Join Startup Monthly as teams practice and learn how to create great pitches to investors for their Demo Day on Jan 22nd. You too can sign up your team to participate.
The rehearsal workshop would focus on how to design, script, and deliver more memorable presentations, and how to best showcase your product when pitching your product to VCs and angel investors.
Here is the link to the event registration page: http://pitchworkshop1812012.eventbrite.com/
I am always on the lookout for resources on the Web that can save me time and money. Several years ago, I used a crowdsourcing Web site to get designers to help me with a new logo and Web site. It was amazing to see how people from around the world would participate in a contest where they had to submit their design and wait and hope to be picked as the “only” winner. I don’t recall how many designs we had turned in, but that’s not the point to this post. I just wanted to introduce the concept of crowdsourcing for graphic design, in case you had not heard about it before.
I always enjoy the chance to under-promise and over-deliver for my clients. Whenever I do this, I make sure that what I do promise is reasonable, acceptable, and most importantly, achievable! So, several weeks ago I met a new client who was having their logo created by a designer and they were promised 3 individual designs. I asked the CEO if he would be interested in getting more designs from more designers. What I actually said was, “If I could provide you with 10 designs from 10 individual designers in 7 days, would that be worth $1,000 to you?” To which he replied, “Where do I send the check?”
Here are the results of their logo contest:
For some reason, this contest went over-the-top crazy. In the past, usually people submitted designs around the third day or so. This contest had 65 designs submitted on the first day from 24 designers. I don’t believe it was only the prize money that encouraged 325 designers to submit 1,279 designs. I couldn’t believe it when the contest was actually over. It was chaotic and thrilling at the same time.
Was this a good thing? Over-delivering by 1,200% was really fun for me. I know Twyngo certainly thought so! The only downside to over-delivering on this project was that it took them hours and hours to review all of the designs. Eventually, they narrowed the lot down to 16 choices before asking friends, family and others what they thought. Ultimately, they kept going back to one of the two most favored designs. And, now they have a new logo that they are all thrilled with and they have full ownership rights to the logo artwork.
If you have any graphic design needs such as logos, Web sites, banner ads, etc., 99Designs can be your ticket to worry free design while saving tons of cash for other needs.
I am often asked if the 2-minute investor pitch is something you should prepare for or just wing it? People always tell me that 2 minutes is too little time to really convey what you do, especially when dealing with a potential investor.
My response to this is always the same because PlugandPlayTechCenter is an example where 30 companies were each given exactly 2 minutes to pitch their company to an audience of about 400 people, many of which were investors. When the clock hit zero, the presenter was escorted off the stage. This event takes place every quarter during the year and it’s only one example of an organization that gives the presenter under 2 minutes to present their opportunity.
Take a look at the three companies that were selected as the top presenters at the PlugandPlayTechCenter International Expo. Two to the three top winners used The Demo Coach model for How To Pitch To Investors In Under 2-Minutes.
In summary, here’s what I coached TapMap and Super Compare to do well before the event:
1-Clearly write out your 2-minute pitch word for word, including the closing remarks and the ask. In the opening remarks, be sure an say or do something that will hook or grab your audience so they will want to really listen to you.
2-Fine tune the script and try it out on some real people including your PR firm, if you have one. Continue to fine tune.
3-Memorize it word for word. It’s one of the only ways you will get it out in under 2 minutes. Trust me. Give yourself 10-15 minutes of rehearsal per day and you’ll have it down in 5-10 days. It should take the average person about 2-3 hours to memorize a 2 minute pitch not including the rehearsals where you fine tune the “how” the 2 minutes is delivered. It’s not about the words alone. It’s more about how you deliver those words to the audience.
4-Rehearse the memorized 2 minutes until it becomes second nature and you have put the passion and enthusiasm behind the words. Don’t just try and blast out as many words as possible. Make every word count and be sure to emphasize words and phrases that you want people to really hang onto.
When you reach the point where your 2-minute pitch is coming from the head and the heart, you are ready to sign up for an opportunity to give your 2-minute investor pitch.
Good luck. Break a leg, as we say in show business. And, remember that investors are people just like you and me. They want to do business with people they respect and like. Be sure and remember that the 2-minute pitch is really just the first step to getting to know your potential investor. It just opens the door, if done well.
This evening, I was searching around for some pictures and fell onto Tim Donnelly’s New Rules of Writing a Memorable Slogan. I found his insights into writing taglines excellent and wanted to pass it on to you because it just may help you in your business.
Here’s how it starts out:
By Tim Donnelly | @timdonnelly | Jan 31, 2011
Want to come up with the next “Got milk?” We’ve asked industry pros for their most creative tips for creating a sticky, meaningful tagline.
You could spend hours locked in a room with a team of writers trying to come up with a catchy slogan for your business and still not strike gold. But the folks who are the tops in the field say inspiration often comes in strange places – and often when you least expect it. Sticking to the conventional wisdom about things like length doesn’t always work either: Geico’s “15 minutes” tagline looks clunky and long at first glance, but the phrase worked. It got stuck in the national psyche, and before long Conan O’Brien and other TV personalities were repeating it on the air.
