It’s simple. You want to grab attention, offer a compelling story that investors want to be a part of, and then clearly show who your market is, who your competitors are and how you’re going to make money. That’s all fine and well, but there’s an art to the presentation too.
Do
Be the focus of attention. Keep things slick and simple.
Don’t
Stand in front of a long-winded Power Point presentation.
The five rules of presenting to a panel
- Always use an app or presenter tools like Powerpoint’s Presenter View or Ovation. This will help you pace yourself and ensure you end on time having covered everything you’d planned to cover.
- Always use a remote control. Bending over to fiddle with your laptop is distracting to you and the people you’re pitching to.
- The handouts you give are not your presentation. You want a spare, zen-like presentation to convey who you are to get your audience personally involved in your story, but your handout should offer a lot more information.
- Don’t read your speech. Ever.
- Never, ever, look at the screen. You’re making a connection with your audience, and you can’t do that if you aren’t looking at them.
