Communication and Pitching Formats - Incubadora Sinergia

We discuss a couple early examples of one liners from the current batch of incubated companies, and then we get into general principles, content and formats for communicating a project. Our idea for this presentation was to try to get incubated companies on the same page at the beginning of our acceleration period.

Given by Riley Maguire and Paola Rapetti.

Transcript

1. @rilinho @paorapetti Communication & Pitching
2. Context Communication Today
3. The Startup of 15 Years Ago (Dave McClure) • Big Costs ◦ IT: Sun / Oracle ◦ Marketing: PR, Advertising • Long Cycles ◦ 12 - 24 mo for dev, then ◦ 6 - 18 m for sales • Small Market ◦ <100M people online • Limited # of Investors
4. The Startup of Today (Dave McClure) • Smaller Costs (Much Free) ◦ IT: Amazon, Google, Paypal ◦ Marketing: Social Media, Blogs ◦ Data: GA, MP, Heatmaps • Short Cycles ◦ 3 - 90 days for dev ◦ Sales Online • Large Market ◦ <3B people online • More Investors (Angels)
5. Lower costs for startups + Faster Development Cycles + Bigger (Mobile) Market Way More Startups Way More Competition Consequences: • Pitch needs to be Focused • Product needs to be Focused • Lean Startup Culture • Emerging Entrep Ecosystems The Result
6. Sam Altman, from Y Combinator - https://goo.gl/vbc66q
7. For Example, some have a “Five Sentence Rule”
9. Clients Users Investors Partners Journalists Etc Face to Face / Direct Online Advertising Press Email Social Offline Advertising Content Your Pitch Channels Audience
10. What is your goal with this pitch?
11. Start With Your Goal Apply it to every… • Pitch Day • Investor or Client Meeting • Email • Conversation • Team Meeting • Etc.
12. For Investors • ROI - Can this generate a 5-10X return? Does it fit? • Timing - Why now? • Team - Does this team have what it takes? Roles? Setting goals and KPIs? • Market - Do they understand the opportunity and know how to defend their business? • Traction - What have they done up to now that convinces me they can do it after? • Makeup - Do I want to work with them? Would they listen? Are they transparent? Bad signals?
13. For Clients (and Partners) • Product / Service - What is it, actually? • Benefits - Faster? Cheaper? More Money? • Incentives - Do they know what’s most important to me? Least important to me? • Process - Do they know who would be using this and what the process is? • Confidence - Is this too risky for me right now? • Team - Do I want to work with this team? Can they do what they say they can do? • Price - How much does this cost - money / time?
14. For Whom What Value Simply Explain What You Do
15. Simply Explain What You Do For Whom What Value AFTER BEFORE No “Pre” Information Required Leave No Questions Raise Interest Do Not Assume Your Audience Goal: Ask
16. Biller ofrece a las empresas una solución que integra facturación electrónica con la posibilidad de recibir y hacer pagos online de sus clientes y proveedores.
17. Bgood Smart Philanthropy ayuda a las ONG a encontrar a sus donantes de una forma innovadora
18. Cacao permite a cualquier persona utilizar su tarjeta de credito para hacer pagos o recibirlos utilizando su celular o cualquier dispositivo móvil.
19. Una alcancía digital que a través de un ambiente lúdico el niño se convierte en ahorrista.
20. Un marketplace de inversiones que le permite a inversores no sofisticados, participar a través de crowdfunding
21. SOM calcula la brecha entre lo que un individuo querría cobrar de jubilación y lo que efectivamente cobrará, y le guía entre distintas soluciones para resolver la diferencia.
22. Wayni Móvil te permite solicitar un préstamo al instante, retirarlo en el quiosco más cercano y pagar la cuota donde cargás tu celular.
23. General Principles The ideas behind the formats
24. Build Confidence Over Time Length of Your Pitch Level of Confidence
25. Make Sure You Are • Explaining What You Do ◦ Look Down, Not Up ◦ Pass the Mom Test • Transmitting Your Value ◦ Allow the audience to visualize “Before / After” • Questioning each word you use ◦ Ask yourself “What does this word benefit”? ◦ Always side with the user → Your business is for them
26. Avoid These at All Costs • Hot Words ◦ “Web 2.0”, “Big Data”, “Innovation”, “Platform” • Purple Farts ◦ “The Most Advanced”, “Next Generation”, “Dynamic” ◦ “Easy to Use” → Not enough these days • Being Too General ◦ There are logical reasons for it - but they are dangerous • Technical Details
