Be a “Pitch Perfect” Virtual Investor Power Presenter

As one VC said, “every sports has its top players who are committed to continuous improvement in their skills, always improving, always practicing.  For a startup the pitch presentation shows the company to always being better now and after funding.”  We can help you be a “pitch perfect” virtual investor power presenter and if you like we can help you with the core content of the presentation as well.  This is a two-part process – 1) the content in the pitch startup presentation and 2) presenting your virtual pitch to investor(s).  We can do one or help do both of these efforts with caveats.*  If you are already satisfied with your content, we can focus on the presentation part. 

Startup Pitch Presentation Content

This is not your business plan. This is a representation of your business plan in a five-minute or shorter (elevator pitch or script for video/podcast) or longer presentation of the plan. I would like to thank Peter Adams of Rockies Venture Club and Pandemic Impact Fund for his thoughts on what should be in your pitch presentation.  Having sat through 200 pitch presentations of my own, these are primarily Peter’s thoughts though I have added a few points from investor winning presentations:

– Exit strategy – talk about who will acquire your company, when, why and for how much. 

– Valuation – talk about why you think your company is worth what you’re asking.  Be clear about your deal terms, e.g. equity vs. convertible debt, and key terms such as valuation caps, preferred stock, etc.  Not the whole term sheet, but the key ideas.

– Go to market strategy –  marketing is the key risk that angel investment is designed to de-risk.  Many companies skim over this, but it is absolutely critical at this point for most pitches.  From previous experience, it will take 3-4 times the time and cost to achieve Product Market Fit vs. what most startups project.  That is, for B2B small business products one-two years to get market presence and for enterprise size of customers generally three-four years. Regarding costs start slow and expect a long slow process.

– Proforma Financials – you should have a five year summary of revenues, expenses and EBITDA.  No more detail that that is needed.  Without this information investors have no idea whether you have thought things through and whether your deal makes sense.

– Your deal – how much you are raising and your use of funds.

– After that, you should, of course, have all the other components – Problem your company solves, your Product/Service, your Customers, Competition, Marketing and channel strategy, Financials, Team, Exit and Deal.

Startup Pitch Virtual Presentation

For the presentation part, there are also two parts – pitch class only or class plus coaching. The class is about 30-60 minutes depending on questions, the fee is $99 per person.**   The coaching part starts with a 30-minute initial session with all the presenters and ideally, all the members of management team to focus on how virtual meeting technologies and the presentation slides enhance, engage, change, alter, and often diminish the way people communicate, conduct, evaluate and take actions from such an event. That is, “if you are boring face-to-face, you will still be boring via video.” And, Peter Adams added, “technology only makes you look worse.”

You also need to understand all too often what you are saying is not what is being heard by the audience. The audience does not know your product, industry, market and other terms, acronyms and techno-babble, you use every day. In other words, you need to realize the challenges of communications as, “communications will always fail, except by chance.” The challenges of traditional face-to-face business meetings are often made worse by virtual meeting technologies.  Insights on how virtual meeting technology can be used to overcome and improve communications challenges will be presented. I will show you vital tips on making your virtual presentation “pitch perfect.” If you prefer, I can rehearse with you until your investor presentation is ready for primetime, debrief afterward and work on subsequent presentations.

Summary – While these efforts are no guarantees you will get funded, we do know what investors are for.  For example, investors especially angel investors and investor groups have “no one size fits all” processes, investment types, goals and more views that anyone can understand such as some only to clean energy, tech, cloud or even vegan only. I can also bring other professional advisors to help should the need arise. Here is another article on this topic What Are Angel Investors Really Looking for in a Startup? However, what I have seen is that if your presentation and the person(s) presentation is boring, confusing, full of techno-babble or worse, you will strike out. Whatever you decide, I wish you good luck as this is an arduous, difficult, stress-filled, hair-pulling experience and much more.

If you want to proceed, please email cross@gocross.com or 303-594-1694 for a short introductory discussion and schedule.  The fees for the content analysis of the presentation and/or for the presentation only part begin with an initial 30-minute consultation for $199.  

*The author and presenter make no warranty of any kind, expressed or implied, with regard to these programs or the documentation contained in this article. The author and presenter shall not be liable in any event for incidental or consequential damages in connection with, or arising out of, the furnishing, performance, or use of these programs. These topics and terms are subject to change without notice.

**Terms prepaid, scheduling limited to high demand, priority to larger groups, nights and weekends are available to larger groups, email cross@gocross.com to schedule.