000,000
Profit
1,000,000
$5M investment
-1,000,000
-2,000,000
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q5
Q6
Q8
Q10
Q12
Q7
Q9
Q11
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32. Substance
33. Style
34. Putting it all together:A Great Story
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35. The Concept Pitch
Say it in 3-5 words
NOT your Tagline
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NOT your Vision or Mission Statement
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Simple, memorable description of your business, using analogies to paint a metaphor.
Flickrfor video
Amazon for rare, collectable, out-of-print books
AT&T for the Internet
Classified Ads for the Internet
Encyclopaedia Britannica for the Internet
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39. The Stand Up Pitch
Your elevator pitch.
Cocktail party conversation.
The 100 second story.
40. The Stand Up Pitch
Tell me about your company!
Make it a short, engaging description ofyour business.
Source:n.macca
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41. What you need to cover
a

What is your product or service?

42. What problem does it solve? 43. Who needs it? 44. How are you different? 45. Why should the audience care?a
a
a
a
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46. Sample Stand Up Pitch
PetPlay is introducing a line of gourmet canned cat foods with the brand name Petite Cuisine. These products look good, smell great, and taste great because they are people food for cats! You may not want to, but you could eat it!
Research shows consumers love the products for their refreshing look and pleasant smelland cats devour them. Petite Cuisine is 100% nutritionally complete for cats and is made from products you would buy at the meat and fish counter. The line currently has eight items including whole tuna, red snapper filets, baby shrimp, and rock crab.
I launched and ran Fancy Feast, the largest competitor in this space nationally and ran one ofNestle'sinternational pet food divisions. I know this market well.
Orders are in fromRalph'sgrocery chain with additional distribution commitments totalling 500 stores.
Capital is being raised in two stages$500,000 in initial launch capital for 500 stores and then a round of expansion capital of $3 to $5 million for 3,000+ stores.
Tech Coast Angels, 2007
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47. Breaking down the Pitch
Problem youre solving
PetPlayis introducing a line of gourmet canned cat foods with the brand name Petite Cuisine. These products look good, smell great, and taste great because they are people food for cats! You may not want to, but you could eat it!