Here is the rest of his great insights: http://budurl.com/TimDonnelly
Everyone has heard of Steve Jobs and what a great presenter he is. Carmine Gallo authored a book named, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and I was fortunate to be in the audience when he presented to the Stanford Graduate School of Business last week. Gallo is a really great presenter himself, which means he must take his own advice! In his talk, Gallo demonstrates how extraordinary leaders such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and others communicate the vision and the value behind their service, product, or brand. Here is the presentation in full:
If you are one of the fortunate demonstrators headed to the desert in 2 weeks, it is going to be an amazing show with incredible opportunities to meet new people and network with old friends. This conference is poised to, once again, be one of the best places to announce your new product, service, and/or company!
With literally 2 weeks to the day when you will have a full dress rehearse of your demo in Palm Desert, this is the time to concentrate on rehearsing your demo over and over until it becomes natural and you can deliver it without looking at your notes. The best demos tend to be the ones where people rehearse until the demo doesn’t look rehearsed.
This stage is not a place to cut corners by leaving the practice until the last few days. If you think you will go out on the DEMO stage and wing it or try delivering it extemporaneously, it will likely fail or have a much better chance at failing. Remember, this is a 6 minute, ready, set, go, no second takes demo. If you plan to finish in 6 minutes, you MUST be very well rehearsed and comfortable with your script.
Do yourself a massively big favor now and mark time slots in your calendar for script rehearsal everyday between now and arriving in the desert. If you still need help fine tuning your script or you want another opinion on your demo, I am available. I also still have 2 On Call coaching slots available, if you want to have an edge on stage.
If you are presenting on the stage at DEMO, you have probably realized that it’s a one shot deal. Once Matt Marshall introduces you and the music and applause subsides, the clock starts at 6 minutes and the cameras are filming. There is no stopping or retakes. It is literally a one shot deal.
In order to make sure that you are prepared for anything and everything on stage, it is reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally important that you have a back up plan, in case something doesn’t go according to plan. If you don’t have a back up plan, it can be a very stressful and disappointing 6 minutes for you, your company and the audience. I have seen people back stage in tears because the demo went the wrong way and failed. And, it’s usually because they didn’t have a back up plan.
There are many things you can do to prepare for the unexpected. One way, if you have a laptop involved in the demo, is to take screen captures of all of the screens you’ll need to show using something like SnagIt. It not only allows you to capture the entire scrolling screen, it actually will capture some of the functions too, such as basic HTML. This way, your back up screens will have some basic functionality to show such as drop down lists and Alt Text. You can put all of the files on a USB drive and have instant access to them, if something goes wrong with your product.
Finally, having a back up plan is not enough. You need to practice the back up plan too! If you make time to practice the back up plan, you’ll be more likely to succeed on stage, if you need to resort to it. One of the best things to do is during each practice session, run the back up once. The more comfortable you are with it, the easier it will be to handle a mishap on stage. And, if you are paranoid like me, you’ll have 2-3 back up plans, depending on what you are doing.
For most of you, the experience on stage at DEMOfall 2010 will be new. One of the most important things to know is that when you are on stage, there will be two large timers positioned on top of the monitors located just in front of the stage. Not only will you be able to see what is on the big screens without looking over your shoulder, you’ll see the countdown timers too. The count usually begins after the music dies down and it starts at 6:00 and counts down from there to 0:00.
While you are rehearsing your demo for DEMOfall 2010, you might find it easy to use an on-line countdown timer. You can use a free one here: http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-stopwatch/
I always recommend that your practice sessions have about 30 seconds remaining on the clock. The reason for this is if anything goes wrong or anything takes a little extra time on stage under the bright lights, you’ll need those 30 seconds to recover. You do not want to run over on your time if you want to be considered for an award. And, there have been times in the past when the mic is shut off and the music is turned up because the demo has run way over. Please don’t let this happen to you.
I look forward to seeing you at DEMO in a few weeks.
If you are the one doing the speaking on stage at DEMOfall 2010, you know you need the practice. In fact, if you are really serious about doing well on stage, you’ll be practicing the script dozens of times this week and next. It’s like preparing for a marathon. You need to run many marathons before the actual marathon. DEMO is like a marathon. The only problem is sometimes it is hard to get the person who will be running the demo to be there while you practice. They might be the ones actually programming the product for DEMO and have little time to devote to practicing.
So, here’s my best tip of the day for the presenters: Get someone in your organization to record the screens that will be used at DEMO using a product like Camtasia. It’s very simple to use it and it’s even free for 30 days! You can learn how to use it in 5 minutes. You can quickly record all of the demo screens and edit out the pauses and screens that won’t be used. Finally, Camtasia lets you instantly produce a movie or video of the screens that you can use to practice with. All you need to do is press Play and rehearse the script. You will get a much better sense for timing this way and you’ll know where the clock should be at every turn of your script.
Here are my Top 15 Tips for people planning to present on stage or give an Alpha pitch at DEMO in a few weeks:
Good luck to all of you who are headed to the most amazing stage on the planet for announcing your company, product, or service to the world. Your demo or alpha pitch will be on-line on the DEMO website within hours of your performance and it will stay there for a very long time. Make sure you put your best foot forward to get the most out of this experience as possible.