How do you usually start your pitch?
Alexey Shashkov
16 replies
Michael Seibel suggests starting a pitch with the name of the company and what it does.
He says there’s no need to set up the problem. We can get to the point:
«Getlanding.io is a web app for marketing people for generating landing pages in seconds.»
Also, he says walking through the user path can be an effective tactic:
«We’re Getlanding. We build a web app with a step-by-step form in it. You can type your answers into that form, and we’ll generate your landing page based on that answers.»
How do you answer the question «What do you do?»
Replies
Daniel Baum@daniel_baum
1) Intro the company and the 2-liner on what you do
2) Talk about why your offering / solution is differentiated and superior
3) Sell the grand vision
4) Share why you're the team to do it
An investor considering a Seed company cares most about how big this can be and why you're the team to get it there. If you can convince them of this, the problem becomes less critical imo.
Solving a problem is critical for business success, not necessarily investor interest.
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@daniel_baum «how big this can be and why you're the team to get it there.» – this is a super-cool point! I owe you one, Daniel.
Do you mean pitch deck (1) or oral presentation (2)?
1) I start with a context slide + problem
2) We start (with my associate) by introduce ourselves, how did we get the idea of our project, how did we meet, etc... :)
@benoit_chambon I mean oral presentation. And thanks for you reply, Benoit.
It depends on the person/people I'm talking to. I think it's a very good idea to start with the name of the company and what it does when networking without a specific goal in mind. It's efficient and straight to the point. But when it comes to potential investors, I present the problem first, so they can identify the growth opportunity of the product. Thanks for sharing your strategy!
@pierre_kraus I agree with the sentiment around networking, but I personally tend to just extend that a bit further for investor pitches. If your problem is obvious, then stating why your solution is different & better could be enough (i.e. no one needs to be explained why AV are a solution - they're just better).
@shashcoffe for landing pages, you can say why landing pages are a problem to build OR how your offering is so much better than any solution currently offered
@shashcoffe @daniel_baum I agree! Emphasizing where you differentiate yourself from the crowd is key.
@daniel_baum Thx for you reply, Daniel. Much appreciated!
How is the YC batch going?
@pierre_kraus
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Pierre! I like it! 🙏
@pierre_kraus Totally agreed!
You only asked about the start, but I'm going to provide a little more than that 😂
When coaching founders on delivering a pitch for a demo day or a pitch competition or whatever, we encourage them to focus on four key areas (in chronological order):
1) Hook. A terse statement designed to intrigue the audience. It's the first thing out of your mouth. It takes seconds to utter, but it's the key to getting people to pay attention to the rest of what you have to say.
2) Problem/Solution/Team etc. The typical bulk of any startup presentation.
3) Reveal. Something you're telling the world for the first time publicly. This makes the audience feel closer to you and your company because you're sharing it with them first.
4) Ask. Most people are at startup events because they're predisposed to helping founders and companies. Ask them for that help.
Just with few lines of intro and then jump into the main body of the content.
@marry_brown Cool. Can you share your example?
I find it really helpful to give context and get the scene
Usefully start talking through a few customer developments highlights. It becomes really easy then to create a logical digestible narrative
What do you think to using slides vs no slides?
Cheers :)
Waq