Part of our team joined the legendary Web Summit in Lisbon in November. Still full of experience(s) and inspiration, we bring you some important notes from “How to fix your shitty pitch” session with Brian Collins, Cristina Fonseca, Mike Butcher and Laura Vincente. What are the dos and don´ts of pitching? Grab your popcorn and let´s read it.

DON´T. YOU. EVER. NEVER.

• ‍I´ve sold my house to fund my startup. At least, don´t say it when pitching.‍
• “It´s nearly ready. It has some problems”, blah blah blah. Get to the point, rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.
• POV: I´m gonna change the world ´cause I´m the best. Reality: You don´t show the many proof to convince them.
• You don´t knowhow to tell a story. But just telling a good story is not enough. The story needs to be about a problem you are solving and so that somebody will pay you for that.
• There´s nothing wrong with the prop, especially when you´re pitching hardware startup. Bring your prototype with you. Let them play with it.

DOS

• You need a pragmatism (how to build a product, how to make it viable) and to tell why – know the benefit of it and why people want it, need it, and will love it.
• You need a structure:

1. What´s the problem you´re solving,
2. why you´re doing that and what´s your solution,
3. how do you compare your solution with others that already exist,
4. and how can we (VC´s) help?

• Know the market and do your homework(research), tell investors why you´re different.
• Emphasize who you are – the founders and the team, your experience is what makes you unique, even though there are other existing solutions.
• Take feedbacks from investors seriously because they see loads of pitches and give you relevant questions. Even if they say no at first, take the notes, come back later with the answers to their questions. Impress them. It´s way better to say “I don´t know. Let me find the answer and I´ll come back to you,” rather than say some you-know-what.
• When something is deeply personal to you, put it into a story you are telling and create a fundamental belief that whatever you´re doing or making needs to be in  the world.