This document provides tips for pitching ideas to venture capitalists (VCs) in 3 sentences or less. It recommends telling a story to trigger emotion, impressing the VC to get a meeting. Pitches should be short, simple, and memorable, focusing on who you are, the problem, your solution, the market size, your business model and team, and what you're asking for. Effective pitches are prepared with a script and visuals to emphasize key points in a way that follows and makes people want to learn more through questions.

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