Presenting
yourself and your company to investors, corporate partners,
customers, and employees is the single most critical doorway
to business success. But do you know how to present your
company in a way that makes it come alive so that people
want to invest in you? Do you captivate people's attention
when you speak?
Many entrepreneurs
want to believe that their technology and big market
opportunity speak for themselves such that the potential
should be obvious to investors. However, YOU are all
that is visible to the investor at that moment. Because
of the way human nature works, when you stand up in front
of the room and start talking, investors will be assessing
you more than the details of the business. How investors
perceive you will heavily influence their decision to
move forward with you to the next stage or to say goodbye.
If you don't inspire investors to want to know more,
you may never get the chance to show off your great technology,
test data, demo, patents, or technical team.
This guide
contains more than 200 creative tips that are guaranteed
to turn your presentation into a more powerful and effective
weapon to help you grow your company. Most of the techniques
apply whether you are talking to a venture capitalist
or an angel investor for the first time or for the third
time. The skills will work at a venture conference with
300 people in the room or when you are talking with corporate
partners about co-development or investment.
These tips
will make you more effective whether you have 3 minutes
to tell your story or you have 3 hours, and whether you
know the audience or you have never met them before.
These tips and insights are based on several hundred
technology start-up presentations, including the author's
own experience in fundraising and corporate partnering.
The guide also reflects the collective experience of
dozens of experts in the field of new venture investing,
including venture capitalists, angel investors, corporations,
entrepreneurs, attorneys, certified public accountants,
and consultants.
Opening Doors with
Your Presentation Skills
How you
present says a lot about the type of entrepreneur and
person you are. Are you loose and confident? Are you
knowledgeable about key business issues as well as technical
ones? Do you appear to be someone who would be easy and
fun to work with for several years? (That's how long
you and your investors will be together.) Are you positive
and energetic? (Such attributes are certainly required
to run a start-up company.) Are you able to think on
your feet and handle tough questions? Investors need
to be confident that you can present under pressure situations
to corporate partners, customers, suppliers, and other
investors.
Keep Your Objective
in Perspective
Keep in
perspective the goal of your pitch when you are presenting
to investors. The goal is not to get a signed check for
$3 million before you walk out of the room. While that
would be nice, it is not going to happen. And you will
not get to tell the investors everything you want to
say. Instead, you need to focus on intriguing the investor
to want to know more. That also means preempting enough
of the risks and uncertainties to avoid making it easy
for investors to say no. And it surely helps if you get
them to like you personally. These three outcomes will
open the door to a second or third meeting where you
can share more about your technology, prototypes, data,
and staff. Later, during the due diligence process (i.e.,
when investors further investigate you, your business,
and your competitors), you will have ample opportunity
to impress them further.
Everyone
has heard: What's in it for me? What investors and corporate
partners really care about is whether they can make money
with you. So you must tell them how that will happen.
Most entrepreneurs spend their presentation time trying
to wow the audience about their technology or how gigantic
the market is (often stated in billions of dollars).
Entrepreneurs might say that they are targeting the $5
billion voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) market, assuming
investors will be satisfied or at least impressed. But
in reality a start-up does not have the resources or
credibility to tackle such a large market. More realistically,
the technology best applies to two segments totaling
$1.2 billion, and it will take the first 18 months just
to sign up one customer. The best investor pitches lay
out a focused business model that quickly establishes
the competitive advantage, provides feedback from actual
customers, and defines realistic distribution channels.
In particular, strong pitches make it straightforward
for others to see that there is money to be made.
Difference Between
Presenting and Telling A Story
Mediocre
presenters drain energy from an audience. In contrast,
storytellers engage and energize a room. You must think
of yourself as "sharing a story with people" rather than "giving
a presentation." A presentation is a one-way lecture
as opposed to an interactive, fun experience that people
will remember. It is also helpful if you view the audience
as people you like and whom you want to help. Unfortunately,
most presenters feel distant from the audience and see
the situation as "them versus us."
Have you
ever told a bedtime story to a child? You spoke in a
way, and even acted it out, such that the child felt
like part of the story. To keep the child's interest
and to make it fun, you wove fact with fantasy and asked
questions. You also expressed a variety of emotions and
varied the volume and inflection of your voice. And you
showed passion and probably even had fun. In storytelling,
you are involved in weaving a story together and enjoying
it. More importantly, so is your child (the listener).
In the same way, your objective in presenting to investors
and other audiences is to engage them so they mentally
and emotionally participate in the story of your business.
If you create intrigue about your technological solution
to a problem that has upside market value, it will draw
people in so that they want to hear more.
Connecting with
Your Audience
So you
have to decide: Is the audience part of your story? Or
are they passive bystanders whom you hope will keep quiet
so you can convince them how great your technology is?
If you choose the bystander approach, don’t expect
people to buy into you or your vision, or want to work
with you.
As with
any story, you must create a sense of intrigue and possibility.
Provide enough credible market and financial information
to support significant upside potential (“fantasy
value”). But there is no need to tell investors
about every aspect of your business. And don’t attempt
to explain away every concern or negative issue. In fact,
it will backfire if you give investors too much information
in an attempt to impress or convince them.
One of
the secrets of connecting with your audience is not to
act like a robot with a pre-programmed script. Although
you will repeat many of the same words and phrases from
one presentation to the next, you should vary when and
how you introduce them. For example, you do not always
have to make point #3 on slide #6 using the same 13 words.
It may be far more effective to raise that point earlier
or later in conjunction with some other slide or when
you pull out a prop or when you get interrupted to answer
a question. If you allow the audience to read your slides
such that they are waiting for you to say point #3 on
slide #6, then you have failed in getting them to pay
attention to “you.” Remember, they are investing
in you, not in your slides!
You do
not need to memorize points for every slide or force
yourself to follow a certain order. Why should you? You
are already an expert at your business. If you practice
a few times before you actually give the pitch, then
everything you need to say will naturally flow out from
you. You will inevitably forget a few points here and
there. If you can slip them in later, then go ahead,
but don’t feel compelled to.
Read your
audience. It will be obvious if they believe you and
are enjoying your story. With a more natural and spontaneous
approach, especially if you let them actively participate,
investors will see you as relaxed and believable. Believability
goes well beyond your knowledge. It includes creating
a sense of trust, confidence, and likeability. The ultimate
storyteller is one who can not only connect with the
audience through their heads (knowledge), but also who
can inspire people through passion, fun, and vision. |
