Pitching Advice: Knock-outs, Will Ferrell and be OCD

Charlie O’Donnell blogs a list of some great startup advice for pitching.  Good combination of attitude and real world specifics!

http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2009/03/10-ways-to-improve-your-startup-pitch.html

Some highlights.

1. Be confident and realize that you are pitching at all times.  I can’t tell you how many times I’m at a social event and someone tells me about their startup with the pitch equivilent of a “wet noodle” handshake.  Everytime you tell someone what you do, that’s a pitch.  Knock it out of the park every time.  

2. Tell me something you learned about the market or your users–shows you are adaptable.  The worst thing an entrepreneur can do is be “strong and wrong”.  The best ideas are iterated on constantly–and the last person an investor wants to talk with their company about is someone who can’t take feedback.

4. Who currently supports what you’re doing with real action?  Has anyone made a bet on you, or does the investor need to be the first one in the pool?  Employees working for sweat equity, customer committments, family and friends willing to break their piggybanks for you–anything to make it so that the person you’re talking to doesn’t feel like Will Ferrell–naked in the town square with no one running behind him.

6. Convince investors that you are obsessed with the problem you are solving.  This needs no explanation, but is often lacking.

7. What have you learned from your competitors–know them like the back of your hand.  If an investor asks you, “Do you know the folks doing “x”?” and “x” is anything having to do with your business whatsoever, the answer better be yes, and you better know how you’re better than them, can learn from them, or can work with them… and preferably you already have spoken with them.