Quick VC pitch tip #6

by Healy Jones

Returning to the theme of pretty much useless tips for the entrepreneur pitching their startup to venture capital funds:

VC Pitch Tip #6 - Bring a USB drive with your pitch saved on it

For a first pitch with a VC you will probably walk through a fund raising presentation. It is likely that the venture capitalist will have a screen onto which you will project your slide deck. Usually getting your laptop to interact with the screen is pretty easy… but occasionally its not. Recently an entrepreneur was meeting with me, and despite the best efforts of this CEO, our tech guy and several administrative assistants, we couldn't get the laptop to be recognized by the projector. 

Thankfully, this entrepreneur had his presentation on a USB drive and was able to quickly get us the deck to print. This made it much easier for us to learn about his business and hear the pitch. (A different time that this happened we used the drive to transfer the presentation to a random laptop we had and projected from there.)

This doesn't happen very often; I'd say every few months - and we see many, many startups per month. So, the probability of this problem happening is very low but the downside is pretty large. You only have one shot to make a first impression, and who wants to be nervous/struggling with a stupid projector when you are supposed to be getting the room excited about your business?!? A USB drive is good insurance against technical difficulties, doesn't rely on you having to connect to the internet to email/share your presentation and is easily understood technology by the person who will likely be doing the printing for you at the VC's office.