wow the art of the pitch

1.WOW!The Art of The Pitch Adam [email protected]: Tauron32 Centre4Growth

2. My Background1998-20002001-2004 3. Enough about meSo what do you do? 4. 4 Agenda1. Know Your Audience2. Build Substance The 5 Ts3. Package Style The Pitch Pyramid Source: Pennstatelive WOW !!! 5. 5Tune your pitch for your audience Co-founders EmployeesSource: KaffeeTrauma Professionals Partners Customers Investors Media Your mother 6. 6Know Your AudiencePLEASE. Before you prepare a pitch or a presentationor a web site.1.Understand who youre talking to;2.What questions they want answered; and3.What you want to get out of the meeting. 7. People buy in to a Great Story.7Source: Rapid City Public Library 8. 8 Source: Rapid City Public LibraryStorytelling is an Art, not a Science. 9. 9 Source: Rapid City Public LibraryTelling a Great Story: Substance, Style. 10. Substance 11. 11Creating Substance: The 5 T s Trouble Technology Team Traction Treasure 12. 12Creating Substance: The 5T sT rouble What problem are you solving forT echnologyyour customer? How big of a pain is it for them? Whats the cost to switch fromT eamtheir current solution?T ractionT reasure Risk vs. WOW 13. 13Creating Substance: The 5 T sT rouble Whats your secret sauce?T echnology Why do I care? Whats new, original and differentabout your product?T eam First/Best/Only How easy is it for a competitor toreplicate?T raction Know-how or PatentsT reasure Risk vs. WOW 14. 14Creating Substance: The 5T sT roubleT echnology What domain expertise does themanagement team have? Where are the experience andT eamexpertise gaps? Who are the advisors & board ofTdirectors?ractionT reasure Risk vs. WOW 15. 15Creating Substance: The 5T sT rouble How well do you understand yourcustomer? How many customers do youT echnologyhave and whats your growthrate? What do customers say aboutT eamyou/your product? What is your customer acquisitionstrategy and cost to acquireT ractioncustomers? Whats the customerscost/benefit?T reasureRisk vs. WOW 16. 16Creating Substance: The 5T sT rouble How big is the market?T echnology How much money do you need toraise?T eam How fast are you going to get torevenue & profitability?T raction Whats your pricing strategy like?T reasureRisk vs. WOW 17. 17 Investment Return Graph Break Even Q11Revenue 4,000,000 2,000 Customers $1,000 per customer 3,000,000 AlphaBetaRel 1 Revenue Q3 $2M spend Q4 $2.5M spendQ5 $3.5 M spend 2,000,000 Profit 1,000,000 $5M investment-1,000,000-2,000,000 Q1 Q2Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6Q7 Q8Q9 Q10 Q11Q12 18. 18 Investment Return Graph Seed Angel A - RoundRound RoundBreak Even Q11 4,000,000 2,000 Customers Revenue $1,000 per customer 3,000,000 AlphaBetaRel 1 Revenue Q3 $2M spend Q4 $2.5M spendQ5 $3.5 M spend 2,000,000 Profit 1,000,000 $5M investment-1,000,000Friends & FamilyHigh Net WorthVCsfund conceptfund tractionfund growth-2,000,000 Q1Q2 Q3 Q4Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8Q9 Q10 Q11Q12 < $100K< $500K$2M+ < 9 months < 18 months 18M+ months 19. Substance 20. Style 21. 21Putting it all together: A Great Story Concept 3 - 5 wordsStand-up 100 seconds Get a Meeting 100 wordsInvestor 10 slide deck 22. Concept 3 - 5 wordsStand-up 100 seconds Get a Meeting 100 words Investor 10 slide deckThe Concept PitchSay it in 3-5 words 23. 23The Concept PitchNOT your Tagline 24. 24The Concept PitchNOT your Vision or Mission Statement 25. 25The Concept Pitch Simple, memorable descriptionof your business, using analogies to paint a metaphor.Flickr for videoAmazon for rare, collectable, out-of-print books AT&T for the Internet Classified Ads for the InternetEncyclopaedia Britannica for the Internet 26. Concept 3 - 5 wordsStand-up 100 seconds Get a Meeting 100 words Investor 10 slide deckThe Stand Up PitchYour elevator pitch.Cocktail party conversation.The 100 second story. 27. 27 28. 28The Stand Up PitchTell me about your company! Source: n.maccaMake it a short, engaging description of your business. 29. 29What you need to cover: a Trouble a Technology a Team a Traction a Treasure 30. 