Preparing for your startup pitch - rehearsal, confidence, and the deadly Q&A
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1 Preparation, Confidence, and Dealing with Tough Questions Pitching Perfectly Session 3 Darren Menabney @ Samurai Startup Island Tokyo 10.29.2015
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Transcript of Preparing for your startup pitch - rehearsal, confidence, and the deadly Q&A
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Preparation, Confidence, and Dealing with Tough Questions
Pitching Perfectly Session 3Darren Menabney
@ Samurai Startup Island Tokyo
10.29.2015
“The first draft of anything is shit.”
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- Ernest Hemingway
NOTE this presentation
is not a first draft!
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DARREN MENABNEY
-2011, Toronto
BSc Astrophysics, U of T
Government of Canada Revenue, Industry, Foreign Affairs, Defence
2011+, Tokyo
MBA, GLOBIS University
Global HR, Ricoh Co. Ltd.
Part-time Faculty, GLOBIS University
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© Javier Montano / TEDxKyotoUniversity
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Judging pitches
Attending a LOT of pitch contests
Writing & delivering pitches
Coaching startups
Teaching entrepreneurs at MBA program
Public speaking
1. Preparation & Rehearsal
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“In all things the way you practice defines the way you perform. It’s selfish to make an audience endure your first or even third try. Why be selfish? If you’re generous to your audience they’ll love you.” – Scott Berkun
Author, Confessions of a Public Speaker
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Make any mistakes BEFORE you pitch
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Uncertainty and
Surprises
Confidence
and Success
Preparation and rehearsal WILL determine your success
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1. Refining the Pitch Deck2. Improving your delivery3. Managing time
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HOW to prepare?
4. Simulating Q&A
1. Refining the Pitch Deck
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HOW to prepare?
“In writing, you must kill all your darlings.”
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- William Faulkner
Attack your own slides
Question your assumptions
Ask “So what?” to each slide and each element of each slide
…and repeat!13
If it adds no value, remove it
If it looks weak, strengthen it
If even you don’t understand it, fix it!
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This is a Team
activity
2. Improving your delivery
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HOW to prepare?
Record and watch a video of you making the pitch
HOW to prepare?
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Rehearse in front of • team • mentors • pitch coach
HOW to prepare?
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Get a lot of early feedback from your team
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HOW to prepare?
Learn from your mistakes
Build on your strengths20
HOW to prepare?
…then rehearse
your pitch again
HOW to prepare?
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…and again!…and again
3. Managing time
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HOW to prepare?
After you can deliver content smoothly, work on time management
HOW to prepare?
Use slide auto-advance 20-30 seconds per slide
HOW to prepare?
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Milestone slides
The Five Minute Pitch DeckTitle Page with Company’s Purpose (0:15) Elevator Pitch (0:15) The Problem (0:30) Market Sizes (0:20) Your Value Proposition (0:30) Why Now? (0:20) Go To Market Plan (0:30) Competitive Landscape (0:20) Business Model (0:30) Your Team (0:20) Financials analysis & projections (0:30) What You Have, What you need (0:30) Summary (0:10)
If your pitch needs to be done in 10 minutes, rehearse for 8
HOW to prepare?
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4. Simulating Q&A
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HOW to prepare?
What can you do to prepare
for audience questions?
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Rehearse &
Know your Audience
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Identify weaknesses in pitch
Anticipate questions
Prepare answers
Practice giving those answers
Rehearsal helps you…
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Past pitch events they judged? Questions they asked Their style Read judges’ blogs & watch any videos of them
Demographics of audience? Industry crowd vs general audience Other startups
Know Your Audience…
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Skills Money
Specialist Audience
General Audience
VCAngel
Talent
BankMixed
FFF
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2. Boosting Confidence
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Your confidence...
Audience’s confidence in you
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How to give your confidence a 20%+ boost in just two minutes
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Copyright © Amy Cuddy, TED36
Copyright © Amy Cuddy, TED37
Two minutes of this
Stress level DOWN 25%
Confidence level UP 20%
http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are?language=en38
Drink some water
BEFORE you start
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Feel
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Check out the room before the pitch event
Windows? Heating? Lighting? Projector?
Seating? Acoustics?
