1. Elevator Pitch: Closing Deals or Closing Doors

2. About Me

3. A Top-Notch Pitch is Crucial  One private equity group in town sees ~3,000 potential deals a year and funds 4-6  ~12 deals per day  Funds 0.2%  One angel group in town sees ~600 potential deals a year and funds 12  ~2 deals per day  Funds 2%

4. The Takeaway  Investors have an abundance of deals to choose from, if your case isn’t crystal clear, they’ll likely pass on you  Some say if you don’t have their attention within 30 seconds, they have already moved on

5. What this VC Wants to Hear About  Market  Team  Product

6. Why? A survey of 135 startups raising > $1 million but ultimately failed shows the dominant reason was Building a product without a market (42%) Understanding your customer’s problems with extreme clarity and being unable to communicate it succinctly is key

7. Pitching Customers is no cake walk  Advertisements seen per day  1970: ~500  2005: ~5,000  YouTube sees a dramatic drop-off in viewership if a video takes > 2 seconds to load  Takeaway: Information overload and short attention spans

8. Who are you Pitching?  Funders  Clients/Customers  Supporters  Resource Providers  Employees

9. What are you Sharing?  Be Clear  Show Passion  Establish Yourself as an Expert  Problem, solution

10. Where?  Networking event  Client opportunity  Internal meeting  Holiday party

11. Why?  Solicit feedback  Test the market  Find help  Promote

12. How? Introduction  You  Your idea  Your background Content  Problem  Solution  Differentiator  Story Ask  Stage  What’s next  Need  Call to action

13. Tips  Authenticity  People can remember 3 things  Make it modular  Beware of jargon  Have a clear ask  Practice, practice, practice