Jason Calacanis’ most recent post to his email mailing list was a response to a recent 10-day stretch in which he sat through 200 company demos for the upcoming TechCrunch50 conference, which will take place September 8th–10th in San Francisco.
The TechCrunch conference was started last year by Jason and Michael Arrington as a launchpad for the most promising 50 startup companies to show off their products in front of VCs, corporations, fellow entrepreneurs and press for absolutely no charge. Considering that DEMO (which takes places during the same dates) charges $18,500 for startups to launch their companies, it is no surprise that startups have been anxious to demonstrate their products for a chance to be a part of the TechCrunch50.
Jason recently sat through 2,500 minutes of demos in 10 days, in which 200 startup companies had approximately 10 minutes each to present their products, mostly over phone and web conferencing. After sitting through so many demos, Jason has decided to compile a list of tips to help entrepreneurs demo their startups.
The following 10 tips are guides to help you demo your product successfully. They are incredibly useful and I felt it was important to post them on my blog for anyone who hasn’t seen them yet. I also added some of my own feedback.
1. Show your product within the first 60 seconds
According to Jason, “Folks with killer products CAN’T WAIT to show you their product.” On the other hand, people who begin their presentation talking about the market, corporate bios, figures, and showing boring tables and charts generally give off the impression that their product isn’t very good. The truth of the matter is that if you’ve got a killer product then the figures aren’t the most important thing at this stage in the game.
When you begin your demo, jump right into presenting your product within the first minute. This will show that you are confident and that you believe in your product. If your product isn’t finished or ready to show then don’t do the demo. As Jason says, “If a picture tells a thousand stories, then a product demo tells a million.”
I would add to this that while this is all true, sometimes it is necessary to show market figures in order to clarify the need for your product in the market. However, you should save this information for a later time after you’ve made your pitch and proven that you’ve got a product that’s worth spending the extra time listening to statistics.
2. The best products take less than 5 minutes to demo
If you are presenting a product that is truly a killer product then you should be able to demo it in under 5 minutes. To back up this statement, Jason gives some examples:
a) Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google could surely demo their product in less than 5 minutes—Type a search term in the box and receive great results.
b) Steve Jobs could, without a doubt, demo the iPod in less than 5 minutes—Connect it to your computer, sync your music, use it on the go to listen to music by using the wheel to select songs.
c) Chris DeWolfe of MySpace could easily demonstrate the site in less than 5 minutes—Sign up, complete a profile and add friends, widgets and applications.
As Jason says, the better the product the Less time it takes to present.
It is also important to keep in mind that you don’t have to explain every little detail and feature of your product in your demo, as proud of it as you may be. For instance, Larry and Sergey wouldn’t show every single feature of Google in a demo—that could take days! Stick to the most important and simplistic features that will help you demo your product in the shortest amount of time. After that, if people would like to hear more, you could go into further detail.
3. Leave people wanting more
If you follow Jason’s advice and present your product in less than 5 minutes then the people you are presenting to should at least be intrigued, if not blown away, by your product. If they are not, then something is wrong with your product and you need to start rethinking and rebuilding.
Your goal should be to give just enough information so that the people you are presenting to know what your product is and leave room for questions. Jason related to his own experience when he pitched Mahalo to investors. He showed investors 5 pieces of paper with search results from different engines and asked which was the best. He writes: “Obviously I knew my result was the best, and that simple demonstration lead to MASSIVE discussion.”
Let your panel discover your products merits on their own. Simply provide a short but compelling demo to intrigue them enough to do it.
4. Talk about what you’ve done, not what you’re going to do
Strong startups usually talk about what they have already accomplished, something worthwhile—they have a killer product to show that is functional and unique. On the other hand, weak startups usually spend a lot of time talking about the future of their product because they don’t have anything impressive to show right now.
Any company can talk about what they will do next—add a mobile version, advertise, build a widget or application. However, your presentation should focus on what you have already done. Not what you will do. This is much more impressive.
Take Steve Jobs, for example. he doesn’t waste time talking about the future of Apple. He announces Apple’s current achievements. This is part of what has made Apple the success that it is.
5. Understand your competitive landscape—current and historical
When you are pitching your product it is incredibly important to know your competition, past and present. Do research about companies that have successfully or unsuccessfully pitched products that are similar to yours. Research their successes and failures, who they received funding from, whether they were sold and who bought them.
Jason writes that three companies presented group SMS messaging products this year and none of them knew about UPOC.com, an important group messaging service established in 1999, way ahead of its time. In Jason’s words, “If you don’t know the competitive landscape and the shoulders you’re standing on, folks are not going to be comfortable giving you their money, time or attention.”
I would also add that it is important to research previous and current competitors as this will help you evaluate your revenue model, business activities, and not repeat past mistakes that have been made. If you’re spending all this time and effort on your startup, you might as well take advantage of learning from other similar cases.
