Telling the people who are closest to you about your startup is scary enough.
So imagine what happens when you have to do it in front of a live audience of strangers, as part of a pitch night, with prizes and accolades on the line?! It’s a terrifying prospect for most, so that’s why I’m here to help.
Over my years working in the Australian startup ecosystem I’ve had the pleasure of watching hundreds of founders take the stage and pitch their ideas, as a judge, audience member or host.
Either way, it’s helped me pick up a few tips and tricks to help even the most nervous public speaker pitch effectively.
Here are my five golden rules to get you pitch-ready:
We’ve all seen our fair share of social media hooks: “I ran the City2surf on Sunday and here’s what I learnt”.
However annoying you might find them, the reality is that they work. In a world full of noise, we humans need something that jumps out at us. Something that stops us in our tracks and hooks us in.
Every good pitch should do the same.
Start with a fact that demonstrates the problem you are trying to solve, the more shocking the better. Or, wow the audience with your vision: “I’m on a mission to reduce the world’s plastic consumption by 30% by 2030”.
Now you’ve got their attention, but most importantly they also now know why they should care.
Can you get your idea down to less than 12 words?
And once you have, if you explained it to a 12-year-old would they understand it?
Ask yourself these questions honestly before you start explaining your solution in front of a live audience.
I work in this industry and have seen countless pitches where by the end I’m asking myself what they are actually doing.
You need to make sure that you’re understood by a generalist audience and that you don’t lose people with jargon.
Keep it simple and short. You’ll likely be saying those 12 words 50 times a day at a networking event, so the quicker you get them tight the better.
The number one mistake I see people make on stage is they don’t use their time efficiently.
I’ve seen 5-minute pitches go for 12 minutes, with the event organisers frantically waving them down from the stage or piping music in like at the Oscars.
No matter how good your pitch is, you’re never going to win a competition if this happens. Plus it just makes you look like you’re disorganised and unprepared.
Practice your pitch at home before the event and use a stopwatch to get yourself as close to the time limit as possible. And on the night, use your watch as a timer to check how you’re progressing.
As important as getting your audience hooked at the start, is making sure that by the end they leave with a big takeaway message.
If you didn’t mention your vision at the start then now is the time to.
And make sure you leave your audience with “an ask” so that they know how they can interact and help you.
This could be that you’re looking for users for your product, investors to support your growth, or something as simple as followers for your social media.
Be sure to call out what you need and how the crowd can connect with you.
I always give every founder that I share a stage with the same three pieces of advice when it comes to overcoming nerves:
Most founders coming off stage for the first time say that it was one of their biggest career highlights.
Hopefully now that you’re armed with my golden rules, you’ll soon be able to say the same.
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Dickie Currer is the head of ecosystem at Scalare Partners and the co-national lead of Tech Australia Advocates. Currer was formerly the head of partnerships at Startup Victoria.
