Continuing our series by Tim Taylor on how to present to investors, here Tim tells us how you talk about the problem you solve…

Now that you’ve hooked the audience with your story of why you started your company it’s time to tell the audience the fundamental problem that you solve.  This is where entrepreneurs most frequently lose the audience, believe it or not.  And it commonly speeds downhill from there.

The key to describing your problem effectively is in the simplicity of the words you choose.  Rarely is the problem effectively articulated in the context of technological or scientific jargon.  Ideally, you would like to build off the title slide of your presentation when you described the reason you started your company.

It’s helpful, for example, to transition from the title slide by saying “…and it’s because of this experience that I started this company to solve the following problem”.  Remember, in a typical angel investing audience you are going to have 6-9 different industry backgrounds so it’s important to begin by keeping as many of the audience members engaged as possible.

A few critical things to consider:

1. Consider life before your solution:  I LOVE the idea of describing life before your solution.  Often times it includes an ineffective and costly solution that is the market standard that you are challenging.  Life before often includes creating a time line showing the 4 to 5 steps typically involved in the process and pointing out where the process is broken.  This will make it much easier if your solution slide (the next one) is life after your solution.

2. Leave the jargon at the door:  Doctors have this interesting habit of referring to heart attacks as myocardial infarctions.  I know that myocardial infarction is the proper way to refer to it, but can’t you just say heart attack?  Technology start-ups must avoid the trap of describing where in the “stack” the problem is, it’s the first step to losing the audience.

3. Pictures over words:  If you can, use images in describing your problem.  For example, when I worked with an EMR company I suggested that they use a picture of a doctor’s office overflowing with manual folders.  Visually describing your problem is more engaging and stops you from reading the text.  And when you have text, the audience members aren’t sure if they should read the text or listen to you.

4. Size matters:  Your problem slide is a great place to introduce market size into your presentation.  Often if an entrepreneur describes a problem without market size they lose the hook of the scale of the problem.  Remember, market size does not need to be bullet proof, analytical research.  A reasonably defensible approach works just fine.

It’s not unusual for there not to be a specific “problem” that’s being solved but rather a convergence of a set of market factors.  For example, the proliferation of smart devices combined with the meteoric growth of applications to use on them creates opportunities for technology to improve battery life on the handsets.  Or the explosion of social networking combined with the power of trusted advice sources creates an opportunity for one-to-one marketing technology harnessing the power of the social networks.

In any case, I can’t stress enough that, regardless of whether you are in front of angels or VCs, they want to be engaged.  They want a simple and compelling story that they can relate to and then ask more detailed, even technical, questions if they so desire.

The three most important slides of your presentation are your problem, solution and competition slides.  In my next article I will present ideas on how to articulate effectively how you solve this problem that you’ve identified on the problem slide.  So you want to make sure that you start out on fire!

Tim Taylor

Tim Taylor is the founder of My Pitch Coach (www.mypitchcoach.com)

We also have a range of Valentine’s templates and free printable cards.

The template could easily be used to write your loved one a poem for Valentine’s day.

It could also be used as a Christian or religious template, making it the backdrop to the words of songs, hymns or lyrics, to accompany a sermon, service or communion.

The photo was taken on the island of Kefalonia, Greece, looking towards the Bay of Livathos.  It has been recently suggested that Kefalonia was the island (Meliti) where St Paul was shipwrecked in the Acts of the Apostles
(Chapters 27 & 28).

Everyone would agree that the way you open your presentation is vital. You want to grab people’s attention from the word go, capture any wandering minds and have everyone focused on what you’re about to say.

But what about the ending?

This is an area that has received far less attention – and that’s a pity. No doubt most of us have sat through a presentation that just trails limply and somewhat apologetically away. This misses a great opportunity.

I would suggest that it’s worth putting as much thought into the ending of your presentation as into the beginning. Think of a great piece of music. Most of these don’t fade away but end with a bang – or at least a strong statement. You want to do the same.

