The Power of You

Your Slide Deck is Not Your Pitch

When you ask most entrepreneurs about their pitch, the first thing they think about is their slide deck. Most entrepreneurs spend ten times more effort on their slides than they do on their pitch. They grab a template, they focus on filling in text and graphics and charts and tables, and then they spend hours fiddling with the formatting, with the goal of crafting the perfect pitch.?

But your pitch is not your slide deck.?

Your pitch is the impact you create and leave behind.?

While slides can convey information and leave an impression, the most important impression you need to create is that you are the right person and and you have the right team to execute the vision you paint in your pitch.?

Yes, in this case, it really is all about you.? And your team. ??

The Power of You

This was illustrated to me vividly at a recent pitch competition. I was overseas as a judge for a program hosting fifty startups that were competing for innovation grant funding. The companies were selected from a pool of over 250 applications, so the screen was already pretty tight.?

The entrepreneurs were all well coached.?They covered the key topics.?Sometimes they read their slides.?Sometimes they would make the transition from slide to slide saying, “And as this slide shows ….”? Sometimes there would be a glitch.?An animation wouldn’t work, or a video wouldn’t show, or the sound wouldn’t play, or the fonts and colors would get messed up.?Most entrepreneurs would stumble through it; a few asked permission to start all over again.?Many of them didn’t manage their time very well, and had to talk at double-speed toward the end to try to get everything in before the time limit.? ??

And then Tiki got up to pitch.?After her title slide, the computer and projector system froze.?We were about to feel sorry for her and give her permission to start over. But she looked at us judges, didn’t bat an eye, and just continued to talk with us about her startup.?

It was like a friend telling you a story about a wonderful experience or a discovery.?Tiki told us about the company that she and her co-founders had recently launched to meet an unmet need in children’s education.?She shared her delight at the reception her company was receiving from parents and children, and she painted a picture for us so we could understand how this company could scale, become profitable, and make a difference for millions of children.?

Her pitch did not sound memorized or rote.?It was natural and fluid and authentic.?When she finished, we literally stood and applauded. I’ve never seen a pitch competition panel of judges stand and applaud like that.?

We then grilled her for several minutes with questions. Every entrepreneur’s nightmare:? The Inquisition.?But with Tiki, it was a conversation.?She was comfortable, direct, and articulate.? Never defensive or lacking in confidence.?

Wow.?That was a pitch.?We will never forget Tiki.?Needless to say, her company got the grant money.

A Master Class in Pitching

In that one pitch, Tiki demonstrated so many important rules of pitching:

-?????? You really need to know your sh*t.? You should never depend on your slides to tell your story well.

-?????? Investors want to know that you are resilient.?When you hit a bump in the road, you are not flustered; you keep going.?

-?????? If you have slides, they should simply be supporting what you are saying.?They should not be distracting from what you are saying by incorporating text and data that is beyond what you are saying.?

-?????? Investors want to know that you are authentic.?Anybody can craft a business plan and read slides, but when you speak without slides, we can tell if it is really coming from within, if you believe in this deeply, if you have true confidence.?

-?????? Most pitches win or lose during the Q&A. The way you respond to questions says volumes about your preparedness and about your authentic character.?

I tell entrepreneurs that they need to craft their pitch before they craft their slides. Imagine explaining your company to a smart friend of yours who asks good questions. How would you tell your story??

You would make sure that you clearly explain exactly what your company does so that your friend could understand it.?You would paint a picture of how your company’s offering delights your target customers.?You would explain your traction, your competition, your business model, your challenges, and so on.??

As you tell your story, you will be watching your friend’s reactions, and you will anticipate your friend’s questions.?You will pre-empt the most obvious questions – you know you need to do that to keep your friend on the same track as you.?And then you would ask your friend for feedback, and you would process and respond to that feedback with honesty and confidence.

All too often, slides are a crutch for entrepreneurs, and they can create a wall between the entrepreneur and the investor.?Tear down that wall, and make sure you make a direct connection.?

You are the most important part of the impact you create and leave behind.?

[More lessons on pitching in "Getting to Wow! Silicon Valley Pitch Secrets for Entrepreneurs." At an Amazon.com near you.]