Pitching the Perfect Game

Wowing Angels and VCs

Bryan Rutberg | 3C Communications

with Early Growth Financial Services

Webinar | June 23, 2015

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Who are you?

Startup? Small established?

Seeking acquisition?

Established / Acquirer?

Startup?

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Lifelong communicator and relationship-builder

20 years in big business

Regular public speaker

Communications consultant and speaking coach

Principal, 3C Communications

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What we’ll discuss today

Pitching your company vs. pitchingyour product or service

Building your pitch deck

Owning the room

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Pitching product vs. company

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Building your pitch deck

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“Life involves functioning with uncertainty, but we usually don’t embrace it.”

Ari Kiev, Trading to Win

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Three types of risk

Market Product Execution

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Building your pitch deck1. Cover: Your big idea

2. Summary: Highlights of the opportunity

3. Problem: What’s the problem, for whom, and why

4. Solution: What you do and its benefits

5. Product: Your product and how it works

6. Business Model: How you make money

7. Market Opportunity: Market size and winnable share

8. Competition: Who are they and why are you better

9. Growth: Customer acquisition and retention, profitability

10. Traction: Proof they’ll buy and what they’ll pay

11. Financials: 3-5 years projections

12. Team: Who, why, and what they have done before

13. Funding: Your ask and what you’ll do with it

14. Summary: Review highlights

1. Logo/Mission/Positioning Line/Founders

2. Problem We Solve

3. Solution

4. Market size

5. Product/technology architecture

6. IP/Defensibility/Scalability chart

7. Go to market/distribution

8. Competitor matrix

9. Revenue projections

10. Advisors

11. Use of funds

12. Exit strategy

Sources: http://pitchdeckcoach.com/pitch-deck and http://earlygrowthfinancialservices.com/startup-pitch-decks-will-get-funded/

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The voice of an angel

• Clear and real problem statement

• Clear market sizing• Clear customer profile/persona.

Start with an amalgam, but quickly get to actual customer quotes and profiles as quickly as possible

• Clear on your competitors and your points of differentiation

John Sechrest, Seattle Angel Conference etc.

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The voice of an angel

• How big will you get and why? • Evidence the market cares?• Evidence the team can execute?• Angels don’t invest in development; they invest in

scale. • Prove you can win your first market, then tell me

what’s second, third, and fourth.• Watch out for Reg D 506b (link)

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Owning the room

Every timeTell me a story

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Every time

Draw me a picture

Tell me a story

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Every time

Draw me a picture

Tell me a story

Tell me what you

want

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The grand opening“You can be a millionaire…and never pay taxes. You…can have one million dollars and never pay taxes.

“You may ask me, ‘Steve, how can I have one million dollars and never pay taxes?’”

-- 1970’s Steve Martin bit

(click to play)

Can you resist listening for what’s next?

Prepare your body

• Hands out of pockets• Stand up straight – shoulders back,

chest forward• “Willing hands” at chest level• Point• Hands spread wide• Spiral staircase – how high?• Umbrella – how wet?

• Eyes – where is the audience? Who are you talking to?

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[YOUR NAME HERE], YOU ROCK!

Tell yourself you’re going to be great

“Be that person” – do it in the third person

August 7, 2014 ♦ Jessica Love

Participants were told that they faced a nerve-wracking task: to impress a member of the opposite sex, in one study, or to give a speech.

Some participants were assigned to [prepare] by speaking to themselves in the first person; the rest were instructed to address themselves using their own first name, as well as non-first-person pronouns like she, he, or you.

According to reviewers, those who’d avoided I and me in their pep talks appeared less nervous, and did a better job on the task at hand. Speaking to ourselves as though we are someone else, it seems, lets us distance ourselves from an overwhelmingly stressful experience.

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Make it memorable

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Big bold graphics

Make it memorable

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Graphs that work

Big bold graphics

Make it memorable

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Involve and

Engage

Big bold graphics

Graphs that work

Own a big roomGo big or go home

“At the Jan. 20, 2009, inauguration of President Obama, Aretha Franklin's hat nearly stole the show.”22

Own a big room

Keep it moving

Go big or go home

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Own a big room

Keep it moving

Go big or go home

1, 2, 3,Eyes on

me

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Chair the boardroomConversation

not presentation

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Chair the boardroom

Welcome to Math Camp

Conversation not

presentation

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Chair the boardroom

Welcome to Math Camp

Conversation not

presentation

“How might we?”

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Additional tips

Pitch competition Small room presentation

Key takeaways

Q&A in a pitch competition –• Look at

questioner for 10 seconds then present as normal

• Repeat the question for audience; give you thinking time

• Remember your key points and pivot to them during answers

For smaller audiences – • Could have 2

versions of deck – one with notes for pre-read or leave-behind

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On EGFS site alone…

• 5 Ways to Convey Your Passion to Potential Investors

• How Do Angel Investors Make Decisions?• Lessons From A Startup Pitch Competition• VC Fundraising: Real Advice From A Real VC• 6 Ways To Increase Your Odds of Landing Venture

Capital• Five Startup Pitch Deck Mistakes To Avoid• Startup Fundraising: What Investors Want to See• Startup Pitch Decks That Will Get You Funded

Please connect

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+1 (206) 251-6911

Follow me on Twitterhttp://twitter.com/3CComms

bryan@3CComms.com

Connect with me on LinkedInhttp://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanrutberg