Making the right pitch: A Judge’s Perspective

If you have read my earlier post on distinguishing yourself from the rest and attended the One Night Stand event last night, you would figure out that I was one of the judges for the pitching event.

I thought that it might be good if I can summarize some general points and weaknesses about the participants last night in general to help them to improve for future pitching event:

1. Body Language

In retrospect, the participants did not manage to translate their passion about their ideas to the judges. They did not manage to keep the audience inspired about what they do. The idea of an elevator pitch is to be able to sell your idea so that the investor is convinced that you are worth to be invested. It’s like the famous tagline from Loreal and paraphrasing it in this context, it goes along the lines, “You should invest in me because I am worth it.”

There are a couple of things which I thought that the participants should not have done. For example, they should not put their hands in the pocket. By putting their hands in their pockets, they are demonstrating a lack of confidence towards their investor. They have to position themselves in a way where they are perceived to be confident and not arrogant. The best strategy is to put your hands behind your back or in front of you so that it shows that you are serious about what you are doing.

Of course, since it is done in a club last night, I will excuse the dress code of the participants. Of course, in real life, most investors will prefer that you dress up in at least a tie and collared long sleeved shirt for guys or a presentable professional wear for ladies.

2. I am the solution to your problem!

I thought that the teams did not harness the fact that their technology can solve basic problems in real life. I shall not discuss their ideas here. Let me use an example. Suppose I have a piece of biotechnology that can help to reduce hospital waiting time, I should not be talking about how good the technology is. I should be saying, “If you use my technology, you pay lesser but you get your problem solved in less than a few minutes.”. In my opinion, since I am back here in Singapore, I have seen inventors pitch. These inventors are credible and good with their technology. However, they forgot that it is not the scientific community that they are selling their ideas to.

Of course, if you are selling something in the common marketplace, you should learn to price your product. I will dwell on the pricing issue in my future blog entries. You have to explain why by paying the same price for your product, it adds value to your customers. No one has convinced me of that in their pitch yesterday.

3. The questions from the investors are not out to kill you.

We all have differing opinions on the subject of pitching. It is important that the participants should take note on the questions. One of the participants actually forgot the first question that I ask him. I ask two simple questions, and to the investor, if you cannot get the first question, it indicates to him that you are not interested in listening to him. It also means that if you are not even listening, why should I put money into you?

Of course, some people takes questions personally, and I am glad that none of the participants last night did that. That’s my compliment to them. They can be elevated further by understanding the question and try to work out what the judge is asking them. On one occasion, I pointed out to lack of experience in one team and my idea is to get them to convince me that they have a strong advisory board or some grey hair to back them. They did not convince me that they are a good team in that sense. It is important to realize that certain questions are meant to draw out certain answers in you, particularly when the judges question some participants on the markets, regulatory issues and business models.

At the end I was highly entertained by the event last night as a judge. Of course, I have to say that the judges would not be there if not for the innovation and passion of the student organizing team of the 7th Start-Up@Singapore to make this happen.

Author’s note: You can see the pictures of the One Night Stand at Club Momo in V:Too Late website.

Technorati Tags: Entrepreneurship, Singapore, NUS, Business, Start-Ups, Pitching