We tell our customers their message will be most memorable and most clear if they deliver it using the power of three. The premise is that the human brain relies on sequencing for memorization and recall and it just so happens that sequences of three are best from a recall standpoint. For what it’s worth, focusing on threes helps a lot of us keep our message succinct and rhythmic. Once we get into, “6 Essential…” or, “The 8 Unbreakable Laws of…” we’ve really got to ask ourselves if we’re skipping a few organizational content units. (We’ll give Covey a break on the whole “7 Habits” thing.)
When it comes to private equity fundraising, though, you can throw all that out. Entrepreneurship and startups are big right now, and that’s drawing a lot of legitimate (and illegitimate) enterprises out of the woodwork looking for funding. An important consideration: there’s really only so much money out there.
We’ve talked about this before, but not in the same context: it’s incredibly important for presenters to consider not only the particular situation their audience is in, but to also consider what others have been presenting to the same audience. If you pitch VOIP services to major corporations, you must, must, must be aware of what the other VOIP providers pitch. How else can you keep from using the same assumptions, themes, imagery and anecdotes they did during a presentation designed to differentiate you?
The same principle applies with fundraising decks. Entry-level entrepreneurs frequently view this setting as a marketing opportunity. They do the cool story. They get clever. They try to flex their muscles. What they rarely consider is that the typical investors’ collective or VC fund is literally digesting 10 of these a day—sometimes even more. Seasoned entrepreneurs understand that this presentation environment calls for a, “No spin” tactic.
If you’re going this route, the presentation needs to be arranged more succinctly than any other you’ve put together. If you listen to Guy Kawasaki (and, let’s face it, you should), you need not spend more than one slide per content area. The content areas are typically: the summary, the problem, the solution, the market, the business plan, the team and the financials. Commenters, feel free to bombard this post with variations.
The basic idea is that you want to quickly get down to brass-tacks with investors. They’ve been there, down that. Most are entrepreneurial, and see through all the amateur gimmicks because they tried to get away with them back in the day and it failed miserably. They’re looking for seasoned, accountable entrepreneurs with a realistic grasp on what makes the product, service or business model unique and a sound execution plan. Anything that strays from that is less likely to entice and more likely to raise a warning flag.
Remember, the principle in all this is don’t be like everyone else. Everyone else treats investors like the next sucker to be taken. They talk about billion dollar potential at fractional market share and 3-5 year Google exit strategies. If the people you’re pitching truly have money, they have it for a reason. Those reasons do not include gullibility.
Question: Have you ever been pleasantly surprised by the result of a brass-tacks pitch?
