idea pitching guidelines

Guidance for giving great Idea Pitching

@aditforever

#Tips Startup Series

37%IT Startup

still operating after 3 years

90% Startup failed

The Facts

Lets Pitch!Attention!

You only have less than 15 minutes to explain everything

#1 explain yourself in 1st minute

Make it short & sweet

Make it short & sweet

we sell softwarewe sell hardwarewe track underprivileged childswe help sinnerwe prevent child abuse

#2 Answer the little man

Answer “the little man”you said :“we use digital signal processing in our hearing aids”little man asked : “so what?”you replied : “our product increase the clarity of sounds”then you elaborate : “for instance, if you’re at the cocktail party with many conversations going on around you, you’ll be able to hear what people are saying to you”

Answer “the little man”you said :“we provide 128-bit encryption in a portable device”little man asked : “so what?”you replied : “It's harder than hell to break into our system”then you elaborate : “For instance, if you're in a hotel room and want to have a secure telephone conversation with your headquarters”

#3 Know your audience

learn who’re the audiences, what’s important to the them, visit their website

learn what’s important to the audience• What are the three most important things you

would like to learn about our organization?• What attracted you to our idea and convinced you

to give us an opportunity to meet?• Are there any special issues, questions, or

landmines I should be prepared for in the meeting?

• How old will the oldest person in the meeting be? (You'll soon see why you need to know this.)

visit the website

• organization background; vision, mission, who funded, who founded

• executives; who work there, what their previous positions, where did they go to school

• current efforts; what they do, what its direction

#4 Observe the 10/20/30 rule

ten slides, twenty minutes, 30 point text size

You need to communicate "enough," not everythingThe purpose of a pitch is to stimulate interest, not to close a deal.

Tell what your organization does.

#5 Set the stage

If there's no projector when you show up for a meeting, it's your fault.If your laptop and the projector don't work together, it's your fault. If

the bulb blows out in the middle of your pitch, it's your fault. If youstart slowly, seem disorganized, and look disheveled, it's your fault

the first magic word is “How much of your time may I have?”

#6 Let one person do the talking

In a pitch, the CEO should do 80 percent of the talking. The rest of the team (and there should be no more than two others)can present the

one or two slides pertaining to their specific area of expertise.

Important Things

#1 Appearance

use comfort suit, be yourself but respect to the audience

#2 Voice

speak loud enough, clear, not too fast, show enthusiasm

#3 Body Language

fair expression, not too much body movement

Some lessons learned

#1 Invalid competitive advantages

"Superior SEO" and "unique features" are not competitive advantages

#2 Lacking an unfair advantage

You need one killer advantage no one can beat (because you might get beaten on everything else!)

#3 No one said they'd buy it

You don't need statistically significant studies, but it's astonishing how many blaze ahead before they've found even a single person willing to give them money

#4 Incorrect positioning against the competition

The two faults here are opposites: Believing that uniqueness means competition doesn't exist, or defining yourself by the competition instead of constructing your own message.

#5 No significant route to customers

If your marketing strategy is to run A/B tests and build RSS subscribers, you've already lost.