I think my face is still recovering from smiling.
Last Thursday I had the privilege of sitting on the front row and watching 14 founders pitch in front of an audience of 350 people as part of Dogpatch Labs Demo Day, bringing together the teams from the NDRC Accelerator and #Founders Programme.
I'd been working with the founders all week on how to tell the story of what they do, stand tall and use their voice and body language effectively to bring their message to life.
So how do you keep an audience captive, listening to 14 pitches with no break?
This is what I saw the superstar founders do:
1. Simplicity is key
You simply cannot expect an audience to listen to 14 complex pitches without their brains starting the melt.
No one remembers something they haven't understood.
Despite there being some more technical companies pitching, they prioritised keeping the language simple and drawing curiosity about their product and impact.
The technical chat can always come at another point once you've actually got people interested.
2. The power of a hook
When you start any pitch or presentation our brains are looking for validation that this is worth our time and attention. If it's not, we zone out pretty quickly.
The first sentence has to be an attention grabbing statement.
Every pitch started with either a bold statement which framed the problem in a compelling way, or explained what the company did in a simple one liner.
Either way, the sentences were short and hooked us in.
3. Be bold not apologetic about your traction
Half of the companies pitching were very early stage, yet many of them already have customers and traction that they should be proud of.
It is easy to underplay traction for fear of sounding arrogant, but there is no point doing this when faced with a room of investors and people who you want to get bought into what you're doing.
People aren't just going to assume you have great traction - you need to be explicit about it.
4. A bold pitch requires bold delivery
Most of us are more used to speaking 1-1, or to a smaller group which means we forget about the need to project our voice, use our body language more dynamically and take up space when on a larger stage.
But that is exactly what each of the founders achieved when they were pitching.
They owned the stage, and that takes boldness and guts.
Finally, events like these are made special through the quality of the crowd, and the audience were INCREDIBLE. They celebrated, they cheered and brought so much energy to the room.
It made all of the difference.
So next time you pitch, take a look at the mini playbook above, it will help take your pitch to the next level.
Well done to all of the teams who pitched last week, I'm sure you're still celebrating the success you achieved.
Gemell, Talio, Cocu, Shōden AI, GamesGrid, Nocomed, biota Oliver Begley, Glitch, inspeq ai, Nurture, Workstream, Vesta Insights, StoreHero, Blynksolve. 👏 🎉 ⭐️
