This morning I had the privilege of attending the 2nd seminar of a 3 seminar series for Venture Atlanta, hosted by DLA Piper and Grant Thornton. The first seminar was about making a great executive summary and I will go into detail about that in the next post.
Today's seminar was about presentations. Everything from pitching yourself to how to act in front of hundreds of investors. I'm going to break down each aspect of presenting and discuss why certain methods work better than others.
Yourself- If you do a lot of networking or meet people on a regular basis, you probably have the same 20-30 second introduction memorized from introducing yourself so much. For others, this isn't something that they focus on. Having a well put together "pitch" for yourself can only help you. This is especially true when you have only a brief amount of time to introduce yourself.
Be confident in everything you do while presenting. Firm handshake. Eye contact. Figure out the exact person that your target investor is and tailor your presentation to them. Stick to your style. If you're laid back, make a laid back presentation. If you're funny use that to your advantage. Be yourself. It will only make things 100 times easier for you.
Technology- We all know how useful PowerPoint is, but we also know how boring the slides are to read through. Slides should compliment your speaking points, not make them. Pictures, single words or phrases, and short (RELEVANT) videos can help make this possible.
Worried if your text is too small on your slides? Estimate the age of the oldest person in the audience and divide that number by two. The result will be the font size that you should use.
DO NOT look behind you to the projector. If you're presenting for 6-10 minutes, you most likely will have 6-20 slides. Memorize them. Perfect practice makes perfect. Video tape yourself presenting and fix the parts that you messed up on.
Prepare to present as if none of your slides work, your video doesn't work, links don't work, etc. YOU are the brains behind the presentation. Don't let the faulty technology leave you hanging out to dry.
Content- Know the guidelines. Rule #1 is don't go over the time limit. If you do, then make sure you don't leave out the key detail that you were saving for the end. Use the first 30 seconds of your presentation to grab the audience's attention. Once you have their attention you will have it for a few more minutes, but keep it simple. Explain what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. You should be able to present to an 8th grader and have them fully comprehend what you are talking about.
Since you're NOT letting the audience read off of your slides for the entire presentation, you must deliver all of the key pieces of information in a clear way. Be concise and to the point. If you're looking to raise $3 Million and it will take you 8 months to break even with this amount, then say it. The more questions you can answer for investors during your presentation, the better.
Check out this video that I saw recently with Simon Sinek. Keep what he says in mind when you describe what you do, how you do it, and why you do it.
First meetup is tonight at 5:30 at Marlee's Coffee on Decatur right by GSU. Looking forward to a great turnout!
