How to get up and yawn to get the investment? Venture Market Jedi Tips
We were lucky to invite to our university those who are not the first day in the hi-tech business and know how the venture business is organized. Moreover, they are able to give valuable information about what to do and how to behave when trying to get money from an investor or find a business partner.
Never a three-hour lecture on business alone was so interesting and fun, because viewers simply did not have the time and opportunity to “stick” in their phones. They had to work and immediately pitch on the stage from the very beginning of the lecture.
So, the head of the Venture Club in St. Petersburg, Evgeny Turvinenko, and business coach for the presentations of the “Up” school, Vsevolod Khorunzhiy, tested a new event format for startups and marketers - content shows. This is an entertaining training on pitches with elements of the show, in which, “bad and good policemen”, Eugene and Vsevolod combined their knowledge about the art of pitch and managing their own projects.
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In real time, they took the developers from under the rock, and worked with them on stage, achieving the perfect story about their project. After each pitch, other guests came up and invested a toy currency in a toy (sometimes real) start-up in order to give an insight into how the venture business works.
In general, here are some tips that are based on typical startup mistakes.
• "All that a sailor above the belt - is the chest." This means that you have to stand up straight, straighten up, because putting your head in the shoulders is a prehistoric gesture of protection and fear. This also applies to the position of the legs: legs together - insecurity, legs wide apart - aggression.
• Many people like to keep their hands in their pockets during the pitch. But the funniest thing for investors is when the speaker finds something in his pocket and starts pulling it, which is why the jury concentrates all his attention on the starter's pocket.
• During the performance, make pauses and do not hurt, and active blunders not only normalize breathing, but also help to get rid of excitement.
• Bring with you the result of your work. 99% of technology entrepreneurs do not bring anything that can be seen and felt, justifying that the development is stored in the laboratory.
• Usually, presentations on pitches start with a decision, “I did this”. Although you need to start with the problems of your potential customer, the problem must be tangible and understandable to everyone. Talk about the pain caused by this problem and which may be familiar to the audience. And only after that show your decision and be sure to explain why you should choose it. Maybe you have a lot of experience and many successful cases, powerful clients or a great team.
• Describe quantitatively why you are cooler than others: three times cheaper, twice as fast, and four times safer.
• Show the market not from above, as you usually do, but from below. Immediately determine your niche and market share. This may be 10-20% of the market, but not 100%. Also do not forget to reflect your competitors in the form of a clear table, which shows the advantages and disadvantages of each.
• Do not forget to clearly convey what your business model. How do you plan to make money. Make and describe the three channels of monetization, no longer worth it.
• Paint the traction: how much time has passed since the appearance of the idea to the creation of the prototype and the exit to the first sales. And tell us about your plans for one or two years.
• It is very important to describe your team. Show the investor why you need each of them and paint their competencies.
• The most important thing is the offer to the investor: how much he will receive money for the share you have offered and what will be the investment for. Remember that it is important for a venture capital investor to scale your business model to other markets.
• The text on the slides should be as small as possible: everything that can be eliminated without detriment to the meaning - introductory words, amplifiers, stamps, generalizations - should be discarded.
With such presentations, developers usually come out to meet with investors.
• Slides should be quickly read and intuitive, and if you are not sure about your design skills, use ready-made templates and color schemes.
• It is important to prepare for the fact that after the presentation you will be asked questions. You can conduct your brainstorming or find out what interests investors, those who have already spoken to them. Then the answers to these questions need to speak out loud.
• And do not forget to leave contacts on the final slide.
Actually, there is no magic, only the behavior algorithm. And, of course, you must have a high-quality and interesting product, without it at all.
Never a three-hour lecture on business alone was so interesting and fun, because viewers simply did not have the time and opportunity to “stick” in their phones. They had to work and immediately pitch on the stage from the very beginning of the lecture.
So, the head of the Venture Club in St. Petersburg, Evgeny Turvinenko, and business coach for the presentations of the “Up” school, Vsevolod Khorunzhiy, tested a new event format for startups and marketers - content shows. This is an entertaining training on pitches with elements of the show, in which, “bad and good policemen”, Eugene and Vsevolod combined their knowledge about the art of pitch and managing their own projects.
')
In real time, they took the developers from under the rock, and worked with them on stage, achieving the perfect story about their project. After each pitch, other guests came up and invested a toy currency in a toy (sometimes real) start-up in order to give an insight into how the venture business works.
In general, here are some tips that are based on typical startup mistakes.
• "All that a sailor above the belt - is the chest." This means that you have to stand up straight, straighten up, because putting your head in the shoulders is a prehistoric gesture of protection and fear. This also applies to the position of the legs: legs together - insecurity, legs wide apart - aggression.
• Many people like to keep their hands in their pockets during the pitch. But the funniest thing for investors is when the speaker finds something in his pocket and starts pulling it, which is why the jury concentrates all his attention on the starter's pocket.
• During the performance, make pauses and do not hurt, and active blunders not only normalize breathing, but also help to get rid of excitement.
• Bring with you the result of your work. 99% of technology entrepreneurs do not bring anything that can be seen and felt, justifying that the development is stored in the laboratory.
• Usually, presentations on pitches start with a decision, “I did this”. Although you need to start with the problems of your potential customer, the problem must be tangible and understandable to everyone. Talk about the pain caused by this problem and which may be familiar to the audience. And only after that show your decision and be sure to explain why you should choose it. Maybe you have a lot of experience and many successful cases, powerful clients or a great team.
• Describe quantitatively why you are cooler than others: three times cheaper, twice as fast, and four times safer.
• Show the market not from above, as you usually do, but from below. Immediately determine your niche and market share. This may be 10-20% of the market, but not 100%. Also do not forget to reflect your competitors in the form of a clear table, which shows the advantages and disadvantages of each.
• Do not forget to clearly convey what your business model. How do you plan to make money. Make and describe the three channels of monetization, no longer worth it.
• Paint the traction: how much time has passed since the appearance of the idea to the creation of the prototype and the exit to the first sales. And tell us about your plans for one or two years.
• It is very important to describe your team. Show the investor why you need each of them and paint their competencies.
• The most important thing is the offer to the investor: how much he will receive money for the share you have offered and what will be the investment for. Remember that it is important for a venture capital investor to scale your business model to other markets.
• The text on the slides should be as small as possible: everything that can be eliminated without detriment to the meaning - introductory words, amplifiers, stamps, generalizations - should be discarded.
With such presentations, developers usually come out to meet with investors.
• Slides should be quickly read and intuitive, and if you are not sure about your design skills, use ready-made templates and color schemes.
• It is important to prepare for the fact that after the presentation you will be asked questions. You can conduct your brainstorming or find out what interests investors, those who have already spoken to them. Then the answers to these questions need to speak out loud.
• And do not forget to leave contacts on the final slide.
Actually, there is no magic, only the behavior algorithm. And, of course, you must have a high-quality and interesting product, without it at all.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/400505/
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