The General Pitch

From my chat with an individual seasoned in entrepreneurship today, I realized that I have been giving "The General Pitch" for the past year. There are two big flaws with what I have been doing.

1) The General Pitch: here's what investors hear all the time.

• Our potential market size is above $10 billion dollars;
• We are curing a BURNING PAIN for our target segment;
  
• Our adoption rate is going to be AMAZING;
• Our financials display a hockey stick ramp up;
• We'll reach break-even within 2 years;
  
• We're going to exit by acquisition.

The recommendation I got today is to send the key reading material to the investor prior to the in-person meeting. You reserve the face to face time to resolve the nitty-gritty details, which is where the investors reveal their true objections of why they're reluctant to write you a check.

2) Not hiring an actor.

Number 2 is really true. I should hire someone that looks like a banker to do my pitch for me. It's a credibility thing. Investors can deny this all they want, but once they see me get up to do a presentation, they have already imprinted in their head that I'm young and enthusiastic, which equates to inexperience in their books.

I spend the next 20 minutes they've allotted for my presentation fighting this stereotype. It doesn't help that I spend these precious minutes giving The General Pitch.

This is why I should hire an actor to do my pitch - it has worked before from what I've heard - any takers for this deal? :)

Well, live and learn. At least I'm glad that I came to this realization.