Yet too many entrepreneurs keep sticking their hands into the Black Mamba cage and they keep getting bitten - most don’t survive.

I made a presentation at the AusFirst Angel Conference last weekend. I spent quite a bit of time with 2 entrepreneurs They were in a contest against one another to see who could bombard me with the most detail about their respective products. My head was spinning. Did I remember any of it. No.

On Monday I went back to work and then promptly forgot about the entrepreneurs. So, what went wrong? How could they have made a bigger impact?

I’ll remember you if you tell me about…

- what problem in the market your product/service targets

- the markets (how big, where, basic marketing strategy)

- any big orders, special contacts, highlights

- why people will buy your products/services instead of your competitors

- why your team can be successful

- you can make money from this market.

Don’t give Black Mamba pitches. You won’t be remembered and you probably won’t survive.

I’ve just interviewed Bob Christiansen from Southern Cross Venture Partners. Bob and his partners have a fund of about $300million and they invest in early stage technology companies.

Bob has been in the game a long time. He’s heard thousands of pitches.

The biggest mistake according to Bob…

The biggest mistake is to talk too much about the technology. Bob made it very clear that he just wants a few minutes about your technology smarts. For the first meeting, he’ll assume that the technology works.

Of course he will test and carry out due diligence on the technology, but that comes later. It’s the kiss of death to focus on technology at the first meeting. He wants to hear about how the entrepreneur and the investor will make money together from the technology. Focus on how you will make money and Bob will be interested.

And don’t be afraid to talk about the blue sky. He and his partners want to know how big this can be. Is it scalable, can the team carry it off, etc, etc,etc.

You can see more of the interview with Bob here at pitchingtoinvestors.com. It will be loaded up in a few weeks.

Cheers

Gail Geronimos
Co-Founder

I worked with 11 companies to get their pitches just right. It was a bit of a mixed bag to start with. Over about 3 weeks before the big day we re-structured and revamped the presentations. Lots of work there!

It is hard to get all the meaty info into just 4 minutes - but that’s the deal. Our guys and gals did a great job. But there were a few tense moments.

A major point that the investors made was that they were looking for passion and enthusiasm. They wanted to see lots of life in the pitches. They’ll forgive a few little glitches and you don’t have to be perfect. But you do need to tell a good story. And investors want to know what they will get out of the deal. This was a key point hammered home by all investors. It is so easy to get off track.

One entrepreneur did really well during the 4 minute talk. He had samples, he was very passionate, a bit of a joker but it all fell apart during questions. No substance, he gave answers that were way off key and he had no idea of what the investors needed.

It’s make or break time. There is a lot to cover in these 4 minute pitches but the effort is really worth it.

Cheers

Gail Geronimos

Here are some great videos from the UK series of the Dragon’s Den. These are examples of pitches and presentations to investors which didn’t get the green light from the Dragons.

StoryCode.com - Arguing will get you nowhere fast!

Safari Boards - It’s all uphill for these guys!

RespiVest - Where winning isn’t winning…