This document provides guidance for entrepreneurs pitching their ideas at an MIT entrepreneurship showcase. It discusses key elements to cover in a pitch, including identifying customers and their problems, the proposed solution, business model, and financial projections. The document also offers tips for effective delivery, such as using simple language, body language, and storytelling techniques. Entrepreneurs are advised to identify their weaknesses and work on improving those areas. Example pitch decks and videos are referenced for additional inspiration.

1. MIT Entrepreneurship and
FinTech Integrator
Showcase! And great pitches
August 2018
Elaine Chen

2. Today, we put it all together

3. PLAUSIBILITY!
3

4. Showcase judging rubric, again
• Team Chemistry
• Problem statement
• Proposed solution
• Business model & financial potential
• Presentation skills
• Wildcard
4

6. • Identify a significant opportunity for innovation
• Identify meaningful stakeholders and understand them profoundly
• Conceptualize your solution and its position in the customer journey
• Evaluate the financial viability and the long-term growth and potential of your
venture
• Oral presentation
• Visuals
• Q&A
• Team
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Content
Delivery
Narrative

7. CONTENT
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8. Who is your customer?
• Who are your judges?
– Read their bios
– Google them
– Figure out what they know, what they care about
8

9. Let’s say you are pitching to
investors or advisors

10. Guy Kawasaki’s cheat sheet
1. Title
2. Problem
3. Solution
4. Underlying Magic
5. Business Model
6. Marketing and Sales
7. Competition
8. Management Team
9. Financial Projections and Key Metrics
10.Current Status, Accomplishments to
Date, Timeline, and Use of Funds
10
+ Call to action

11. For ShowCase Day:
Content to cover in 10 minutes
• Tell a story – grab their interest
• Market / customer / problem, needs and wants / total
addressable market (TAM). Why this matters.
• Solution / how’s it better, what makes it special
• Product demo – what it does, what it could become
• Making money – how you reach the customers; pricing;
biz model; financials
• Team / what makes you special
• Summary and “ask” (e.g. seed money; recruiting advisors)
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12. Where are you weak?
Work on that today
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13. Questions?
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14. 14
Imagecredit:istockphoto.com

15. Delivery
15

16. Pro tips
• Body language
• Hook
• Storytelling – evoking vivid imagery
• Ban needless complexity. Use little words
• Speak slowly and use pauses effectively
• Using your voice as a musical instrument
• To script or not to script?
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17. No
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18. Yes
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19. Be careful with scripts
• Three risks
– Sounding like a high school valedictorian
– Sounding like an audible book
– Sounding like a robot
• DON’T STRESS IT

20. Needless complexity
“Our patent-pending headband with silverized fabric
dry electrodes coupled with a medical grade,
miniature conditioning electronics that allows us to
pick up noisy and low signal-to-noise EEG signals
from your forehead while you sleep. We use a
neural net algorithm trained with sleep data from 50
healthy subjects to analyze the data and digitize the
EEG signals into epochs, each representing one of
six stages of sleep, so you and your doctor can
compare your sleep patterns with that of healthy
subjects and understand where it differs and what
measures you can take to mitigate these problems.”
“Our patent pending-
headband measures and
analyzes your brain waves
while you sleep.
The data helps you and your
doctor understand what’s
going wrong, and how you
can fix it. ”
20

21. “Our patent-pending headband with silverized
fabric dry electrodes coupled with a medical
grade, miniature conditioning electronics that
allows us to pick up noisy and low signal-to-
noise EEG signals from your forehead while you
sleep. We use a neural net algorithm trained
with sleep data from 50 healthy subjects to
analyze the data and digitize the EEG signals
into epochs, each representing one of six
stages of sleep, so you and your doctor can
compare your sleep patterns with that of
healthy subjects and understand where it
differs and what measures you can take to
mitigate these problems.”
“Our patent pending-
headband measures and
analyzes your brain waves
while you sleep.
The data helps you and your
doctor understand what’s
going wrong, and how you
can fix it. ”
http://readable.io

22. 22
97 words

23. 23
30 words

24. Don’t read this like a robot
our patent pending-headband measures and analyzes your
brain waves while you sleep and the data helps you and
your doctor understand what’s going wrong and how you
can fix it

25. Without dynamics
25

26. With dynamics

27. Visually punishing slides
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versus

28. Pitching is theater
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29. One last note: Narrative
• And, But, Therefore
• More on this tomorrow morning right after scrum
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30. Example slide decks / great pitches
• Slide templates
• Guy Kawasaki has a great infographic that provides a 10-slide pitch deck template
• LearnLaunch provides a more flexible guideline for a good pitch deck.
• Videos outlining how to pitch
• Simon Sinek: "How great leaders inspire action".
• David Rose: "How to pitch to a VC ”
• Example decks in GDrive (Accion Systems - do not forward), Informed
(MEMSI Jan 2017), Bsavy (MEMSI June 2017), Foodbyte (MEMSI Jan
2018), Mama MeYa! (MEMSI Jan 2018))
• Holy grail example – to inspire you (not scare you) (i.e. if you are a real
startup team that has been working on the biz for 12months+)
• https://youtu.be/f1u5zYZcoX0
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31. AMA (Ask me anything)
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