Refining and Presenting your Venture Idea¶

---
title: Success Rate of Startups
---
pie
"Succeed": 1
"Moderate": 3
"Fail": 6

• 1/10 startups succeed
• 6/10 startups

Startup¶

Long term plan: Exit Strategy

Why would anyone want to acquire a company anyways?

• Startups are faster at innovating than large companies.

Elevator Pitch¶

For target customers who are dissatisfied with current solution, our product is a new product category that provides key problem solving opportunity. Unlike a competitive substitute, we have assembled key whole product features.

• It has to be spot-on since investors get thousands of pitches. They can easily determine if your pitch is valuable or not.
• Induce greed & urgency in the investors

The Pitch: KISS¶

Structure¶

1. Hook
2. < 7 seconds to engage audience

3. Phrases

   1. “Imagine … ”
   2. “Have you ever felt …”
   3. “Do you get ”

4. Solution

5. Technology
6. Business Model
7. Marketing & Sales
8. Competition
9. Management
10. Financials
11. Status & Timeline
12. The Offer

Characteristics¶

• Focus should be on customer benefits, not on the technology

• Simple - No technical jargon

• Tailor the pitch for the Target Audience

• Lowest Common Denominator: Explain keeping in mind the least experienced/knowledgeable audience member

• Short (10/20/30): Audience questions will always take it to an hour, so prepare accordingly

• Pictures

• Answer details/curveballs quickly. 2 options:

• “No, that’s not the case. From our research, this is why short reason. I’ll get back to you in more detail later.”

• “That’s a very good point. We are not very familiar with. Let’s discuss this in more detail later.”

Make sure to shut off them quickly because you have an agenda to complete.

• Presentation

• Passion and confidence

• Engage the audience
• Slow and calm speech
• Get everyone nodding along with what you are saying

Style¶

• Best presenter should be presenting
• Be/bring a highly knowledgeable teammate in the room
• Give firm answers
• Look at everyone in the room
• Do your research on your audience
• Pull questions

When to Raise Money¶

• Finish closing money at least 6 months before you need it
• Make pitches to investors simultaneously. This way investors are not influenced by other investors
• Be “introduced”/use testimonials
• If you have 2 offers, prefer the quality of investor over the amount they’re offering

Business Basics¶

• Profit & Cash Flow
• Business PLan
• Be flexible (Lean Startup methodology)
• Initial vs Final Product/Service may not necessarily be the same
• Speed of progress is more important than Patents/Intellectual Property
• Mission
• The Team
• Chemistry
• Should be able to handle shocks
• Convey that you are
• Be willing to persist after failure
• Experienced to do a startup
• Speed of Execution
• Focused about your value proposition. Pivot; You don’t always end up finishing with the idea you started with, but don’t keep changing your project unnecessarily

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