Never pitch investors

Two weeks ago the Tetuan Valley Startup School, program I’m proud to be a mentor at, kicked off. On the first session Alex Barrera was explaining to the teams the ins and outs of being an entrepreneur and creating a startup. We actually came up with this definition for an entrepreneur:

photo Jump off by aJ GAZMEN ツ GucciBeaR

One of the things Alex told the teams shocked me: “Never pitch investors”. He actually explained the reason very well afterwards, and I have to say I totally agree.

Alex told us how entrepreneurs usually prepare their pitch, trying to give the investors all the information they need to instantly know if they are interested in investing, something like: “Hello, I’m John Doe, I just created a startup that wants to solve parking problems in major cities with a simple app you can have on your smartphone. We’re looking to raise $8,000 of investment to get everything finished.”

It is true that this is a direct and clear message, but nonetheless not a very effective way of raising money. Alex’s way of getting an investor interested in what you’re doing is much more in tune with the social aspect of today’s communications. The idea is that you see an investor at an event, probably during a coffee break and you go over and actually start a conversation with him, not just rant off what you do; the interaction would go something like this:

- John: Hi! So, what did you think of the last group that presented/the news about [insert trendy topic]/the coffee?

- Investor: Very interesting actually it made me think of…

- John: Yeah! I see your point, I thought… (don’t lie to impress, just give your honest opinion).

I’m John, by the way.

- Investor: Oh, I’m Mr. Angel.

- John: what do you do? (even if you know)

- Investor: I’m an early venture capitalist. What do you do?

- John: well, I just created a new startup that’s going to solve parking problems in major cities using cell phones. Did you have trouble parking when you got here?

- Investor: Actually, I did!

- John: see? If you were using our service you would have saved the extra 20 minutes looking for a parking spot!

- Investor: Interesting, why don’t you tell me more about the project?

- John: Sure, here’s my card, let’s set up a meeting.

That would be the ideal situation probably, but you get the point. The same concept as with the elevator pitch applies: it’s about getting the investor interested in what you’re doing. The only difference is instead of assaulting them whenever you get a minute of their time, you’re starting a conversation with them which is the best platform to build a relationship from.

Until next time,

Byron Stanford for Project Presentation

Wednesday, 20 April 2011 11:06 Written by Byron Stanford 1 Comment

Give your presentations context (a long time ago…)

This is the last post I’ll write drawing presentation advice from Star Wars, mainly because I can’t get any other ideas. But I think that 5 posts are nothing to be shy about!

I think the movie industry, in general, and the internet have spoiled us. We watch a lot of movies where the beginning is really the end, you have flashbacks in the middle… on the internet everything jumps from one link to another without any sort of order; and this all affects us. I can still remember my teachers at university telling me how the generation that grew up with internet has a lot of problems when it comes to structuring our ideas. We have difficulty with the basic structure of introduction, development and resolution. I don’t really know why, but it has something to do with hyperlinks and movies that start with the ending, that’s for sure.

So, going back to Star Wars, in presentations we do start from the beginning. Logical, right? What does this mean? Just like Lucas put gave us the context with “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…” We have to give our audience the context for our presentation. Don’t start your presentation from the middle, or by the ending; start by explaining to the audience where they are, what they’re going to see. It doesn’t matter that the program has the title of your presentation on it; odds are someone didn’t read it or hasn’t understood what it means. Start by giving context to your presentation and then tell your audience why it’s important.

This last bit is probably one of the most important things to do in a presentation, if your audience doesn’t know why your talk is important, they’ll stop listening. As you know, in Star Wars, Lucas first gives us the context for the story and then tells us a bit of the history: An evil empire, a rebel alliance, a princess in despair… All you need to know to think “Ah! This is important, I’m paying attention.” Try to give your audience a reason to pay attention, give them your theme’s context and explain why what you are going to say is important. You’ll see how they’ll be much more involved.

Until next time,

Byron Stanford for Project Presentation.

