Demo Day is about Working the Floor
For startups graduating an accelerator program, Demo Day feels like the culmination of months of hard work. Even though everyone knows startups take years, this early crescendo is stressful. It’s made even tougher by your pitch being just a few minutes on stage, amongst many other presentations. The good news is that while a great pitch is essential to fundraising in general, your onstage pitch need only be ok. Demo day is about working the floor.
Take Every Opportunity
Don’t waste a single opportunity to talk to an investor on demo day. During breaks, don’t invest any time checking email, chatting with your friends or people watching?—?instead find investors and talk to them. You won’t get this opportunity again.
You can catch investors hanging around near the check-in desk, by the refreshments and at the cocktail party. This is also a day where all the co-founders talk to investors, not just the primary fundraiser. Given the concentration of investors, you and your cofounders should approach people individually to cast a wide net.
Don’t be Shy
Investors attend demo days to meet startups, by approaching them cold you’re doing them a favor. You have no reason to be shy. Unless an investor is already talking to another startup, or clearly trying to leave, then you can approach them. Keep it simple, introduce yourself and ask if they’ve heard about your company. For example:
“Hi, I’m Ash, pleasure to meet you. Have you heard about AcmeCorp?”
Demo days tend to attract seed investors and at this stage the team is the most important factor. Regardless of how you think your presentation went, face to face conversations are a great opportunity to make a good impression and get an investor interested.
Follow Up Immediately
Whatever time you get done with the party, don’t forget to reach out to all the investors you met that day. As time passes investors are less likely to remember why they liked you. Strike while the iron is hot to increase your chances of a second meeting.
Fundraising is a huge distraction so you want to get meetings on the calendar ASAP. In each of your follow ups, suggest multiple meeting times. If those don’t work, offer to work around their schedule, day or night. Your diligence builds positive impression with the investor and helps build momentum in the round.
Demo day can have a transformational impact on a company but most of that work won’t be done on stage. Talk to everyone you can, and you’ll reap the rewards.
This article originally appeared on Medium