Thursday, February 21, 2008

Entrepreneurial lesson: Ingredients of a failed presentation

AND CLUES FOR A SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATION!

In the past couple of weeks I have heard a few pitches and noticed some common ingredients. So in my humble opinion here is what did not work.

1- Selling features and product capabilities as opposed to a vision and a company.
2- Being in love with the idea and failing to see the need for a business model.
3- Getting lost in details and going on tangents.
4- Pretending to know it all.
5- Failing to demonstrate how investors can get a return on their investment.
6- Having a big salary for founders built into the projections.
7- Too much animation (distracting) and too small of fonts (can’t read).
8- Disagreeing partners
9- Asking for too much money or not enough to get to the next milestone - winging it.
10- Offering a pre-cooked deal – We have a private placement memorandum (PPM).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sid, There are so many different opionions you get on this. They say, try to say your points with animation and pictures and don't throw in too much detail. You look like a techi, who cant see the bigger picture or you will bore investors with too much details.

They tell you when it comes to money always ask for more than what you need, since there is more work down the line than you know at the early stages.

You have to be in love with your idea and think it's the end of the world or else why are you doing it.
My question to folks is, will something in you die, if you don't do it. If the answer is yes, then i know i have a guy who is so passionate that he won't sleep.

So some of the things you mention are also the basic ingredients of an entrepreneur. Point is, as investors, do you want a real raw Obama or are you looking for a Hillary, a polished idea factory :)

Ideally i would make my own mix of the two, but you can't. Is there really a right profile of an entrepreneur, should they really sound the same?

regards
Rajat Khurana

Anonymous said...

If im in the situation of the owner of this blog. I dont know how to post this kind of topic. he has a nice idea.