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SMU BPC Presentation Workshop

Felipe MendozaAristos Ventures

fmendoza@aristosventures.com

SMU Business Plan Competition: Important Dates & Rules

www.smubpc.org for schedule, rules, and link to YouTube pitches

1/25 Full Plans due

2/1 Business Plan Competition 1:00-4:00

Crum Auditorium in Collins

Over $30,000 in Cash and In-Kind Prizes

Rules:

25 pages including appendices with 1” margins and 12 point font or greater.

15 minutes to present with 10 minutes of Q&A.

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1.What's the concept? Who is the customer?

2.What's the big problem (or opportunity) and how do you solve it? What does the product help the customer do?

3.What’s progress to date? Is there traction and proof it works?

4.Who’s the team and what are their past successes?

5.Sources/Uses of the raise and how much.

What You Want to Get Across

3Derived from Babak Nivi and Mark Suster blogs

The FULL Pitch

Main Components:• Company Overview• Markets and Customers– Customer Validation

• Competitive Advantage – How Long Can You Maintain it

• Strong Management Team with Proven Record to Execute• Financial Highlights

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Adobe Acrobat Document

What Guy Kawasaki says: Have 10 Slides

1. Problem2. Your solution3. Business model4. Underlying magic/technology5. Marketing and sales6. Competition7. Team8. Projections and milestones9. Status and timeline10. Summary and call to action

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Example Pitch Deck

• Mint.com is a free web-based personal financial management service for the US and Canada founded in 2006.

• In 2009, Intuit acquired Mint for $170 million • Here’s the publicly available pitch deck from 2007:

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Adobe Acrobat Document

1. Analogies Help.

2.The First thing an Investor Hears is the Last thing he Remembers. Tell them what you do in the first sentence.

3. Simplify the “Technology” (Pitch to Mom). Investors can be Techies or Finance People.

4. KISS (keep it simple, stupid) Minimize Buzz Words.

5. Show your Enthusiasm and Excitement. You’re selling the company/idea/team.

Keep This in Mind…

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6. Know the Audience and Match Pitch to them.

7. Address the Pain Points or Predictable Surprises (burn rate, need for CEO or key employees).

8. Talk about Risk Mitigation: Development risk, Marketing risk, etc.

9. Your Product Must be Substantially Better than Incumbent to Mitigate Customer Risk of Buying from You.

10. Ask for the Money You Need and What You will do with It.

11. In the End, Just Tell a Good Story

…and Remember This:

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12. Charts and Graphs are Indeed Worth a 1000 Words (bullets and numbering are bad).

13. Have Backup Slides you can go to during the Q&A.

14. Of Team, Technology (product), and Market, Team is the Most Important. Emphasize how you can execute.

15. Saying you don’t know is ok, but then follow up with how you would come up with the answer.

16. Show your Enthusiasm and Excitement. You’re selling the company/idea/team.

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Tips and Tricks

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Thank you

Felipe MendozaAristos Ventures

fmendoza@aristosventures.com