Every closure should have four elements: a summary, a conclusion, thanks and a Q & A. Let’s look at those briefly.

First, a summary. This is vital; many presentations these days are complex, multi-layered, with lots to take in. It’s important to underline the key points at the end so the audience is clear about them and goes away with them fresh in their minds.

Next, the conclusion. This is like the punch-line in a good joke. It should be neat, preferably witty, thought provoking, pithy. And if you can manage all of these things, so much the better! This could be the most important message or lesson of the presentation, or the underlying theme. It could be an intriguing or disturbing idea that will keep the audience thinking as they leave – and hopefully even longer than that.

Some people like to use famous quotations here: these are usually well crafted and memorable, so in a way they help to do your job for you. But you must ensure that it’s relevant to your presentation, of course.

It’s polite to thank your audience for listening to you, especially if they are all busy people with demanding schedules. But in any case, people like to be thanked, and it puts them in a good frame of mind.

Last but not least, the Q & A session. Some presenters are happy to take questions en route, but this can have a distracting effect; it’s easy to lose the thread of where you are. Also, if the question is a really absorbing one, it’s better to explore it more fully at the end when there’s less time pressure.

So what style is best for your closure? This will depend on the objective of the presentation. Many of these are designed to instruct or inform, and in such cases the four-element closure should be fine.

If the point of the presentation is to persuade, you will want to flag up what the next step is – which should be the end of the conclusion.

If it’s a sales presentation, you’ll want to adopt a more forceful style. Your presentation will have built logically and skilfully towards an inevitable result, and the conclusion should be the final, unarguable, finish.

Done properly, your closure will be a dexterous and pleasing finale. To ensure that it is, one more thing is needed: make sure you rehearse the ending just as much as the beginning!

By David Vickery

The jigsaw puzzle is blank, so you can personalise it to add in your own text. This would be suitable for showing a concept where there are interdependencies, or where you want to show a complete solution. It could also be used to show interlocking connections.

In this experiment he tried to take a photograph where the lens was half in and half out of the water.

It took a large number of takes (as the sea was quite choppy) but the result was very striking.  The colours have not needed to  be touched up.

It could be used for a presentation with an underwater theme, or just where you want to create quite an impact.

The first and most important thing to remember is that NO ONE likes making presentations. Some people are just better at hiding the nerves than others. Repeat that to yourself, twenty times, in front of a mirror if it helps, before reading on…

The key to a good presentation is to make it SASSY, and this is how:

STRUCTURE

Firstly your presentation should contain structure, it should flow. There should be an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion, each section should be linked to the next. When your presentation flows smoothly, it makes it easier to remember. Practise getting the structure right by rehearsing, read your material aloud again and again, until you know it inside-out.

ADDITIONS

Adding visuals to your presentation will not only enhance what you are saying but will take the focus off the speaker too.

SMILE

Smiling is a relaxant: whenever you smile you subconsciously make yourself happy, and despite what you feel inside this will make you appear confident on the outside. So smile, take deep controlled breaths, in through your nose, and out through your smiling mouth.

SPEAK

When you are standing in front of your audience remember to speak slowly. It is a natural instinct to speak quickly, maybe just to make the whole ordeal finish sooner, but you will have failed in your presenting task if you have not put your point across successfully. Slow it down.

YOU

Yes, I know that everything has been about YOU so far, how you feel, why you feel it, how to put it to good use. But, it’s time to stop focusing on you: it doesn’t matter what you think or feel, it only matters what you say. The audience is only there because they need to learn and understand what you are saying. The focus is on the audience, you are only there to give them the information. It’s all about them, not you.

AND BREEEEATHE…

Just be SASSY and remember that EVERYONE gets nervous, it makes no difference if you are making a presentation to your classmates, or for a huge business venture, if it is your first time or if you make presentations every week. Being nervous can range from just a mild anticipation to a full-blown anxiety attack, but there ARE ways of dealing with this, and even making it work to your advantage.

