If you want to talk about startups, where else would be a better place than San Francisco and the Silicon Valley? As people say it, it's where "all the action is happening." However, before Facebook could "hijack" our social life, before promising startups like Square, Dropbox, etc. got tons more money than their teams could ever spend, they had to go through a pitching stage to introduce their products to venture capitalists so they could have the funding and resources to improve and scale their products/concepts.
I'm not sure if late summer is the startup "pitching season" in the Bay Area, but for the past few weeks, all of a sudden I've had the chance to sit in a few startup pitching events, including
Pitch 11 in AT&T park,
DISRUPT organized by TechCrunch, and the most recent one, the
Plug and Play EXPO. There are various ways startups can pitch their products at events like this. Setting up a booth, handing out flyers, and doing a product demo is the most common one; sometimes startups get to do a five-minute "elevator-style" pitch presentation in front of a group of VCs; and there are even opportunities like the "startup battlefield" at DISRUPT, where startup teams present their products and participate in panel discussions and Q&A sessions to get immediate feedback or even challenges from VCs and successful entrepreneurs.
Imagine that after months or years of hard work putting together your team and your product, now you've got five to 10 minutes to introduce your baby to a group of people who might be able to help you bring your idea to the next level. That five to 10 minutes is pretty crucial — and it's essential to figure out what to include, how to frame your concepts, and how to deliver those messages.
After sitting through 50+ pitching sessions/presentations over the past two weeks, I was surprised to see how good as well as how bad these pitching presentations could get. I'm not a VC, but it wasn't hard for me to see that some startups spent their five minutes confusing me with their concepts and business models, whereas others seemed poised to be the next superstars of the Valley. I had to wonder: What are the ingredients needed for a successful pitch, and how can startup teams "cook" their pitching dish to satisfy picky VCs and potential customers?
So, if you're an entrepreneur, first things first: What should you include in your pitch?
All those pieces are great to include, and I found they covered almost 90% of the content of startup pitching presentations. There could be even more ingredients to add depending on the specific pitching scenario and your product. However, I am sure a great chef wouldn't want to put every tasty ingredient into the same dish (apparently, fusion is going out of style!). So the more important question becomes: How do you select and put together the content you want to present?
The goal is to tell your story in a way that makes the most sense and sounds very attractive. (It shouldn't be that hard, right?)
Spool is a startup that helps people save the web content they are interested in reading later on their phone or tablets. It allows people to access the content (including web pages, flash videos, music, etc.) while they're commuting, on a plane, or whenever and wherever they don't have an Internet connection. The two guys from Spool did some pitching in TechCrunch's startup battlefield and also had a five-minute presentation at the Plug and Play EXPO. I personally found their pitching style was GENUINE, CLEAR and CONVINCING, which sets a great example for startup pitch presentations.
So what content did they pull together, and how can other startups sell their innovations using these general components? In an upcoming post, I'll break down exactly how Spool told its story. For now, though, here's a peek inside the basic skeleton of Spool's pitch.