27. Founder Vision Traction Market Opportunity The Problem The Product / Solution Biz Model The Team Acquisition Strategy Competitive Advantage Milestones Financials The Ask
28. Formats You Will Use • One Liner • 30 Second Pitch • 2 Minute Pitch • Product One Pager • Executive Summary • Presentations • Pitch Decks Slideshow or Deck (Max 12 slides) Quick Pitches One Page Docs
29. Frequency of Formats • One Liner • 30 Second Pitch • 2 Minute Pitch • Product One Pager • Executive Summary • Presentations • Pitch Decks “Deck” for Investors / Partners / Clients Talking with Humans Press / Internet / App Stores First important conversations investors, partners, clients, etc.
30. You have to consider your audience • For each audience, you should consider ◦ what are their incentives (best) ◦ what is most important to them ◦ what is least important to them ◦ what job do they need done? • Each audience will have different priorities and incentives ◦ Making a pitch that is too broad will not have enough impact with anyone to make change their behavior
31. What is important to investors?
32. Know where to focus your message Clients • The Product • Their Problem / Incentives • Advantage Investors • The Team • Market Opportunity (ROI) • The Product • Traction Press / Media • Founder Vision / Stories • The Product • Traction Partnerships • Access to Your Users (Incentives) • Market Opportunity • Traction
33. How to build a pitch Just one of many ways to do it
34. Short Formats One Liner Product (What Does it Do?) 30 Second Pitch Product (What Does it Do?) Market (What Opportunity?) Traction (Are People Using it?) If you have users: Mention # and Growth Rate (%) If you don’t yet have users: Mention how fast you are moving Try to make your own argument for market size based on your own research, this is better for two reasons: - better market understanding - shows a willingness to get dirty
35. Middle Ground 2 Minute Pitch 30 Second Pitch Advantage (Why Your Product?) Biz Model (How To Make Money?) Team (Why This Team?) Ask (What Do You Want?) What do you know that others don’t? Mention the secret sauce Mention one business model and state in confidentally (everyone knows it can change later) How many founders? Technical? Full Time? How long working together? Less Awards / Degrees Know what you are looking for: i.e. If talking to investor: Have a concrete idea of $ you are asking for It’s easy to give a bad impression if you don’t know how to ask
36. Presentations 7 Minute Presentation / Deck Overview / Team Traction Market Opportunity The Problem The Product / Solution Acquisition Strategy Competitive Advantage Milestones Financials The Ask Biz Model How are you going to get clients? This also needs to show you know the market and can focus accordingly. SEM / SEO will not work
37. Eventually, you’ll want to tell a story 1. Name the enemy 2. Answer “Why now?” 3. Show the promised land 4. Identify obstacles 5. Present evidence
38. Practice, practice, practice • Pitches are organic - they are always changing • They are testable - you can try and measure new things on new audiences (especially online) • How you pitch (body language, energy) is just as important as what you pitch. You should immediately: ◦ Start recording yourself ◦ Practice on the street, at networking events, etc.
39. Anticipate... • Prepare for: ◦ Pitch & Presentations → Questions from the Panels ◦ Meetings → Questions from clients / investors / partners • Strongly recommend → Start a Google Doc and keep a record of the category of questions you are getting asked ◦ Good link to start with is here • The answers you give to their questions are HUGE opportunities to build confidence
40. One Page Formats Executive Summary
41. One Page Formats Executive Summary • Used for Raising Money, Partnerships, Introductions • Focuses more on Market Opportunity, Customer Acquisition, Traction, Financial Needs Product One-Pager • Used for Sales Processes, Conferences, Events, etc. • Focuses more on Product Benefit and Value Proposition, Confidence Building
42. Executive Summary • First Assignment → Executive Summary • It is required for nearly EVERYTHING: ◦ Introductions ◦ Initial Clients ◦ Possible Partners ◦ Investors ◦ Application Processes • Always a work in progress (it adapts along with your business)
43. Gracias