【Pitching in the Age of COVID-19】
Pitching is a very fundamental skill that we help all of our founders develop. Whether it's to potential employees, clients, or investors, understanding your target audience and crafting your narrative accordingly is a ubiquitous art that is pivotal through all lifecycles of your startup.
But COVID19 has completely redefined the rules of the game. Subtle emotional cues that you would normally pick up through body language and facial expressions have now been washed out by pixelated screens and internet latency. Building rapport through prolonged pleasantries and adhoc chit chat have been mulled over by coronavirus talk and regimented back-to-back virtual meetings.
And if you had a hard time captivating the attention of your audience in person, those efforts are even more likely to be thwarted now with the handful of distractions they literally have at their fingertips from internet browsers to messaging clients to phones.
Having now sat through dozens of virtual pitches, I'd like to pass on 5 tips to keep your audience interested and engaged (specifically geared towards founders pitching investors):
1. Do your homework
I can't stress this enough. This applies both in a pre and post COVID19 world. Leave as much guess work out of the equation by doing as much research on the person you're meeting as possible. If it's an investor, understand the basics of their fund, including fund size, areas of interest, geographic coverage, as well as the investor's background (age, schooling, nationality, etc.). Use these data points as way to build rapport and tailor your pitch accordingly.
2. Send your deck early
A prospective investor may or may not read it. But you have to at least give them that option. For the ones that do, the conversations are guaranteed to become 2x more productive, with an initial field of understanding and questions having already been set. You typically only have 1 hour, so best make use of that time.
3. Streamline your deck
Often times slides are filled with a superfluous amount of information or too many graphics where the main point gets lost in translation. Make sure you can summarize each slide in a one-sentence takeaway, and that each slide helps illustrate either 1) the problem 2) your solution 3) your team 4) your traction. Generally 10 - 12 slides will suffice. Anything extra, put it in the appendix!
4. Insert Q&A breaks
Usually when someone is confused or skeptical, it shows on their face. Less evident on virtual meetings unfortunately. Strategically insert Q&A breaks in your pitch to make sure your audience is on the same page, rather than letting questions pile up till the end. This also helps make the pitch more dynamic, more engaging, and more of a conversation. Studies have also shown that people tend to tune out after 10 minutes, which is why Apple normally swaps out its speakers every 10 minutes or so at its annual WWDC.
5. Practice, practice, practice.
A lot of times it's not so much what you say, but how you say it. Early stage investors are often times betting on feeling as much as rational hypotheses. This means you need to exude a sense of confidence and passion, which may be hard to generate when you're speaking into a camera for 1 hour. Try recording yourself on camera to see how you actually come off and then adjust accordingly.
Furthermore, don't just practice the pitch in and of itself, but also Q&A where a lot of the "sale" actually occurs. This is when investors are testing your wit and execution, to really understand if you know your space and your business, and extracting any insights you may/should have. They're also looking to see if you have a true passion for the problem at hand. Startups are hard. Very hard. If you don't have a strong heart or "why", you will not make it.
5.5 This goes without saying, but when conducting virtual pitches, make sure you have good hygiene, dress appropriately, and are in a quiet place where you won't be distracted by pets, children, or loud chatter.
Happy pitching!
-Jun Wakabayashi
Analyst, AppWorks
If you're startup working in AI, blockchain, or SEA, be sure to apply to AW#21 to join the region's strongest founder community: https://bit.ly/3c1KEUK
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