VC Pitch #12

by Healy Jones

So, I've seen Prasad pitch quite a bit recently during his fund raising process. And I have to admit, the view from this side of the table is pretty different from the venture capitalist's side. Thus is born the 12th tip for startup entrepreneurs pitching their business to venture capitalists - and this one is actually useful!

VC Pitch Tip 12 - Have the ability to complete your entire fund raising presentation in 10 minutes

I know that I mentioned in my last VC Pitch Tip that your fund raising presentation should be short. This is a slightly different topic - regardless of how long your formal pitch is, you should be able to deliver the entire pitch in 10 minutes if needed. Yes, most VCs will give you an hour or so to make your presentation, but I guarantee that there will be times when you have to be able to deliver a convincing pitch FAST. There are many reasons why this could happen:

1. The VC is running late
2. You luck into a quick meeting at a conference
3. This is a follow up meeting with several VCs to quickly get them up to speed after one partner has already gotten excited about you
4. You have some outside expert coming in for a particular diligence discussion and you want them to quickly know what the businesses is about
5. Or, best of all, you are having such a good conversation with a potential funding source that you get really behind in your presentation.

There will always be a point in your fund raise when you need to very concisely bring someone up to speed on your startup. And there are so many outside people involved with the diligence that you will need to repitch and repitch, even when the actual pitch isn't the core reason for the meeting.

As I mentioned in my previous VC Pitch Tip, you need to make sure you hit all the important points during your initial meeting - otherwise VCs make the assumption that you don't have a plan for whatever you've missed (sad but true fact.) So, if you've got the ability to rock through your entire presentation in 10 minutes without breaking a sweat, you can get all of your important points across to a VC regardless of the amount of time left in your meeting.

As I've watched the pitch process from the other side of the table, I've really begun to appreciate how impressed investors get when an executive can articulate the important parts of their strategy, product, market and business plan is a very concise, direct manner. There are some pitches I really remember well from my time as a venture capitalist - and only now do I realize it was because the executive made such a brilliant impact with so few words, slides and so little time.

Getting your entire business into a 10 minute presentation is very hard. It requires an amazing amount of practice. But, you might as well practice because you're going to have to pitch over and over if you can't do it right the first few times......