6. Short answers are best
When asked questions during your demo, answer them as shortly and concisely as possible. Because you have been with your company from day one you have thought a lot about every minute detail. When asked a question, many details may spin around in your head and if you try talking about all of them you could speak for ages. Keep focused and give a short and to the point answer.
Jason gives the following question as an example: “What happens if Google enters your market?” Here are a few examples of how to answer this question concisely and confidently:
a) “Google has entered many markets, but they are only #1 in search and search advertising. They trail in social networking to MySpace and Facebook, in classifieds to Craigslist, in news to Yahoo and AOL, in email to Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo, and in instant messaging to Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo.”
b) “We’re not sure if Google will enter our market, but hopefully we’ll have developed our product enough that it will be a real sustainable business by that time.”
c) “We think Google might enter our market at some point, and if they do they and their competitors will certainly consider buying us—creating a bidding war for our entrenched position.”
d) “Google is a very big company right now with a very big cash machine that they have to focus on and protect—they will never do our business with our level of focus. We will out execute them on all fronts.”
You may have all of these ideas in your head, and each is an excellent response on its own. However, giving all of these responses will simply take too much time.
7. PowerPoint bullet slides are death
Anyone who has ever sat through a PowerPoint explaining anything in bullet points knows that bullet points are incredibly boring. Do your self a favor and don’t use bullets, unless you want to bore your panel to death.
According to Jason, bulleted PowerPoints show that “you don’t have the ability to create a compelling story with data” and that “you don’t think much of the person being presented the information.” Instead, include product shots, charts and tables to present your product.
Again, keep your presentation as short and to the point as possible. Don’t add extra slides to get laughs or unnecessary graphics that are just taking up space. Keep your presentation direct and to the point.
8. How to use this new device called the phone
When you are presenting your product over the phone use a landline with a handset—nothing else!
Mobile phones often cut out and have a horrible connection much of the time; speakerphones are terrible as well. Conducting your company demo on your mobile phone or speakerphone is simply disrespectful to the person you are pitching to, yet for some reason people continue to do it.
Take your presentation seriously. Use a landline and speak on a handset. This will ensure that you will be heard as accurately as possible. You have a limited amount of time to present and don’t want to deal with mobile or speakerphone or issues. Use speaker phones only for Q&A sessions.
If you are using a headset, make sure that it is high-fidelity and put the microphone as close to your mouth as possible. Don’t drink, eat, chew gum or breath loudly into the microphone. This can be distracting and just plain gross.
You’ve worked hard to prepare for your presentation. Don’t let mobile or speakphone issues detract from the end result.
9. How to handle questions you don’t know the answer to
If your presentation goes well then you will probably be receiving a log of questions and chances are they you won’t know the answer to every single one of these questions. The following tips will help you when you aren’t exactly sure how to answer a question:
a) Allow yourself a moment to think before answering the question. If you feel awkward with your pause, you may say: “That is a great question… Let me think about it for a second.”
b) Be honest. If you don’t know the answer to the question then don’t force it. You can say something like “I’m not exactly sure, I’ll think about it and get back to you.” Or you can pose the question back to the asker—“I’m not exactly sure, what do you think?”
c) Think out loud if you need to and ask for help in answering the question. For instance, “I hadn’t thought about that. Let’s explore the answer together.”
d) If you don’t know how to answer a question you can say that you don’t have enough information right now but that your company will deal with the answer when the issue arises, later down the road.
People can tell when you are answering a question with B.S. so it is always better to be just be honest. People appreciate that.
10. Always confirm the time of your meeting/call and always be 15 minutes early
Business people are busy and it’s common for meetings to get mixed up. Therefore, it is important to confirm all of your meetings. Jason writes that he confirms each of his meetings or phone calls twice—once in advance by email and once on the day before the meeting. Jason says that “reconfirming meetings makes you look like a true player and it costs you nothing.” Send a simple email that confirms the date, time and address of your meetings. Be sure to include your mobile number in case anything changes.
It is also important to arrive early. You are, after all, meeting with someone who may invest in your company or want to do a business deal. It’s respectful to sit in their lobby so that you will be ready to go as soon as they are. Even if you are doing a conference call you can call early and wait on hold.
However, don’t show up too early. Jason advises “don’t show up more than 15 minutes ahead of time or you’ll look like a stalker. If you get to your meeting 45 minutes ahead of time go to the Starbucks and buy yourself a treat for being so on top of things.”
These are all excellent tips and even though some may seem obvious, it is surprising how often people neglect to follow them. In addition, being a blogger located in Israel, I think it is important to add yet another tip to this list. If you are a foreign company, make sure that you pick the right person to present your startup. There’s nothing more aggravating than listening to a pitch by someone that you can’t understand. Make sure that your presenter speaks English fluently and coherently. It is even preferable that you pick a person who has had previous living experience in the US. Each country obviously has its own business culture and mannerisms and it is extremely important that you pick a person who knows how to ”sell” to the panel at hand. You can have the most amazing product in the world, but if your presenter does not know how to communicate your message properly, your demo will fail miserably.
Thanks to Joi for the pic.
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