30Sample Stand Up PitchPetPlay is introducing a line of gourmet canned cat foods with the brand name PetiteCuisine. These products look good, smell great, and taste great because they are peoplefood for cats! You may not want to, but you could eat it!Research shows consumers love the products for their refreshing look and pleasantsmelland cats devour them. Petite Cuisine is 100% nutritionally complete for cats andis made from products you would buy at the meat and fish counter. The line currentlyhas 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 ranone of Nestles international pet food divisions. I know this market well.Orders are in from Ralphs grocery chain with additional distribution commitmentstotalling 500 stores.Capital is being raised in two stages$500,000 in initial launch capital for 500 storesand then a round of expansion capital of $3 to $5 million for 3,000+ stores. Tech Coast Angels, 2007 31. 31 Breaking down the PitchProblemPetPlay is introducing a line of gourmet canned cat T youre solvingfoods with the brand name Petite Cuisine. Theseproducts look good, smell great, and taste great because Catchy conceptthey are people food for cats! You may not want to, butpitchyou could eat it!Research shows consumers love the products for theirrefreshing look and pleasant smelland cats devourUnderstandsthem. industry and consumersPetite Cuisine is 100% nutritionally complete for catsand is made from products you would buy at the meatand fish counter. The line currently has eight items Differentiatedincluding whole tuna, red snapper filets, baby Tproductshrimp, and rock crab. 32. 32 Breaking down the PitchI launched and ran Fancy Feast, the largest competitor in BIG experiencethis space nationally and ran one Tof Nestles international pet food divisions. I know thismarket well.Good tractionOrders are in from Ralphs grocery chain with additionalTdistribution commitments totalling 500 stores.Capital is being raised in two stages$500,000 in initiallaunch capital for 500 stores and then a round ofUnderstands what it willexpansion capital of $3 to $5 million for 3,000+ stores T take 33. Concept 3 - 5 wordsStand-up 100 seconds Get a Meeting 100 words Investor 10 slide deckThe Get a Meeting Pitch 34. 34The 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 35. 35Subject: Introducing Ning to Blue Shirt CapitalHi Nivi, Thanks for offering to introduce us to Blue Shirt Capital. Ive attached a short presentation about our company, Ning. Briefly, Ning lets you create your own social network for anything. For free. In 2 minutes. Its 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). Ive admired Blue Shirts investments from afar. Were starting meetings with investors next week and I would love to show Blue Shirt what were building at Ning.Best,Marc [email protected]: Pitching Hacks, 2009 36. 36Subject: Introducing Ning to Blue Shirt Capital Simple & conciseHi Nivi,email Thanks for offering to introduce us to Blue Shirt Capital. Ive attached a short presentation about our company, Ning. Problem youre Briefly, Ning lets you create your own social network for anything.solving For free. In 2 minutes. Its as easy as starting a blog. Try it at http://ning.com Good metaphor Ning unlocks the great ideas from people all over the world whopitch phrase want to use this amazing medium in their lives. We have over 115,000 user-created networks and our page views Good customer are growing 10% per week. We previously raised $44M from Leggengagement Mason and others, including myself. Before Ning, I started Netscape (acquired by AOL for $4.2B) and Opsware (acquired by HP for $1.6B). Good experience Ive admired Blue Shirts investments from afar. Were starting meetings with investors next week and I would love to show Blue Shirt what were building at Ning.Call to actionBest,Marc [email protected] Pitching Hacks, 2009 37. Concept 3 - 5 wordsStand-up 100 seconds Get a Meeting 100 words Investor 10 slide deckThe Investor Pitch 38. 38The Investor Pitch NOT a description NOT a business plan in PowerPoint NOT about explaining, its about SELLINGAn illustratedstory about theopportunity. 39. 39 Guy Kawasakis 10/20/30 Rule10 20 30Slides MinutesPoint FontTarget: 3 bullets, 20 words per slide. Lots of graphics. 40. 40Clean, Simple, Visual, Powerful, Memorable 41. 