
Advice on pitching - katm
http://www.aaronkharris.com/advice-on-pitching
======
angersock
A couple of things I've learned:

Find somebody with terrible eyesight, and see if they can read your deck. If
they can't (probably because your colors are bad, you have too much text,
and/or you're being cute with fonts), fix your deck.

Turn off your phone/IM/notifications. Seriously.

Don't bring up anything you aren't going to explain--it just distracts people.
Think of it like leading people through a house--if you show a door but don't
open it, they'll be preoccupied with what's behind that door when you're
making your next important point.

Never do a live demo without screenshots and videos as backups, just in case.
_Never_ let somebody from the audience help you debug things--just kill it and
move on.

Your audience has no idea what you're going to say, so don't worry about
fucking up mid-sentence or pausing too long--most everyone will totally miss
your hiccup. They _will_ remember if you screw up, backtrack, and look visibly
shaken.

Don't read off your deck don't read off your deck _don 't read off your deck_.

~

These are things I've seen students and people new to pitching screw up on a
lot.

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dsugarman
_If you make a joke, telegraph it. If you 're not sure the joke will land, cut
it_

I would also say leave an obnoxious amount of time for laughter, I know at my
demo day pitch I cut laughter short because it was hard to hear and I was
fairly anxious

~~~
akharris
Timing for laughs are tricky. You need to wait long enough such that you don't
cut off the laughter, but cut in soon enough that there isn't an awkward
pause.

~~~
philbo
I have no experience of pitching anything, I'm just a dev but...

Laughs?? Why are laughs even in the script? This is a business deal right? One
day I'd like to start something myself, and I guess I hoped that shrewdness,
business acumen, techical chops, idea-originality, those would be more vital
parts of a pitch. Do we need to make investors laugh too? Genuine question.

~~~
angersock
It's just general showmanship.

Jokes are a good way of managing tension and encouraging rapport with your
audience--if they're laughing with you, they're having a good time, and if
they're laughing because of something you've said on purpose, you've got a bit
of control. It's a good way of staying at-ease in front of dozens of people.

EDIT:

Luckily pitching and presenting IRL is much easier (and less harsh) than
cracking wise here on srs bsns HN. If you can get away with jokes and upvotes
here, you'll be fine at any venue in person. :)

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PeterWhittaker
Excellent advice. Many of the points work for all presentations, not just
pitches.

(But then, some would argue that all presentations are pitches - you want the
audience to buy what you're selling, whether it be because they share your
values, they see the value, or they value the approach.)

------
roberthahn
I'm especially curious about the last point - that screenshot slides are
especially bad.

I gave a presentation to an audience comprising my target market, and did
almost all screenshot slides - the purpose was to give a high-level tour of
the app. I would rather have demoed the product in action, but it was an iPad
app and the facility lacked the means to Airplay the screen.

From what I could tell, the presentation went ok - people came to talk to me
about the app and they were quite excited. So it worked out ok for me.

But circling back to my question, given that experience, I'd like to know what
the context is behind "screenshot slides are especially bad" \- why? What
should be done instead?

~~~
akharris
In part, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you're doing a UX
review or feature demonstration, then screenshots might be ok.

In most other situations, screenshots are hugely distracting. They force your
audience to focus all their attention on details of your slide, rather than
the things taht you're saying.

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frenchman_in_ny
Don't use acronyms that aren't universally recognized, either. Define them
upfront, and even then, people have a tendency to forget what the definition
is.

~~~
adwf
Not only are they not as recognised as you think, even if it is commonly known
there can be conflicting acronyms across different specialities.

eg. During the eurozone crisis they frequently referred to the ECB on the
news. I kept translating it in my head as "The English Cricket Board has just
authorised billions in loans", always took me a few seconds to remember
European Central Bank...

------
mck-
How would you do TAM bottom-up? Don't you need to rely on stats that describe
your total market size?

~~~
ribs
What the hell _is_ tam?

~~~
akbar501
TAM is Total Addressable Market.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_addressable_market](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_addressable_market)

------
sytelus
Gem: _Coolness and legibility are not orthogonal, they 're diametrically
opposed._

------
jnazario
any advice on coaches for helping me develop pitches? i've been displeased
with a pitch i've been giving lately, and i suspect my audience is as well.
i'd like to improve my skills.

~~~
akharris
Videotaping yourself and watching it is a pretty good place to start. You'll
be surprised at how much you can coach yourself.

