Pitching — Convincing People of your Vision
At Startup Victoria we have been organising pitch events and training sessions for almost two years. At the start of 2016 we even re-branded our popular meetup group from Lean Startup Melbourne to Startup Victoria’s Pitch Nights, and shifted the focus from a combination of talks, panels, and pitches to just pitches.
Over this period we have seen good pitches, bad pitches, and more amazingly how a little bit of guidance and feedback can turn a bad pitch into a great pitch. Pitching is a form of communication, and communicating, like any skill, is something that can be learned and improved upon.
Even though it is a risk to spend too much time at networking events and get sucked into the glitz and glam that seems to be surrounding the space, there certainly is value in being able to communicate your vision well and to convince people of that vision.
From a 30 second pitch you give to the person you just met in the elevator, to a 10 minute pitch in front of thousands of people, or even an extensive deck that gets send around to investors, adapting your pitch to the situation and audience is what is going to make or break your pitch.
The presentation below is used by Startup Victoria in pitching workshops, multi-session training programs, and to prepare early stage founders for an audience of 400+ startup enthusiasts at the monthly Pitch Nights. It collates a number of best practices of pitching and communication in an easy to digest format. However keep in mind that a good pitch achieves the best fit for the context in which it is delivered, not applying all the best practices in one pitch.
Startup Victoria organises monthly Pitch Nights where 4 startups pitch to a crowd of 400+ startup enthusiasts. The winner takes home a prize package worth $150,000+. You can apply here if you would like to test your pitching skills.
If you would like Startup Victoria to run a pitching session at your organisation, get in touch with Thomas at thomas@startupvictoria.com.au.
This deck has been put together by Thomas & Charles, and a special thank you goes out to Dave McClure, Nic Hodges, Nick Rakis & Rohit Bhargava in helping to shape the thinking.
