What to Expect at Your First Pitch
By David Shen (50 points), April 14, 2007 — 3 CommentsOr how do you prepare yourself from the audience you may encounter? You’ve prepared as best you can the presentation, but how will it be received? How should you react in certain situations? Ex. if the VC slaps a term sheet down on the table immediately, what should you do?
About David Shen
David Shen is the President of David Shen Ventures, LLC, and advises entrepreneurs of early stage Internet startups in the areas of user experience, product strategy and development, and online advertising.
His experience spans over 14 years in product design and development from Apple, frogdesign, and Yahoo!.
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Talk about this idea
(96 points)
April 14, 08:04 pm
I think this is a fantastic story idea and we will totally work on it. Thanks again.
(4 points)
April 15, 05:04 pm
Considering I got the slap down the first time I presented this would be great!
Make sure to address flexibility in your presentation – even if a VC says “this is how we want the presentation to go” beforehand, they will still tell you to jump around which can totally screw up your flow.
(42 points)
April 24, 11:04 am
I’d love to see this article written; my friends and I discuss pitches often. For example, what’s more effective, pulling up powerpoint, or just chatting knowledgeably. If you can demo, should you power through to that? What if you can’t size your market exactly—what are go ways to discuss the overall shape of it? How can you ask for help without appearing weak in a given area? Is a pitch for an angel different from a VC pitch?
And what do you need in your appendix slides to prepare for surprises?