Initial meet with a new investor firm

At a first meet/presentation you are prepping someone to talk about you at their companies next partners/investors meeting for 5-10 mins. They need enough to say, but not too much. What do you want them to say about you?

Main presentation to investors

Find your own way of presenting it. If there is more than one of you bear in mind you will both need to be able to do it, even if you plan on just one of you normally doing it (think backup plan, unplanned opportunities when one of you isn’t there, etc).

From there find your best approach to doing it. Either a combined pitch, or solo presenter doesn’t really matter – so long as whoever presents what knows the subject matter and is convincing on it. Confident presentation is important.

You will rarely get the chance to pitch straight through – people always interrupt with questions. It’s ok to e.g. have a main speaker, and others who answer questions.

Best way to develop a script is just to start talking it through and writing down the key points that you make.

Once you’ve done that, go back and work out the key points you missed and write those down.

Then talk it through again, and again, and again. You will eventually find words that you are comfortable with and feel natural.

Then present it to someone else. They should tell you:

• What points you made too many times
• What points you made too late, or too early
• What points were missing
• What information seemed irrelevant

Revise your bullet points accordingly, and start again….

It’s quite good to start by spending a half-day around people who can give initial guidance and then constant feedback, with periods where you go off and do your own thing.

Slides / Deck / Powerpoint

It’s not a good idea to regurgitate what’s on the slides. If you are using them, then talk around the slides and engage directly with the people in the room. It’s incredibly boring watching someone give a talk where your quick read of the slide has already told you what they are going to spend the next 3 mins saying much the same.

Attendees are often likely to have had the deck in advance or can always go back to it. It’s as much about buying into you as it is the slides, so confident presentation is key.