By Sharren Bessant

Here Tim tells us how to start that all-important presentation…

The title slide of an investor presentation is often overlooked as a great opportunity to set the stage for the start-up story.  The majority of presentations begin with “Hi, my name is John Smith of ABC Co.” and away we go.  I understand that presenters are often nervous, particularly at the beginning, but this is one of many opportunities that they will have to shine during their presentations.

I tell my clients that it’s a wonderful opportunity to begin the presentation off with telling the story of why you started the company.  The power of beginning with a story is it’s familiar territory and you take immediate control of the audience and the presentation.

There are numerous reasons that entrepreneurs start companies but here are a few that I’ve seen work really well as stories to begin a presentation:

1. I felt the pain:  This is the most common reason that entrepreneurs start companies.  Often they are in large companies where they worked in a division or a department that either tried unsuccessfully to solve or was blind to a large problem in the market.  I recently worked with a very successful marketing executive who started a company to leverage social networks to improve large-company campaign profitability and effectiveness.  She knew the pain, she solved the problem.

Engineers commonly feel the pain at their companies when they see the products that they are selling and know that the product doesn’t actually solve the problem most efficiently because they actually experience the same problem in their work.

2. I recognised the opportunity:  There’s often a convergence of technology, trend and opportunity. This is particularly true of serial entrepreneurs.  When they see a set of circumstances come together in a way that they’ve succeeded before, that’s the time to strike.

3. I have a personal story:  These are often the most compelling as long as the story is relevant.  I met a CEO who started a company that has a speech-to-speech technology useful in hospitals, the military and elsewhere.  He had a great background in this technology and market.  But he told me how he moved to the USA when he was 13 and only spoke Farsi.  Language had become a personal passion for him in almost Darwinian circumstances and was a big part of the reason he started the company, a great way to start a presentation.

Remember, that this is NOT the time to talk deeply (or at all for that matter) about technological or scientific ins and outs that make you uniquely qualified to start the company.  Investor presentations are so much more effective when the audience feels that they can connect to the entrepreneur at some level.  It becomes easy when the title slide includes a story that helps them understand why you started your company.

I think it’s critical to remember that starting a company is REALLY hard.  A seasoned investor once told me that entrepreneurs must be insane because insanity is defined as trying the same thing, expecting a different result.  So telling them why it makes “sense” that you are starting a company helps to explain at some level that insanity that we all love.

Not every entrepreneur has a personal or professional story as to why he or she has started a company.  That’s ok, even if you don’t have a story, start energetically by stating:

“Hi, my name is John Smith and I’m excited to be here to tell you about my exciting new investment opportunity ABC Co., a company that solves a big problem in the __________ industry.”

At a minimum the tone is set.

One last suggestion, I recommend putting a text box on the title slide of your presentation that says “Insert Logo Here”.  And every time you give a presentation, insert the logo of the investor group or VC that you happen to be talking to.  They LOVE to see their own logos!

My next article will focus on what the problem is that you are solving.  Knowing the next slide that’s coming helps put the content of the title slide into context.  Now that you’ve engaged them with a relevant, compelling story of why you started the company, it’s time to talk, in simple terms, about the problem you solve.

If at any time you have questions for me, please contact me directly.

Tim Taylor

Tim Taylor is the founder of My Pitch Coach (www.mypitchcoach.com)

They could be used to make a card or invitation, and would also be suitable to use for a wedding.

It is of an aquatic insect in his garden, taken with a macro lens.  It could be used for a presentation about insects, entomology, fly fishing, invertebrates, river or pond life.

We have not been able to identity what this insect is, so if there are any entomologists out there, please let us know.  The picture was taken in the UK in August.  Possible thoughts are that it is an up-winged insect, maybe a mayfly or damsel fly – possibly a member of the Ephemera or baetis families.