Think like an investor and get funded (part 1)

Believe it or not: investors are human.

They want you well. They want you to shine. They want to be able to invest in a great business.

Keep that in mind when pitching.

Why would they not? Since they have decided to spend time listening to you, they might as well be spending time wisely.

What is it that they want to hear and see when you are pitching then?

Basically, your:

• Market
• Product/Service
• Business model
• Competition
• Entry barriers
• Distribution strategy
• Financials
• Risk factors
• Capital & Valuation

This is quite basic and represents what to communicate. Perhaps more importantly, is how you communicate. And what conscious and subconscious signals you broadcast when pitching.

The Q&A session is really where the best are separated from the rest. Here investors may use all types of devious and intimidating techniques to find out what you are made of.

By asking you tough questions, they are making sure that you know what you are talking about. They need to make sure. They want to make the right decision and also be happy about their decision afterwards.

How would you approach the situation as an investor? What do you look for when interacting with a person? How do you evaluate someone?

Some of the factors might include:

• Integrity
• Charisma
• Personality
• Likeability

Investors are also looking for:

• Passion
• Experience
• Knowledge
• Skill
• Leadership
• Commitment
• Vision
• Realism
• Credibility
• Coachability

How do you communicate all this things when pitching? Implicitly. As a result of the way you convey your message. Not only what you say matters, but certainly how you say things.

Investors are looking for entrepreneurs that they will be able to collaborate with in the long run. Hence, factors like likeability, commitment and coachability, and passion matter.

Keep in mind that investors have plenty of cases to chose from. They have a short amount of time to evaluate a select few. So they need to employ strategic methods to do so effectively. Typically, they have had the opportunity to evaluate a plethora of cases and hence have a sixth sense when it comes to separating the best from the rest.

Do not even think about playing anything but a straight game. Typically, you are pitching in front of 4-8 jurors with a substantial amount of collective experience. Numerous of them have probably been in your shoes and know what and how you are thinking – as they have probably been thinking the very same at some point of their lives. Stick to integrity and sincerity.

Have you ever seen TV show Dragons Den? While it takes a substantial amount of time and effort to build rapport and gain trust, it only takes an instant to screw up. So play a fair game, be congruent and pay attention to details. It all matters and separates you from the rest.

Keep practicing. Know what to say and how to say it.

Keep in mind: stage time. Capitalize from experiences.

Until next time,

Antonio

The nitty-gritty stuff you should learn in kindergarten (part 1)

Two of the most pivotal, actually intertwined, aspects to consider when preparing for business plan competitions are:

• Practicing
• Learning from mistakes – preferably others’ mistakes

To clarify the latter, you should certainly learn from your own mistakes, but if you can learn from others’ (without having to make them yourself as a result), even better.

When it comes to practicing I can only but recommend: stage time!

Just do it.

Your pitch does not have to be perfect in order for you to start presenting, but it will certainly come closer to perfect the moment you put yourself on stage.

Keep on practicing, and practising, and practising. Eventually you will know your material really well, and now the real fun begins. You will be in the position to take your presentation to the next level.

Now you will be able to experiment with rhetoric stuff, if you will, including: intonation, pauses, gestures, and many more. Perhaps even more importantly: you will have the luxury of improvising.

Match your body language with your verbal message – make a great, congruent and lasting impression.

Work on the tone of your voice, your poise, and your body language. Work with varying your delivery. Experiment.

All of this will be possible, once you know your material really well. And often not up until then (as you will be worrying, dwelling and practicing on what you are supposed to say until you really know your material by heart). Thus, balance the effort you put on the script, the slides with the effort you invest on delivery.

Some of the great advantages with this type of preparation enable you to:

• Adapt to unforeseen things that might happen

• Handle situations with your audience

• Make ad hoc adjustments to your pitch and feel comfortable doing it

• Acclimatize to the circumstances at the event

• Feel relaxed and at ease, improving poise, boosting confidence et cetera

Thus, prepare throughly. Yet feel comfortable to improvise and alter the script.

Be rigid, yet flexible.

While experimenting, you will certainly be making “mistakes”. Unavoidable as they are, mistakes are indeed part of your learning curve and life in general. However, you do not need to make all of them. You can indeed avoid several by taking a proactive approach.

