How I won $50,000 in a pitch competition
Over the last 6 years I have won 5 pitch competitions for a variety of different startups. Some were just for fun events and others I won cash prizes. The largest being a check for $50,000 in January of 2018. I have also coached others to win pitch competitions and here are the 10 steps I use to make that happen.
1.) Deck design– The best way to design your pitch deck is with the end customer or user in mind. Everything from the fonts to the graphics used should represent the demographic of your target customer. For example, if you are marking to young outdoor enthusiasts then carefully select images of people camping or hiking and use fonts similar to what can be found on REI’s web page. You want the audience and investors to imagine someone they know using your product. So don’t design for you’re an investor as the audience, design to show your investor who the customer is.
2.) Start with a simple one liner on your business that uses very common language. For example, do not say “Hi im Lou and my company Arc innovations develops innovative and modern cannabis consumption devices”…. Instead say “ Hi I’m Lou and my company ARC makes cannabis pipes with a built in electric lighter”. The simpler it sounds the better.
3.) Make sure your problem/solution statement is blunt and very obvious to your audience, do not waste time with a personal story (trust me I tried it and it doesn’t work). Keep it factual and brief. For example: 66% of men experience male pattern baldness, so we make it easy for men to buy hair restoration products with a monthly subscription. (I don’t know if that stat is correct, but I hope you get the point)
4.) Only explain one or two key features about the product. If needed, make this part of a how it works. Don’t waste slide space on text, make the images/screenshots larger instead. In a pitch competition you only have a short amount of time so make sure everything you say is impactful. You don’t need to give a play by play of how your AI furby can detect the number of candles on a birthday cake.
5.) Don’t waste time explaining the billion dollar market opportunity. To start with most people do not correctly identify the target market, for example, if you have a company selling workout recover drinks, saying “the health and wellness market is xx billion” is horribly incorrect. The health and wellness market has soooooooo many sub parts and it would be impossible to identify how big your niche is. All this will do is give you and your investors something to argue over so don’t bother. Instead give a factual number of people/companies in the market then explain how much your product costs on the next slide. j
6.) Use a simple economic model — For physical products only show these 3 numbers: Cost of Goods, Retail price, Blended Margin. For Software show your SaaS structure or your license fee. Don’t get into much detail; save it for the Q/A.
7.) Briefly mention that your competition exists and state from a high level what you do that’s different. Sometimes this is as simple as saying “I’m the same as the competition but I am going after a different market segment.” Also most judges hate it when you say “we don’t have any competition” or “we are the only ones doing this”.
8.) When talking about your team, only talk about the founders or key execs and say something relevant to your company from their past. Also, always talk about the team members first then talk about yourself; it’s polite and will make you sound humble. Say the same amount about each team member including yourself. It should be quick and to the point and leave out your advisers.
9.) Practice public speaking well in advance. It is a skill that needs to be honed, and it is the most important part. Do not use notes or cards, memorization is a must. Speak clearly and don’t rush. If you are presenting in a foreign language or you have an accent, speak even slower.
10.) Re-write your script so that it sounds like you are talking to a friend. Speak like you do every day, don’t use big complicated words or overly eloquent phrases. Make it sound natural and you will destroy anyone else in the competition. One way to do this is to only memorize the key points on each slide and then let normal language fill in the rest. However this is much harder to do, a simple training exercise is to speak for 1 minute without using um/ahh on any random topic.
A copy of the deck used to win the pitch competition can be found on my website www.theseedpitch.com. Wednesday August 22nd at 5pm I will be hosting a pitch practice session via Zoom, subscribe to receive the link, and come prepared with a 5minute pitch with or without slides.
