The Strategy On Making A Pitch

I attend many startup pitch events, about three a week. I also get to play judge at some of these pitch events, and I know many of the judges, so I get to hear what judges think of the pitches when we huddle up afterwards to determine the best pitches. On LinkedIn, YouTube, Udemy, et al., there are a plethora of advice on how to give pitches. I don't claim to have the best one, and there isn't one magic pitch trick that will work. What I propose here are strategies to help you communicate your ideas and information more effectively to the listener. You may have the best or the shittiest idea in the world, but at least you managed to convey it to the listener.

While investors and judges all have different preferences for what they want to hear, there is a general guideline or pattern for how they want to hear it. Knowing that will help you communicate your startup more effectively. I want to thank Bill Reichert of Garage Ventures for this insight, and to communications coach Josephine Bellaccomo for the general strategy. The advice I offer here applies to the one, two, three and five minute pitch opportunities, with or without an accompanying slide deck. Longer presentations are a whole different beast altogether.

Bill’s insight is that investors have three categories to evaluate a pitch. They are the head, the heart and the gut. Josephine offers the strategy: tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, and the tell them what you told them. The problem is how to compress all that into one, two, three or five minutes, with or without a slide deck.

So here’s the pitch structure with strategies within.

Impress the head

You start off first with explaining who your customers are, and what unique value proposition you’re offering them. So the general structure should resemble, “We <provide | offer | help | give> <market segment> <the benefits>. Our unique way is because we’re <cheaper | faster | more secure | less complicated….>.”

Then, explain how you make money doing so: “We charge a <subscription fee | base price of…> for our <product | service>." Make sure you explain how it’s BIG!!! Investors want to join you because you’re the horse and jockey that will make bucks for them. Give them market size, price per unit sold and they can do the math. You're allowed to have rosy projections here. Just don't go overboard. Have passion in your voice. Please, don't drone.

Here's an example to impress the head.

Our easy-to-use site enables teenagers to look their best by letting them try on various clothes on an animated image of themselves. It’s 3D so they can see themselves from any angle or perspective. We charge a monthly membership fee to use, and we also get a revenue share for every item sold.

That should run no more than 30 seconds. You fill the brain category here by explaining what your business is. It’s quick, succinct and clear. Often, presenters meander through some story or history or problem statement and then get to the business solution. It's difficult listening to the whole thing because it's not always clear when the pitch segues from the problem to the solution. Get rid of the problem part. Just state the solution, and the problem you're solving will reveal itself.

Now, take a one to two second pause to create a break in the train of thought.

Impress the gut

In this section, you explain that you’re serious, you’ve got traction, you’ve done your homework, you have a quality team and all the things that calms a nervous stomach. It’s important to not talk with a monotone voice, spewing out a constant stream of words. You need to highlight each item. To block off each item, employ the question frame.

What is the question frame? The question frame is the verbal equivalent of providing bullet points. Your begin by asking the question that is on the mind of the listener. Typical questions in their heads – once you’ve completed your impress the head section – include:

• Are you in prototype or production stage?
• Do you have market traction?
• Why are you capable of pulling this off?
• Is there a big demand for this?
• How does that technology work?

The question frame method is to ask the question, then answer it. For example, listeners are curious about the market. So you ask the question, “Is there even a market for this?” Then answer it, lumping in market segment, market size, traction, revenue generated, whatever is relevant. Then end this block by asking, “Everybody got this? Does it make sense?” You’re not looking for a confirmation answer, although that’s nice. The reason for the question is that signals to the listener that you’re done providing information for that block. Again, add a one to two second breather. The breather is like going to a new paragraph.

If you're doing a one-minute pitch, you can't go through the whole litany of questions. You don't have time. You might be able to address just one concern. This is where you do your homework (and rely on your and other people's experience) to know which concern you should address. Make sure you get feedback afterwards so you can refine your pitch. You may think that market size is the big concern, but the feedback you get is that they're not sure you can pull off the technical stuff. Next time, address that.

While this section takes the bulk of the pitch, you're guaranteed that you can't cover everything. That's actually good. Flip this on its head so that you address all those other concerns, especially the intricate issues, by telling them that you're happy to meet with them later to address them. Perhaps a later date, at their office, with their colleagues...

By the way, the question frame and the breathers are equivalent to moving to the next slide. If you have a slide deck, moving to the next slide reframes where you are. This speeds things up because you don’t have to pause or cue with the question frame. They’re already in the deck and triggered when clicking on a slide.

If you have the time, the Ask is included here: “We’re looking for a million dollars to push us to the next level.” Ok, I’ll just give you the inside scoop here. Your Ask, if it is for money, is because you need to bring your company to the next level. Never say that the investment is to get things going. “Fuck you,” is the response. You’re entrepreneurs; it's up to you figure how to light the fire: mortgage your home, sell all your belongings, whore yourself out, do whatever it takes to get the fire lit. Investors want to come in, throw gasoline onto your lit fire to turn it into an inferno. But helping you light the fire? C’mon, get real.

Impressing the heart

In a one-minute pitch, you can’t do this step. You only have time to explain your business and then offer some confirming data. But for any pitch that lasts longer than one minute, reserve the last 30 to 45 seconds for this step of impressing the heart.

Startups do some funky stuff. Some do rather mundane, boring stuff. The question in the minds of the investor or judge is, “Why are you doing this?” It’s partly a gut question, but the answer is a heart answer. This last 30-45 seconds is where you tell your story of why and how you got into this idea. And you have to tell it with authenticity and so inspiring that the investor wants to run away with you and help you succeed. While the content must be authentic to satisfy the gut, it has to be voiced with passion so that the investor will fall in love with you.

Wrapping up

When you’re done, you should have another 10 seconds left. Note that this means you may have to cut, cut, cut, from your pitch to give you this room. The wrap up is the summary. This is the stage where you tell them what you told them. You make the quick summary: market segment, unique value prop, revenue stream, key people and state of company. It should sound like this:

“Ok, so, we help <market segment> by providing this <unique value proposition>. We make money by <revenue stream>. Our team of crack <key people> has already brought the company to <the state of the company>.”

If you can’t honestly fill these blanks, you’re not ready to pitch to investors.

I can’t guarantee that you’ll get an investment or even a second hearing. But at the very least, you will have investors thanking you for a coherent and clear message. Please try this out and tell me your results. I’d like to hear from you.