Pitching at Startup Weekend
The year was 2011, and it is only a few months after I started my first product designer role at a startup. I decided to participate in the first one in Rio for fun and understand more about the startup pitching culture.
As an introvert, I was immediately concerned about pitching an idea to a small audience. If it weren't for some colleagues that incentivized me, I would never have had this experience. I was nervous, but I made it, and to my surprise, people voted on my idea, which was approved as one of the projects for the weekend.
A Quick and Simple Presentation
One of the nice things about the Startup Weekend program is that they also had speakers, and on that weekend, Dave McClure spoke for 30 minutes about best practices for pitching ideas.
I took note of the main points he presented, and then I started to make the keynote — time to get hands-on and create the first keynote in my life. First, I had to go to the Mac App Store and download the Keynote app. Downloading, Installing, Done. Cool. And now?
I thought, "Ok, it's my first time so let's follow McClure's key points, and as he said, "Investors don't have time to hear you talking, so be quick or be dead! Be short and objective." (I'm paraphrasing)
The Outline:
- Intro
- The Problem
- Solution / Demo
- The Audience
- The Business Model
- Competitor Landscape
- Customer Acquisition Plan
- The Team
- Why does the team needs funding?
With this structure in mind, I quickly put a presentation together, not overthinking it and driven by my recently acquired product instincts. The first startups started to pitch, and I was already anxious because I had to explain my idea in more detail and take questions from the judges. In addition, one of the judges was the CEO of the company I was working for at the time, which made me even more nervous.
When one team was about to present and had some technical challenges, suddenly it was my time to present. The next thing I noticed was everyone laughing and applauding as I speak, and even Dave McClure praised my keynote. I know this sounds like pure vanity, but hey it did felt good for a second.
Afterword
I’m still an introvert and always have a hard time speaking for an audience, but in retrospect, this and other experiences I forced myself to embrace during my career were life-changing, increasing my confidence in public speaking and helping me open new doors of possibilities.