How Your Company Can Succeed in Evolving Energy’s Pitch Competition

The 2022 Evolving Energy Conference included a pitch competition that Apis Creative was built to support. This year’s conference has already happened, so we’re providing a few expert tips on how you can give the perfect pitch at their 2023 iteration. ??

Hosted by West Virginia University’s TransTech Energy program, Evolving Energy brings together energy experts from academic institutions, federal agencies, and their corporate partners for two full days. This year, the tech transfer theme inspired panel discussions about the need for new technologies that support a broader energy portfolio.

Given current pressures on energy supply chains, debates over the efficacy of fossil fuels, and historically high energy costs, the conference could not be more topical, which is why it attracted representatives from the White House and technology transfer experts from Allegheny Science & Technology, Catalyst Connection, the U.S. Department of Energy, CONSOL Energy, Westinghouse, and Tarolli.

While attending this conference, Apis Creative founder Bethany Hornbeck, commented, “The networking sessions and panel discussions were highly informative, but the core event of this conference was the pitch competition. Having a panel of judges review the pitches adds real value for tech innovators.”

At this year’s Evolving Energy Conference, ten teams from the Appalachian region presented transitional energy technologies to a panel of energy stakeholders who judged their investor pitches. Judging from the innovation of their solutions, these businesses may well evolve into tomorrow’s energy tech leaders.

Perfecting Your Pitch

The best presenters this year’s conference understood what their potential investors seek. They weren’t being judged for “which of these companies will be the most profitable,” but “which technologies can help solve our energy challenges.”

If your company plans to compete in the 2023 Evolving Energy pitch competition, we can help make sure you get the most out of this experience.?The truth is that the best investor pitches share a few common denominators. They tell a clear, compelling story that excites investors. They show how the tech fits into the overall market, and they prove that they are a better investment option than competitors. Because Apis Creative understands how to tell a good energy technology story, here are a few tips to help tell yours.

1: What unique benefits will your technology provide?

Begin by emphasizing the value proposition of your tech by making sure your audience understands how this innovation will impact the energy sector. ?This should be done in concise, high-level language that leaves no one wondering what you propose.

2: Clarify your target, explain your innovation, and indicate the length of your development lifecycle.

Do you have a launch date? What is your funding/revenue status? Do you have any key partners? Are you already the benefitting energy sector?

Answer these questions and by the time you are finished, everyone in the room will understand which energy challenges your innovation addresses, and how close you are to addressing them.?

Partner relationships build your brand by adding to its credibility, but if you don’t have any partners or funding yet, that’s okay. This is an investment pitch, and if yours is effective, you may leave with both.

3: Challenge, meet innovative.

Define the energy sector challenge your tech solves, which opportunities it exploits, and which relevant issues might impact its success. Then, clarify the size and scope of the opportunity.

Depending on how well-known your cited challenge is, you may not need much detail, but you must present your innovation within the framework of a challenge. For example, if your product scrubs power plant emissions, you don’t need to explain every detail about the dangers of airborne pollutants, but a few curated facts could help position your solution as worthy of investment.?

4: Unveil the details of your solution.

Explain your tech in concrete, concise terms. Then explain how it solves the challenge you’ve identified. If your explanation includes giving a demonstration or simulation, do so, but keep it brief.

Explain how your tech innovation fits into the energy market. Are you a disrupter or do you boost the existing technology? Does your innovation augment technologies or replace them? Do you make energy usage cleaner, cheaper, or more widely available?

5: Who benefits?

Clearly quantify the benefits your innovation provides, including who realizes these benefits. Quantify a use case so the audience understands the utility of your innovation. For example, it’s impressive to build a more energy efficient home furnace, but it’s even more impressive if that furnace is 3x times more efficient than any home furnace on the market.???

6: What makes it innovative?

Show investors that your innovation is unique. If you are developing a patentable technology, explain why it’s worthy of a patent. Similarly, explain how your tech is proprietary, that your team has unique expertise, or that you are part of a unique partnership. You don’t need extensive detail. Just summarize the key points.

This also a good place to contrast your innovation against competitors. ?

7: Explain Your Tech Transfer Strategy.

The Evolving Energy conference is focused on technology transfer, which makes this explanation a critical aspect of your pitch. Describe your target customers/partners in terms of how your technology can be transferred to the energy market.

Because your technology is new, focus on what makes it innovative, especially unique elements that make it a market changer.

Are you facing barriers to market? Explain how you can successfully overcome these barriers, especially in terms of the role investors can play in that success. ?

8: Define your business model.

Any good solutions provider must be sustainable, so explain what it will take for your company to be profitable. This can include how your pricing structure, financial projections, key metrics that drive your revenue, and how you will adapt to market changes (e.g., fluctuating costs, value chain barriers, etc.). Although you can generalize, it’s important that your financial projections are coherent and logical.

Part of your business model is having a competent team, so define their most significant accomplishments. In concise terms, define why your technical leadership can execute your tech goals. Having a competent core can help convince investors that you are able to attract top talent, both now and in the future.

9: Explain why you seek investors/partners.

Explain how much you need from potential investors/partners to accomplish your innovation. If possible, map how that funding will impact your project lifecycle milestones. Will it mean building that prototype, completing a testbed, or getting to market sooner? ?

Build on your key achievements and tie these to the metrics in your financial projections by explaining how investments can advance your entry into the energy market. In short, summarize which milestones you will accomplish with the assistance you receive. ???

10: Summarize

Many presenters gloss over their summary, but Apis Creative recommends treating your final words as the only ones you had time to present. Emphasize the core value proposition of your solution in the context of your brand. For example, at Apis Creative, we emphasize that we are a “Listen First Communications Firm,” that helps companies communicate to their target audience. Then we invite potential clients to begin a conversation with us.

In the energy sector, the coal industry has adopted the tagline, “Coal keeps the lights on.” This kind of tagging not only reinforces a brand, it summarizes the essence of your solution.

?Final tips

Magic may happen during your presentation, but only if you prepare.

How do you keep an audience’s attention? Stick to your allotted time by practicing your presentation until you have it down. If you rely on a presentation deck, remember that the average listener will only stick pay attention for ten slides. While this is not an exact rule, doubling or tripling this number is seldom a good idea.

Apis Creative also recommend keeping your text short, your fonts large, and when possible, defaulting to using illustrations, rather than cluttering your slides with text. Do this, and the judges will hear what you have to say, rather than stopping to read the text on your slides.

Your pitch preparation should also include practicing the question-and-answer format. It may be that an investor determines whether you are a fit for their portfolio based on how you respond to questions. You can prepare for this by practicing clear, concise answers to anticipated questions.?Since you already know your project so well, this is good time to bring in a company like Apis Creative. Our extensive experience communicating in the energy sector means we can anticipate many of the questions you are likely to hear from energy stakeholders. ???

Of course, if your presentation has major issues like running well-over your allotted time, you may need help polishing your pitch. That’s not unusual. After all the work your talented team put into building an innovative technology, it’s understandable if you haven’t found the time to also work on your pitch.

That’s where we come in. Apis Creative knows that crafting the perfect pitch takes time that not every presenter has to give. That’s why we offer tailored levels of communication support that fit every company’s budget. We’re not just flexible and affordable, but our staff has decades of experience communication on behalf of some of the world’s leading energy tech innovators.

If you’d like some help crafting your own perfect pitch, contact us today by emailing [email protected] or calling Apis Creative President Bethany Hornbeck at (844) 234-2899.