I can’t for the life of me figure out why people get their feelings hurt when, after two slides, I say “yup, I get it, show me.”
Yesterday, I had a very smart entrepreneur show up to do a pitch. After making Michael Arrington “no hand shake” jokes, he proceeds to start the Keynote presentation. First slide is the one line pitch on what the company does and slide two was the problem.
Me: “Okay, I get it, you’re totally right, big problem, show me the solution.”
He: “Well, I’ve got another 20 slides you need to see in order to fully appreciate what we’ve accomplished”
Me: “Email me the slides, show me the demo.”
He: “My team will kill me if I don’t present this properly.”
Everybody gets in a snit whenever any of us (us = VCs/Angels) get all snarky and impatient but this is really silly stuff so let me lay out my disclaimer if you are pitching me or any of my brethren:
If we say, you are right after two slides and want to see what you have, consider that the highest possible compliment you can get. It means you’ve found a problem we get/understand and you’ve gotten our interest quickly enough to dive into the product.
It’s a compliment when you are asked to skip the slides and just do the demo.
Really.
The entrepreneur in question here needs to know when to stop selling. Once sold on the pain / solution, move on.
Posted by: Mark MacLeod | May 27, 2009 at 06:44
Argh, so true! I am so sick of people hiding behind their damn slides. It's as though these sorts of folks think the people they're presenting to are morons and always require hand holding through every aspect of the project.
Posted by: Alex Handy | May 27, 2009 at 11:30
Something I also learned is that every VC (or their brethren) has a mannerism for "i get it". A grunt. A roll of the right index finger. A stern chin nod. Some mannerism that says "I get this point, move to the next". If they stand up, pump their fist and grunt, you can skip 7 slides. If they say "go to the demo", you can... well.. go to the demo.
Jim
Posted by: Jim | May 28, 2009 at 17:16
Jim,
It's kinda funny. On the one hand, jumping up and down, screaming oh yeah baby, just makes getting a term sheet in place expensive. :-)
On the other hand, sitting politely listening to 80 slides worth of dribble.......
Thanks for stopping by,
Posted by: rick segal | May 28, 2009 at 17:31
The best sales person I ever met used to say simply, "stop at yes."
Posted by: FN | May 28, 2009 at 23:43
maybe, just maybe, its possible that some VC's/Angels are just arrogant SOBs and rather than saying they don't get it, want to be perceived as getting it and in the tradition of being pushy, and overbearing give the impression that their time is more valuable than your time?
I'm sure that some of you entrepreneures/promoters have encountered some of these types on many occasions.
david yorke
Posted by: David Yorke | June 03, 2009 at 09:56
funny to read all the comments.. as I have been in both seats.. and the reality is when u work on a pitch it takes so much effort and when someone says.. I get it (you think they are saying..who cares) .. when they say just show me the demo (you are sure your heard.. the presentation sucks so hope ur demo is better) and your heart kind of sinks.. but many times I have said to people... okay I get it show me the how.. i get the what.. and the why... and then i see them get deflated and sometimes I care and other times I am in a rush to move on..i am working on our pitch t raise money in sept for a new biz venture . and we are basically doing it all interactively..so am curious to see the feedback on a somewhat different approach.. as we are also doing a compatibility profile.. to see if we are a culture fit as "fit" can make or break a biz... and the VC and the biz need to be a great fit... and i worked to hard to not love my VC partner...
Posted by: kdst | June 20, 2009 at 18:04