Presentation by David Williams (@dcwvegas) and Rick Duggan (@rickduggan) at the September 1, 2011, @VegasJelly.
Links from the last slide at: http://bitly.com/nc6qJO.
2. Overview
✴ Ideas Are Worthless
✴ Know Everything...
✴ ...Although Admit What you Don’t Know
✴ Talk To Everyone Who Will Listen
✴ Pitfalls To Avoid
✴ Play to WIN
✴ Putting It All Together
✴ Summary
✴ Q&A
3. Ideas Are Worthless
✴ I have had thousands of ideas...
✴ Fleeting thoughts --> Hmm, that’s interesting
✴ I should see if anybody is doing that -> Research-worthy
✴ But none of them have ever made me any money
✴ Value-Added Solutions
✴ Must be solution that resolves a “pain point”
✴ Must be solution that is efficient
✴ Example – Twitter
4. Proof That Ideas Are
Worthless
Idea Execution Success
Bad Bad No
Bad Good No
Good Bad No
Good Good Maybe
5. Know Everything...
✴ Research, Research, Research
✴ Google (lots of variations)
✴ People around you every day
✴ Be fluent in your market knowledge
✴ Know the competitive landscape
6. ...Although Admit What
You Don’t Know
✴ Wait...I thought I should Know Everything
✴ In theory yes, in reality no
✴ Admit what you don’t know
✴ Credibility is key
✴ Always thank the person for teaching you something
✴ Offer to research and get back to them
✴ Being prepared minimizes the risk of downside surprises
7. Prepare a Business Plan
First
✴ Write a business plan
✴ Do not wait for an investor request/pitch; focus on
the process, not the product...marketing,
development, operations, financing, etc.
✴ Continuous improvement
✴ Save your sources – you may be asked to cite them
8. Talk to Everyone Who Will
Listen ... and Some Who Won’t
✴ Family
✴ Friends
✴ Mentors
✴ Colleagues
✴ Blog readers
✴ Stakeholders
9. Pitfalls to Avoid
✴ Ask VC/angel to sign an NDA – ain’t gonna happen!
✴ You are not in a position to dictate terms, so do not waste your time
doing so; negotiation is the key
✴ Claim your market is the entire world, or so large that it is unwieldy
✴ “Market is $Y billion. If we get only 1% of that...” does not
impress...you might end up with much more or much less
✴ Do not emphasize your exit strategy more than your business
strategy – focus on creation/build/growth
✴ Do not be overly broad; investors like to see focus, ability / vision to
execute the idea, not simply sell it
10. Play to WIN
✴ Listen carefully to questions; answer what was asked, not what you
wanted to be asked
✴ Be respectful to everyone you meet on your journey; relationships are
paramount
✴ Research your audience; most are clear on what they want and how
they want to see it
✴ Be realistic about your valuation, especially at a very early stage (pre-
revenue) – negotiation
✴ There is a fine line between defending your ideas and being defensive
✴ Put your best foot forward
11. Elements of a Pitch
✴ Introduction
✴ Problem You are Solving (pain point)
✴ Your solution
✴ Market
✴ How to reach market
✴ Revenue model
✴ Desired investment & what major milestones will you reach with it
✴ Team
12. Summary
✴ Prepare, prepare, prepare
✴ Responses to operational questions should be considered
✴ Know what you do not or cannot know
✴ Negotiation will determine many outcomes
✴ Consider that angel / VC funding might not be the right model
for you
✴ 10% of pitch meeting is your presentation
✴ 90% of pitch meeting is discussion / answering questions
R\n\nPitch practice\nElements that are important\nFocused on pitching to an investor, though we will mention other topics\n\nWhy listen?\n\nI raised $19 million for a company that sold digital downloads on the internet. You may have heard of it -- iTunes.\nBut that wasn't my company.\n\nDavid's bio\n\nHow many people think they have an idea worth a million dollars? You’re wrong.\n\n
R\n
R\n\nTwitter is the solution to the problem “I want to communicate but I have ADHD”.\n\nSecond article makes the point that the idea has to be good. True, but somewhat irrelevant to the point.\n\n
R\n\nIncidentally, this is why more than 75% of startups fail.\n\n
D\n\n\n
D\n
D\n\nWriting the business plan is somewhat less about the plan and more about the preparation.\n\n\n
D\n\nWhy aren’t they listening? Listen to their objections.\n
D\n
D\n\nVC web sites describe how they like to see business plans, presentations, and common mistakes (which translate to pet peeves/irritations)\n\nPut your best foot forward – “We’re implementing feature X” vs. “We’re going to implement feature X”\n\n\n
R\n\nAs we mentioned earlier, the audience will define exactly what is desired. This is a starting point. \n\nSometimes you will have more, sometimes you will have less.\n\n\n
R\n\nSo I’ve spent all this time preparing the presentation, and it’s only 10% of the meeting? \n\nNo, you’ve spent all this time preparing yourself.\n