Pitching

In my old life as an investment banker when we were putting together a presentation for a client (or “the pitch book” or “the book”) the most important things were that there be no mistakes, formatting was immaculate and that it was big. The bigger the better and the smarter we appeared to the client, or that was the thinking.

While my work experience will definitely help me in putting together a pitch, I’ve begun looking for tips to fine tune my approach when pitching to VCs and other investors. Here are a few articles I’ve found:

1. “Art of the business pitch” by Mary Crane
Main take aways:
– A good pitch is a short pitch but don’t skimp on industry analysis
– Think of pitches in different stages, ie. the 30 second, 5 minute and hour long pitch
– Remember the details: Make sure your contact information is easy to find and don’t name the file something generic
– Video example of 30 second pitch

2. “The Top 5 Points A Venture Capitalist Wants To Hear” and “Top 5 Tips to Sell Yourself to Investors“
Main take aways:
– Both articles seem to based on the same info session given my Angel fund Infusion Angels
– The pitch should cover the following: Exit strategy, entry barriers, revenue model, capital allocation and competition
– “The general rule presented was that angel investors don’t require revenue to be present, but venture capitalists usually do”

3. “Art of the business pitch” by Josh Kopelman
Main take aways:
– Alot of pitches aren’t aligned to how a VC would analyze a company
– Three types of startups: 1) New market or space 2) Existing market with players succeeding 3) Existing market with players failing
– All pitches are different and understanding which type you are will help you articulate your business

4. Glengary Glen Ross sales pep talk

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This entry was posted on Saturday, May 19th, 2007 at 9:27 pm and is filed under Startup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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