Tech Entrepreneurs Week

Spent a headspinning week as the pitching coach at Tech Entrepreneurs week in London.

        www.techentrepreneursweek.com

        Techie startups had to compete in several pitching rounds for a £50K prize and the chance to pitch to a room full of hungry VCs and business angels.

        With only 10 places in the final, competition was fierce.  £50K with no strings was good enough, pitching to an entire room of potential mentors, investors and people with weapons-grade usefulness was a chance everyone wanted, badly.

        As the pitching coach I sat in a room with industry advisors as a succession of entrepreneurs rocked up in front of me.   I listened to their pitch, worked out what they were trying to say and guided them towards what they should have been saying and how to say it. 

        Seeing so many eager entrepreneurs in such a short space of time really crystallised the biggest problem people have with pitching.  The fact the businesses were tech businesses and that many of my trainees were techies,   made it even more obvious.

        They almost all suffered from the same malady – The Curse of Knowledge.   They knew too much about their product/business and couldn’t stand back and just tell me what made it an attractive business.  They could tell me why it was clever, complicated, cutting edge, why it came in four colours, had more whistles, lights and bells than an Indian Bus in Diwali.     

                                   What they couldn’t do was explain their business simply, tell me why anyone would want to buy it, invest in it, or how they were going to sell it.   Many of them had been up and running for some time, had already had some investment, had board members with more pedigrees than Crufts.    They were seriously clever people, with good businesses.  But the Curse of Knowledge tied them up in knots so they couldn't make a simple and effective pitch.

        What they didn’t get is that when you are pitching you have to hear your own pitch with someone else’s ears.   You have to work out what they want to know, what will excite them, not just what you want to tell them.

        Pitching isn’t an art, it doesn’t come naturally to most people,  it’s a learned skill. 

        I’m happy to say that I coached the winner, Last Second Tickets, most of the finalists and those who narrowly missed a place in the finals.  None of those final pitches bore much resemblance to the ones they tried out on me on day one.   I rolled up my sleeves and off we went………..

        I was very proud of the final performances.