It may in fact be beneficial to view mistakes as milestones on your growing curve – that take you closer towards your desired goals. The more you are growing, the more mistakes you will probably make. This is perfectly natural, so just keep pushing yourself.

However, if you can anticipate mistakes and/or relate to previous experiences in order to avoid mistakes, that would be great. If you can learn from those of others’, even better.

To examplify, in a competition environment, going first might be beneficial, on the one hand. By delivering a great pitch, you set the standard and put pressure on your competitors. Also, having delivered your pitch, you can now concentrate on your competitors, the jurors and adapting your strategy accordingly.

Going last, on the other hand, gives you the intelligence. You can observe your competitors, their mistakes, the jury’s reaction, and so forth. You can learn from their mistakes and capitalize on the obtained intelligence.

When competing in Belgium (at the European Business Plan of the Year) I took plenty of mental notes during the pitches of my competitors: how did they do; what worked well and not; how did the jurors react; what would I do; and so on.

I adapted my tactics quite freely according to these notes, and I also did some ad hoc adjustment during the delivery of the pitch (according to the reactions of the jury and of my coach). Since I knew my material well, I felt quite comfortable in improvising and capitalizing from these changes.

Nobody could really tell that I had altered my message (other than my coach and my team mates).

In conclusion: practice, experiment and learn from “mistakes”. Observe others, learn from their experiences and your own. Know your stuff really well, and be prepared to adapt your message to circumstances. Sometimes you may need to improvise. Be rigid, yet flexible.

Look out for upcoming post: “When to speak up and when to shut up”

Until then,

Antonio

First post!

Welcome everybody. Let me start off by telling you a little something about myself and the reason to why I decided to write this column.

Lately, I have been thoroughly engaged in the process of writing and presenting business plans. As a consequence, I have been asked to share some of these experiences by fellow entrepreneurs.

In this very first post I’ll briefly cover some of the competitions that I have successfully been participating in, the past couple of years.

• Golden Fox (won this one)
• Venture Cup (came in second place here)
• Idea to Product (made it to the finals)
• European Business Plan of the Year (won this one).

For those of you particularly interested in the competitions – some facts:

• Golden Fox (Stockholm): 100+ entries, exclusive for SSE (Stockholm School of Economics) students and alumni, business idea focus, business plan document and pitch.

• Venture Cup (Stockholm), 300+ entries, business plan document only, and several rounds with comprehensive feedback sessions.

• Idea to product (Austin/Texas): regional qualification rounds all over the world, business plan document with focus on commercialization aspects and numerous pitch rounds.

• European Business Plan of the Year (Gent/Belgium): exclusive for select business schools, regional qualification rounds all over the world, written business plan document and several pitch rounds.

Besides participating in these particular competitions, I have had the opportunity to practice in a plethora of other occasions including at networking and promotional events.

Why would one be doing this?

Well, there could be as many reasons as there are entrepreneurs:

• to practice
• to network
• to win competitions
• the adrenaline rush
• the prize money
• the experience
• to develop ones business
• to hook up with investors
• and so forth

Coming to think of it, you could even be doing it as a way to make a living. I actually know some people who do. There are indeed a multitude of competitions all over the world, and you could certainly be spending most days of the year just travelling and competing, should you wish to do so.

Why would you want to do it?

Some people, me included, enjoy generating ideas, pondering, implementing and capitalizing upon them. In a way, it may feel natural to think about how to go about improving the world.

Find your reason, your motivation, your main driving force.

You will certainly need it. Particularly when things may not be running as smoothly as you would want them to. Also, please remember to have fun. Get the most out of each experience. Do your best to win the competition, certainly, yet take some time to enjoy the occasion as well.

Anyhow, I am digressing and this post is growing too large. I will be sharing more about these thoughts in future posts, so stay tuned.

Some upcoming topics you can expect include:

• The nitty-gritty stuff you should have learned in kindergarten
• The yin and yang of presenting with slides
• When to speak up and when to shut up
• On jurors and how to handle them
• Why you need a great coach
• The psychology of a winner
• Keyser Soze: watching an expert in action
• And many more…

Of course I could bring up anything else that you want me to touch upon. Just leave a comment. Look out for the next post: “The nitty-gritty stuff you should have learned in kindergarten”

Talk soon again,

Antonio