Monday, 28 February 2011 17:01 Written by Byron Stanford 1 Comment

Presentation Lesson from the Dark Side

I know we usually focus on the heroes of movies and stories to learn lessons, that’s why I’ve written posts about lessons learned from a Rebel Alliance leader, another from Obi Wan and one from Yoda. But today I want to go over to the Dark Side, which is always more fun. In the new Star Wars movies, no matter how bad they are, we can see a key moment in the saga’s history, how the Emperor turns Anakin to the Dark Side.

The interesting part is that in the first movies Lucas made, we saw Darth Vader (Anakin barbecued) try the same thing on Luke. However, and after the classic “Luke, I am your father”, Luke did not turn. What did the Emperor do different, why did his approach work? What’s the secret to turn people to the other side (switch companies, providers, ideas)?

The Emperor used the power of stories. The first thing the Emperor does is connect with Anakin telling him a story he can relate to: “Anakin, did you ever hear the tragedy of a Dark Lord of the Sith who could use the force to keep the ones he cared about from dying.” This relates deeply with the young Anakin, who is desperate for saving his loved princess’ life.

On the other hand, if we take a look at Darth Vader’s speech to Luke, we see that the only thing Vader did was list a series of analytical reasons why Luke should turn to the Dark Side: “You can destroy the emperor”, “together we can rule the galaxy”, “it is your destiny” and the all-time favorite “I am your father.” But there was no connection to what Luke was feeling at the time; there was no emotion, nothing in that speech but facts. It seems that Vader did not learn the power of storytelling from his master.

When we give a presentation, we always want to convince the audience of something, to hire our services, buy our product, adopt our idea… Whatever it may be, it always means leaving something behind; the same way Anakin had to leave his Jedi friends behind. To convince your audience to cross over to your side, you have to find that connection. Stand in their shoes and you will know how they feel and what they need. That way, instead of listing characteristics, you can tell them a story, something that will connect you to them and will make you look like a real person with emotions and who understands them. That’s what the Emperor did and turned Anakin to his side; however, Darth Vader recited the typical list (bullet pointed in any presentation) and he wasn’t able to turn Luke to his side.

Exemption of responsibility: Project Presentation does not take responsibility for the people who are turned to the dark side and end up taking over the world by using this method.

Until next time,

Byron Stanford for Project Presentation.

Thursday, 24 February 2011 17:27 Written by Byron Stanford 1 Comment

Use the force when you present (not technology)

I’m going to tie two things together in this post, Murphy’s Presentation Law and the Star Wars posts. There’s a very memorable scene in the first Star Wars movie (in production order): Luke is going to shoot at the tiny gap that will destroy the Death Star, and he’s aiming with his little augmented reality targeting thingy on the ship. It’s then when he hears his old master’s voice, the wise Obi Wan, saying to use the force.

I say the same to you. If you’ve read Murphy’s Presentation Law post, you know you can’t trust technology. The same way Luke couldn’t trust the targeting computer, don’t put all your hopes on Power Point. Giving a presentation is a time for you to shine, not your slides. If your equipment fails, don’t despair, trust the force and go ahead on your own. What you can accomplish on your own is much more valuable than depending on your slides to communicate your message.

Until next time,

Byron Stanford for Project Presentation.

Tuesday, 22 February 2011 17:25 Written by Byron Stanford 3 Comments

Don’t look back

When you’re giving a presentation, many times you have to go back to a point you raised earlier; many speakers go 3 or 4 slides back to refresh the audience’s memory or just to remind them of the big picture. I find that going back and then having to skip those 3 or 4 slides again gives a sloppy image to the audience, like you forgot to say something and quickly skipped back to make your point only to rush back over slides they’ve already seen.

If you know it will be good for your audience to see a slide again just duplicate it (right click, or command click on a mac, in the slide panel and hit duplicate) and include it again in your slideshow. This will avoid you having to skip back and forth through your deck and it will seem much more professional and smooth.

I usually use a slide like this to mark the 3 areas of presentations I’m going to reference.

When I’m done with the first part I show the slide again, just to remind people where we’re going. Notice that in this slide the word preparation is clear, whereas design and delivery are faded out. When I begin the next section the word design will stand out and the other two will be faded out. This gives an idea of movement and transitioning through the talk although it is the same slide.

Give this a try in your next presentation and let me know how it goes.

Until next time.

Byron Stanford for Project Presentation.