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Bring backups
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of your backups
How to recover from a mistake?
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3. Q&A Time
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Questions indicate interest
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"Thanks for that question."
"Great question!"
"That's a really good question."
"I was hoping someone would ask me that."
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Title Page
Elevator Pitch
The Problem (Opportunity)
Market Sizes
Your Value Proposition
Why Now?
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Go To Market Plan
Competitive Landscape
Business Model
Your Team
Financial Analysis & Projections
What You Have, What You Need
Summary
13 Points You Should Have Covered in Your Pitch Deck
So what else can you be questioned on?
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Two Basic Question Types
1.Clarifying
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2. Expanding
Clarifying Questions
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“Why did/didn’t you…?”“Tell me more about…”“I don’t understand…”“How did you calculate X…”
Expanding Questions
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“What if…?”“Have you thought about…”“Where will you be in # years?”
Some Actual Killer Questions I’ve Heard
“Who are your competitors and how are you beating them?”
“Is your customer base growing? What is your retention like?”
“Are you a platform, or are you offering a service?”
Some Actual Killer Questions I’ve Heard
“Show me how you can scale.”
“So when would I get my 100X back?
“I just have one question. What the f**k do you do?”
“Why did you start this company?”
DIFFICULT QUESTIONS?
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Three Approaches To Difficult Questions…
1) Delay
2) Defer
3) Don’t know, but…58
1) Delay
• Paraphrase • Repeat the question • Buy thinking time!
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2) Defer …to your teammates …to your tech experts
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“Tricky question, maybe my CFO Bob can answer that.
Bob, can you help?”
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3) Don’t know, but…
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“Sorry I can’t give you an answer right now. I’ll look into it when I’m back at the office
and get you an answer.”
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TRY to answer a question (say something)
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Questions turn your pitch into a
conversation 65
Continue practicing! Continue growing! Pitch like a pro!
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APPENDIX
The following slides show examples of some common questions you must be prepared to answer
Questions have been summarised according to the relevant slides you must include in your pitch deck
Green questions indicate killer questions, good luck!
Questions You May Get
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“How have people been dealing with this problem before you came along?”
“Why is this a problem?”
“Why is this a BIG problem?”
Questions - The Problem
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“How much does that problem cost?”
“How much will customers pay to fix that pain?”
“How did you calculate the Total Addressable Market?”
“What original market research have you done?”
Questions - Market Sizes
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“Take me on a typical customer’s journey.”
“Why should I care?”
“I still don’t get it. What do you do?”
“I just have one question. What the f**k do you do?”
“What’s your proprietary IP?”
“How will you deal with government regulations (e.g. FDA)?”
Questions - Your Value Proposition
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“Why has no one been able to do this before?”
“What changed to make now the right time for your solution?”
Questions - Why Now?
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“How will you enter the market?”
“How will you grow in the market?”
“How much do you need to expand?”
“Who are your existing customers?”
“How do customers find you?”
“What kind of traction have you got so far?”
Questions - Go To Market Plan
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Questions - Competitive Landscape
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“Who are your biggest competitors?”
“How can you beat them?”
“Why are you better?”
“Competitor X is a huge, established player in this market. How can you beat them?”
“How did you research the competitive landscape?”
Questions - Business Model
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“How do customers pay you?”
“How did you calculate your unit cost?”
“How will you distribute your product?”
“Who are your suppliers?”
“Are you a platform, or are you offering a service?”
“What are your bottlenecks and how do you manage them?”
Questions - Your Team
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“Why did you start this company?”
“How much have you personally invested in this venture?”
“Tell me more about your past successes.”
“Tell me about your past failures. What did you learn?”
“Your team is spread over the world, how to you make decisions and communicate?”
“Why is this team capable of executing your growth plan?”
Questions - Financials
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“When will I get my money back? When will I get my 10X or 100X back?”
“When will you be cashflow-positive?”
“Explain how you’ll get from point B to point C on your financial projections?”
“Why aren’t you bootstrapping?”
Questions - What You Have/Need
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“How much have you already received?”
“Who has funded you so far?”
“I still don’t get it. How have you survived so far?”
“Tell me why you need to spend $100,000 on marketing.”