Catchy concept pitch
Research shows consumers love the products for their refreshing look and pleasant smelland cats devour them
Understands industry and consumers
Petite Cuisine is 100% nutritionally complete for cats and is made from products you would buy at the meat and fish counter. The line currently has eight items including whole tuna, red snapper filets, baby shrimp, and rock crab.
T
Differentiated product
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48. Breaking down the Pitch
BIG experience
T
I launched and ran Fancy Feast, the largest competitor in this space nationally and ran one of Nestle's international pet food divisions. I know this market well.
Orders are in fromRalph'sgrocery chain with additional distribution commitments totalling 500 stores.
Good traction
T
Capital is being raised in two stages$500,000 in initial launch capital for 500 stores and then a round of expansion capital of $3 to $5 million for 3,000+ stores
Understands what it will take
T
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49. The Get a Meeting Pitch
50. The Get a Meeting Pitch
NOT an executive summary
NOT a product description
High level concept description + team + traction
Can be formatted as an email
Target 100 words or less
Delivery measured in seconds, not minutes
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51. Subject: Introducing Ning to Blue Shirt Capital
Hi Nivi,
Thanks for offering to introduce us to Blue Shirt Capital. I've attached a short presentation about our company, Ning.
Briefly, Ning lets you create your own social network for anything. For free. In 2 minutes. It's as easy as starting a blog. Try it at http://ning.com
Ning unlocks the great ideas from people all over the world who want to use this amazing medium in their lives.
We have over 115,000 user-created networks and our page views are growing 10% per week. We previously raised $44M from Legg Mason and others, including myself.
Before Ning, I started Netscape (acquired by AOL for $4.2B) and Opsware (acquired by HP for $1.6B).
I've admired Blue Shirt's investments from afar. We're starting meetings with investors next week and I would love to show Blue Shirt what we're building at Ning.
Best,
Marc [email protected]:Pitching Hacks, 2009
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52. Subject: Introducing Ning to Blue Shirt Capital
Hi Nivi,
Thanks for offering to introduce us to Blue Shirt Capital. I've attached a short presentation about our company, Ning.
Briefly, Ning lets you create your own social network for anything. For free. In 2 minutes. It's as easy as starting a blog. Try it at http://ning.com
Ning unlocks the great ideas from people all over the world who want to use this amazing medium in their lives.
We have over 115,000 user-created networks and our page views are growing 10% per week. We previously raised $44M from Legg Mason and others, including myself.
Before Ning, I started Netscape (acquired by AOL for $4.2B) and Opsware (acquired by HP for $1.6B).
I've admired Blue Shirt's investments from afar. We're starting meetings with investors next week and I would love to show Blue Shirt what we're building at Ning.
Best,
Marc [email protected] Hacks, 2009
Simple & concise email
Problem youre solving
Good metaphor pitch phrase
Good customer engagement
Good experience
Call to action
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53. The Investor Pitch
54. The Investor Pitch
NOT a description
NOT a business plan in PowerPoint
NOT about explaining, it's about SELLING
An illustrated story about the opportunity.
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55. Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 Rule
10 20 30
Slides
Minutes
Point Font
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56. Clean, Simple, Visual, Powerful, Memorable
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57. We have a mission and a team that is taking us there.Why? We discovered this large problem and solved it with a product that has this amazing technology inside.Were going to market and sell it to these customers, with these advantages that competitors simply cannot match. In particular, were working towards these milestones over the next few quarters. In conclusion, this financing is a great investment opportunity.
The sequence of slides tells a story:
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58. Contents of an Investor Pitch
Problem
Your solution
Business model
Underlying magic/technology
Marketing and sales
Competition
Team
Status and timeline
Projections and milestones
Summary and call to action
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59. The Problem
Describe the customer, market, and problem you address, without getting into your product.
Current state and seriousness of the problem
Desired future state, benefit to customer
Scale of the initial market
Use Graphics (better than words)
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60. Solution
Introduce your product and its benefits and describe how it addresses the problem you just described.
Include a demo such as a screencast, a link to working software, or pictures.
Make it visual.Make it real for your audience.
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61. Business Model
Explain how you are going to make money.
If you have sales, describe the value to customers.
Describe the economics that turn the business into $X kajillion per year
Use microeconomics (each user is worth $1/year) rather than macroeconomics (i.e. if we can get 1% of a $10B market).
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62. Underlying Magic or Technology
Describe the technology behind your solution
Focus on how the technology enables the differentiated aspects of your solution
If applicable, mention patent status
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63. Marketing and Sales
Who are the customers? How big is the market?
You summarized this in your Problem slide and this is your opportunity to elaborate.
How are you going to acquire customers?
What customers have you already acquired?
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64. Competition
Describe why customers use your product instead of the competitions.
Describe any competitive advantages that remain after the competition decides to copy
Never deny that you have competitors it's okay to compete. Against anyone.
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65. Team
Highlight the past accomplishments of the team.
If your team has been successful before, investors may believe it can be successful again.
Include directors or advisors who bring something special to the company.
Dont include positions you intend to fill save that for the milestones slide.
Put yourself last: it seems humble and lets you tell a story about how your career has led to the discovery of the
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66. Projections and Milestones
A timeline chart that overlays significant milestone dates - funding, product development, customer delivery, markets and revenue, expense profit/loss projections
Use a table with the quarters on the xaxis and the functions on the y-axis.
Dont build a detailed financial model if you dont have past earnings, a significant financial history, or insight into the issue.
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67. Status and Timeline
Dates, amounts, and sources of money raised
How much money are you raising in this round?
Indicate uses of funds and what will be achieved
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68. Summary
Summarize the key, compelling facts of the company. Make sure you cover all the topics that are in your elevator pitch
Finish with a call to action.Include your complete contact information
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69. The Art of the Pitch
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You
Who
They
Technology
Treasure
Traction
Team
$
$
70. Storytelling is an ongoing process of continuous improvement
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71. YOUR HOMEWORK
Email us your concept and stand-up pitches. (Oct 18)
[email protected]
Prepare your Investor Pitch.(Oct 20)
Miller Thomson,10th Floor 840 Howe St
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72. The End
Source: Rapid City Public Library
And they lived happily ever after
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73. Backup
74. Contacts, References and Acknowledgements
BCTIA [email protected] and [email protected]
www.centre4growth.com;http://twitter.com/centre4growth
http://venturehacks.com/pitching
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html#axzz1DWuDlhhM
http://www.startupblender.com/posts/004-your-pitch-sucks
30 seconds to pitch your company, Steve Bayle
http://www.pitchtheangels.com/
http://www.flickr.com/
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