Original idea and deck by Amit Seth

1. Session 6:
Presentation Skills. Successful Pitches.

2. Master Agenda
Session 1 – April 15th What is creativity?
Session 2 – April 22nd Behavior traits of a successful entrepreneur.
Session 3 – April 29th, 2:00-3:00 Turning your passion into a business opportunity.
3:00-4:00 App Development
Session 4 – May 6th , 2:00-3:00 Steps needed for your startup ... 1, 2, 3 GO.
3:00-4:00 App Development
Session 5 – May 13th ,2:00-3:00 Financials of the business opportunity.
3:00-4:00 App Development
Session 6 – May 20th , 2:00-3:00 Presentation skills, successful pitches, what ideas got funded.
3:00-4:00 App Develpment
Session 7 – May 27th , 2:00-3:00 Tweaking business plans and getting it presentation ready .
3:00-4:00 App Development
Session 8 – June 3rd Pitch your business plan to VCs (12 spots will be available).

3. Weeks 1-5 recap
• Week 1
• Passion
• Creativity
• Problem
• Week 2
• Leadership
• Hardwork
• Integrity
• Social Good
Week 3
• The Hacker Way
• The VC
• Business Plan
Week 4
• Incorporation
• Paper Money
• Pivot
• Exit
Week 5
• Profit = Sales - Costs
• Revenue Models
• Financial Statements

4. What is Wrong with this Picture?

5. WhywedoMarketing?

6. How to Write a Strategic Marketing Plan?
•https://youtu.be/-
ul65NjOMzo

7. How to Pitch for Startups Business
Funding?
Pitching is not a one-off activity, but core to being a startup.
Important to prepare a pitch to a specific stakeholder …
... to a customer, to a partner, to a cofounder, to an investor.
Entrepreneurs usually make the mistake that pitching for funding …
... is a one time activity and not necessarily a marketing task.
Source: Efactor: https://youtu.be/zWL2-EtVqog

8. Customer Research
• Listen to your customers when
creating a product for them
• Watch your customer use
mockups of your product,
because they may not know
what they want
• Without Customer Research …
» ... startups get created that focus on features
customers did not want!

9. Class Exercise

10. Class Exercise
• Introduce your Founding Team and Startup Name
• What does the Startup do (idea)?
• Pick one or two components from Business Plan template and
describe the components to class.
• Discuss/Demo your proto-type
Pitch-fest

11. Appendix – Business Plan Template

12. Business Plan
Problem Statement
Solution to Problem
Business Model
Product and Technology
Competition
Marketing and Sales
The Team
Financial Model

13. Startup Business Plan Template
For Presentation to VCs
Adapted from Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Principle
10 Slides, 20 Minutes, 30 Points Font

14. Before you Pitch to a VC!
• Uncover your audience’s “Hot Buttons”
• Ask yourself the question:
• “To make today’s meeting as effective as possible, what are the
three most important things that you would like the audience to learn
about your company at this time?”
• Adjust time & emphasis on sections accordingly
14

15. Executive Summary
• <Your Company> is a <what you are> specializing in <what you
do> for <specific customers>.
• Our <special sauce> gives us a <unique advantage> that will
capture ??% of this $??? M market.
• We will be looking for $?? M to build an <enabling function> that
will generate $?? M over the next XX months.
• <20% of presenters do this well

16. What’s the Problem?
• Describe the problem you are looking to address in simple, clear
concise terms
• Current state, seriousness of problem
• Desired future state, benefit to customer
• Scale of the initial market
• No more than 6 bullets
• Graphics better than words
• < 10% of presenters do this well

17. What’s your Solution
• Describe your solution in simple, clear, concise terms.
• Key benefits, features
• Product roadmap
• No more than 6 bullets
• Graphics better than words
• > 70% of presenters do this well

18. What’s the Business Model
• Explain how you are going to make money - clear, concise (If you
can’t describe your business model in 20 words or less, you probably
don’t have a workable model)
• What’s the value to the customer? Customer Value =(Seriousness of
Current State + Benefits of the Desired Future State) Cost of the
Solution
• Bottom up is better than top down
• < 10% of presenters to this well

19. What’s your “Special Sauce”
• What’s the proprietary, underlying “magic” that gives you a clear,
defensible advantage?
• Patents on their own are rarely sufficient
• What are you going to do particularly well that it will be difficult to
copy?
• Graphics better than words
• <30% of presenters do this well

20. How you are going to Market & Sell your product or Service
• Describe your Marketing & Sales strategies in simple, clear, concise
terms.
• 1 or 2 marketing strategies
• Sales cycle & strategy for initial market
• No more than 6 bullets
• Graphics better than words
• < 50% of presenters do this well

21. Competition
• There is ALWAYS competition – even if it’s the way it’s done now.
• Provide a Competition Analysis
– a table/chart comparing your solution to the current approach and
major competitors, by key benefit
• The more realistic you are, the more believable your case
• < 30% of presenters do this well

22. Who’s on the Team?
• Management Team
– Why is this the Right Team?
– relevant information only - shorter is better
– include relevant company names & positions
– include independent Directors, if relevant
• Identify holes that will need to be filled
• < 10% of presenters do this well

23. Financial Projections
• P & L (by Quarter for first year, annually thereafter, 3 years out)
• Past Year Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 TOT 2nd Year 3rd Year
• Revenue
• COGS
• R&D
• S&M
• G&A
• EBIT
• Cash Flow
• Bottoms up better that top down
• Assumptions more important than numbers – be prepared to explain
them
• < 10% of presenters do this well

24. Status & Timeline
• Major Milestones, what’s been achieved to date, Current Status, what
still needs to be done & how long it’s going to take.
• Include expected liquidity event.
• <30% of presenters do this well