Chris Heivly, co-founder of The Startup Factory, says entrepreneurs making pitches to potential investors in a formal setting requires them to throw strikes. And if you aren’t nervous then something is wrong.
Heivly wrote the blog just ahead of Wednesday night’s TSF “Showcase” pitch event as the four latest Startup Factory-backed companies prepare for a formal pitch event. From 5-7 p.m. at the Full Frame Theater on the American Tobacco Campus, executives will deliver pitches they have been practicing for weeks.
The intensity that Heivly and partner Dave Neal require in prepping for the showcase is spelled out in Heivly’s post.
“With the proliferation of pitch competitions, start-up events, and accelerator Pitch Days, you will at some point have the opportunity to pitch your company. In front of hundreds of people. Some of them even important. Are you ready?” he writes in his “Thoughts from the Rooftop” blog. “This is not anything like the one-on-ones or the one-on-few table meetings you have been doing. Let me repeat–this is not even remotely like a one-on-one or small group meeting.”
In a post that also appears at INC.com, Heivly offers advice that stresses three “rules” or “core ideas” for pitching:
- Throw out your existing PowerPoint deck. Replace it with a story.
- Practice, practice, practice.
- As David Crosby said, let your freak flag fly. In other words, be yourself.
You can read Heivly’s entire post online.
As WRAL TechWire reported earlier this month, the TSF showcase has been downsized from past public events to a private, invitation-only pitch session.
With just investors watching, the stakes are higher than ever for these startups.
