Why storytelling is the best way to present your project? How to get a Silicon Valley investor interested and what is it that they don’t want to hear? Why are your slides the last that you should be concerned with before you pitch? What are the secrets of a perfect Pitch Deck? All of this and more we were discussing during a closed meeting of Alfredo Coppola, co-CEO Silicon Valley based US Market Access Center accelerator (provides fast and successful access to the US market through Silicon Valley since 1995) with alumni startups of Center for Entrepreneurship of UCU.
- There are 3 types of presentations: 20-30 seconds (Elevator Pitch), 2-4 minute (Pitch at Pitch Event), 20-40 minutes (VC or angel meeting). All these steps are your way to get the listener to want to know more. First 15 seconds – your time to attract attention from the audience.
- Know your audience. Cultural background, is your audience mostly technical or business? What is their job history or investment history? After that, you will be able to prepare better.
- What does your audience want to hear? Your customers want to know: what is your value proposition for your customer and competitive advantage? Is your technology proven and scalable? Traction and references. For investors would be better to hear from you about your team, market size/dynamics, finance & economics (how do you make money and can you make a 10x-20x return?).
- Investors, customers or partners do not want to hear about: your wonderful technology, your amazing brain (and how many PhDs you have), your beautiful screen and elegant code, and anything else that basically is saying “Look at this incredibly cool thing I have made!”.
- Great presentations tell a story. Great presenters have a conversation with the audience. You are not “talking at them…”, you are “talking with them”. Imagine you are in a coffee shop and you meet an old friend and he wants to know what you are doing. Imagine the questions he might ask and how you might answer. This is the best way to prepare for event pitch and it helps you to avoid a formal tone of voice.
- Slides only support your presentation. Try to use 30 points font size, very high contrast. Get the content and flow right, then worry about design, because this is not a design competition. Remember: this is only your 3 minutes and your rules, good luck ?