

Pitching to an angel tomorrow. Any last minute tips - Blakefolgado

Hey all,<p>I am still in the office writing the docs for the meeting tomorrow. This will be my first pitch to an investor and I just want to know what you would recommend to make the pitch as good as possible.<p>The business is www.venteo.co (busy improving the site, I know the video is shitty)<p>In overview the app puts all the pictures taken at an event by anyone attending into same album.<p>We are working with a bunch of event organisers who use Venteo to not only save on photographer cost but to capture the real raw moments and get more engagement.<p>So whats your thoughts. Will be in the office for the rest of the night.
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techdog
Hey man, first of all, good luck!

Be ready to do your pitch with or without graphics, with or without white
board,, with or without aids of any kind.

If you were pitching to Steve Jobs, rest assured that after your fourth slide,
or 30 seconds of video, he would interrupt to say you're full of shit. Chances
are, you won't encounter that kind of abruptness. Just saying, be ready for
anything.

Most investors are pragmatists. They will want to know HOW you know that
customers will come; they'll want to know what your market research consists
of; you'll need to provide some kind of market "proof." Do a mock preso with
somebody interrupting all the time to say "That's pie in the sky. Prove to me
it's not pie in the sky."

How many customers do you need to make this thing fly? How soon? What's the
timmetable? Where will those customers come from? How many will come from each
channel? How do you KNOW they'll come? What market testing have YOU done
already? Those are the types of questions to expect. (Among others, of
course.)

If you don't have those kinds of answers, be ready to tell how you'll get
them. What are your income milestones? How can you prove you'll hit them? What
happens if you don't? How soon will you be able to prove you're on track? What
form does the proof take?

Angels see and hear good ideas all the time. What they want to know is why
you're the one to do this and how you know it will work; why this is the right
time; why no one else can execute on this; why it will succeed if YOU do it.

Best of luck to you. Hope this helps.

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Blakefolgado
This is great advice :} on the train now

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l33tbro
You must listen to this before your pitch, if you haven't all ready :)

[http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/533/i...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/533/its-not-the-product-its-the-person?act=1#play)

Longtime This American Life producer Alex Blumberg decided, a while back, to
try and start his own business. He also decided to record the whole process,
including investor meetings that go off the rails, and other tense and awkward
moments that business reporters usually don’t get access to.

~~~
Blakefolgado
Listened to this 3x today, this is an amazing insight an helped me with my
pitch today. We got an offer: ]

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l33tbro
Congrats. Great work

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lewisgodowski
I know I'm a bit late, but here's one competitor I know of in your space:
[http://www.memoryloungeapp.com/](http://www.memoryloungeapp.com/)

As of this past summer, they had very few users. Their CEO was pretty
determined to get a seed round in sometime this Fall/Winter, but who knows how
they're doing now.

Hope your pitch went well! Cheers!

~~~
Blakefolgado
Hey thanks a lot for this, will check them out. Pitch went great!

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opless
Don't "give away" everything of your company.

Remember these people you are pitching to will want to sell it on for a quick
buck. They're not your friends or colleagues, and they absolutely will have
knee jerk reactions at the first sign of problems to protect their investment.

I'm sure not all investors are like this, but unfortunately you need to know
what the bottom line is.

I hope it goes well for you!

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Blakefolgado
Thanks for this caution, will keep this in my head.

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peterhunt
If I were the investor I'd ask you these questions:

1\. Why would anyone use Venteo instead of Facebook's shared album feature?
[http://mashable.com/2013/08/26/facebook-shared-photo-
albums/](http://mashable.com/2013/08/26/facebook-shared-photo-albums/)

2\. Why don't I know anyone who has used Facebook's shared album feature?

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Blakefolgado
Hey Peter,

1\. Facebooks shared albums are limited to 50 users with a max of 200 pics.
The average person at a gig takes 20+ pictures as an example. FB shared albums
cannot cater for this.

Also with Facebooks shared albums its limited to your own friends, on Venteo
its an open platform where people can collaborate in the same album because
they are attending the same event.

2\. Good point, when I tell people about this they always ask "really, how do
I find it". FB have never really marketed it nor ever made significant
improvements since day 1.

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peterhunt
So the first answer is that you are designing for larger scale (# of photos
and # contributors). Cool.

2\. I think needs to be better. Is there a place people are trying to do this
already but they aren't being served well by the product?

