Being pitched at, often feels like being picked-up. Investors don't want you to be boring or sleazy or worse, feel manipulated and end up with buyer's remorse. There is a WEALTH of great stuff online about how to structure a great pitch. So this is not one of those. This is a peek into the subtle ways to win the long game between investors and inventors. [This deck probably won't make much sense if you weren't there, but for my amazing crowd at #SparkUp - thank you, hope this is a handy revival]. Books mentioned: Think like a Freak - Dubner and Levitt; Anti-Fragile- Nassim Nicholas Taleb; Art of War - Sun Tzu and the War of Art - Steven Pressfield; Sherry Turkle - Alone Together (the robot jealousy story) STORYCRAFT asides worth checking out: http://www.spokepoint.com/ - http://www.jasonshen.com/2012/eleven-compelling-startup-pitch-archetypes-with-examples-from-yc-companies/ - Jason Shen on the 11 archetypes emerging from YCombinator http://www.writersstore.com/the-8-steps-to-a-powerful-pitch/ Embed the Hero's Journey into your psyche - it comes up everywhere, we humans find it compelling. Use it. Pic credits again: Investorpitches.com (those great pitcher archetypes) and tarotastic on Flickr.