Mike Reiner @ European Innovation Academy Summer Session 2013

1. Art of Pitching
Mike Reiner

2. Audience

3. Goal

4. Trigger
ENTERTAIN
IMPRESS
GET A MEETING

5. Tell a story
• An interesting personal story
• A startling fact or statistic
• Play of known fear
Trigger emotion and make it obvious

6. “Hmmmm.. interesting”

7. Perform

8. Make It
Personal
Be Yourself

10. How to Pitch to a VC
Dave McClure: Horrible slides, great advice!
Google: “how to pitch a vc by Dave McClure”

14. The 1 minute pitch
Extended version of the Elevator Pitch
The quickie, for when you don’t have time for lots of VC lovin’

15. Short, Simple, Memorable
Who: "Hi my name is X from TEAM-Y."
What: "TEAM-Y is ..."
Why: The Problem - Make the pain clear.
How: The Solution/Vision - "TEAM-Y has ..."
Something AWESOME.
Smile. It’s ok to have fun when you pitch

16. Imagine pitching to an 8 year old
Max 3 key words / phrases, 2 sentences.
“SlideShare is the world’s largest community for sharing presentations.
“TeachStreet is a place to teach or learn anything.”
“ZapMeals is an online meal order & delivery service matching hungry consumers
with great local food preparers. We’re eBay for takeout orders.”
“We’re X for Y” is ok if 1) it’s true 2) X & Y are well-known

17. The 3 minute pitch
Focus on the most important

18. 1. Intro
2. The Problem
3. Your Solution
4. Market Size / Competition
5. Business Model (& Traction)
6. Team
7. The Ask
Suggestion

19. Final Thoughts

20. FUCK
Bullet Points
Lots of words
Acronyms
Complex graphics, diagrams, charts
Non words or buzz words
Lies – get permission
Forced structure

21. Script & Slides
Make a script for what you are saying
& visuals to emphasize your key points

22. Murphy's law
Everything that can go wrong will go wrong

23. Make people follow you
They will listen or read, not both
Simple & Make it stick
People will remember 2 or 3 things
Prepare for questions
Rehearse you top answers
Practice & Practice
There is no replacement

24. Potential & Credibility

26. I saw the
angel in
the stone
and carved
until I set
him free.
Michelangelo

27. Show
Trigger
Have fun