41The sequence of slides tells a story:We have a mission and a team that is taking us there. Why?We discovered this large problem and solved it with aproduct that has this amazing technology inside. Weregoing to market and sell it to these customers, with theseadvantages that competitors simply cannot match. Inparticular, were working towards these milestones over thenext few quarters. In conclusion, this financing is a greatinvestment opportunity. 42. 42Contents of an Investor Pitch 1. Problem 2. Your solution 3. Business model 4. Underlying magic/technology 5. Marketing and sales 6. Competition 7. Team 8. Status and timeline 9. Projections and milestones 10. Summary and call to action 43. 43The Problem Describe the customer,market, and problemyou address, withoutgetting into yourproduct. Current state andseriousness of theproblem. E.g. How you came upwith the idea. 44. 44Solution Introduce your productand its benefits anddescribe how itaddresses the problemyou just described. Include a demo such as ascreencast, a link toworking software, orpictures. Make it visual. Make itreal for your audience. 45. 45 Business Model Explain how you are goingto make money. If you have sales, describethe value to customers. Describe the economics thatturn the business into $Xkajillion per year. Use microeconomics (eachuser is worth $1/year)rather thanmacroeconomics (i.e. if wecan get 1% of a $10Bmarket). 46. 46 Underlying Magic or Technology Describe the technologybehind your solution. Focus on how thetechnology enables thedifferentiated aspects ofyour solution. If applicable, mentionpatent status. 47. 47Marketing and Sales Who are the customers?How big is the market? You summarized this inyour Problem slide andthis is your opportunityto elaborate. How are you going toacquire customers? What customers haveyou already acquired? 48. 48Competition Describe why customersuse your product insteadof the competitions. Describe any competitiveadvantages that remainafter the competitiondecides to copy Never deny that you havecompetitors its okayto compete. Againstanyone. 49. 49Team Highlight the pastaccomplishments of theteam. Include directors oradvisors who bringsomething special tothe company. Dont include positionsyou intend to fill save that for themilestones slide. 50. 50Status and Timeline Looking back, whathave you done so far. Dates, amounts, andsources of moneyraised. Include hires,customers, revenues,technical milestones. 51. 51 Projections and Milestones A timeline chart thatoverlays significantmilestone dates -funding, productdevelopment, customer delivery, markets andrevenue, expenseprofit/loss projections. 52. 52 Summary Summarize the key,compelling facts of thecompany. Make sureyou cover all the topicsthat are in yourelevator pitch. Finish with a call toaction. Include your completecontact information. 53. 53ConceptThe Art of the Pitch Stand-upGet a Meeting TechnologyInvestor Treasure Traction SUBSTAN STYLETeamCETrouble AUDIENCE WhoThey You $ WOW! $ 54. 54Storytelling is an ongoing process of continuous improvementApply Critique Test 55. 55YOUR HOMEWORK Email me your concept and stand-up pitches. (Oct 28) [email protected] Prepare your Investor Pitch. 1 hour, one-on-one pitch coaching. [email protected] 56. 56The End Source: Rapid City Public LibraryAnd they lived happily ever after 57. Backup 58. 58Contacts, References andAcknowledgements 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/ 59. Why Dont VCs Believea Word You Say? Whats wrong with a business plan? Hypothesis are untested Execution Oriented Assumes hypothesis are facts Static No change upon contact with customer and marketCustomer 59 60. What Are Early StageInvestors Really Asking? Are you going to: Blow my initial investment? Or are you going to make me a ton of money? Are there customers? How many? Now? Later? Is there a profitable business model? Can it scale?Customer 60 61. Lessons Learned Drives FundingBusiness Test LessonsConcept Plan Hypotheses Series ALearnedDo this first instead of fund raisingCustomer 61 62. Credibility Increases Valuation Customer Development and the Business Plan Extract the hypotheses from the plan Leave the building to test the hypothesis Present the results as: Lessons Learned from our customers Iterate PlanCustomer 62 63. The Customer DevelopmentPresentation Answer the implicit questions about the viabilityof the business Tell the Discovery & Validation story Lessons Learned & Our Customers ToldUs Graph some important upward trendCustomer 63