Forget everything you know about pitches and discover all the mistakes you can avoid. Don't forget that selling is not the coolest thing to do, but is damn important! This presentation was made on our Lunch 'N' Learns which are presentations given each Friday at Whitesmith. Since it's a spoken presentation, it's natural that some information is missing from the slides. So take it with a grain of salt. Visit our site and subscribe to our Newsletter for more cool news! Site: https://www.whitesmith.co/ Newsletter: http://bit.ly/20T3YIS

1. How not to pitch!
Lunch ‘N’ Learn Sessions
by

2. What do you think a pitch is?
a) A technical
presentation
b) Business Model presentation
c) Product Presentation d) Speech

3. NO!

4. YOU ARE!

5. Inspire
Emotion
Empathy
Sell our vision

6. Art, not a Science

7. So, I want to talk about
Lessons I’ve learned the hard way

8. 10 slides to an awesome pitch
Teaser1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Problem
Solution
Market
Business Model
Technology
Competition
Marketing Plan
Team
Investment

9. Boring!

10. Today I’m going to tell you a story

11. The story of how I learned to pitch
THE
HARD
WAY!!!!

12. 2013: Pope Francis just became the 266º Leader of Catholic Church

13. 2013: The first 3D printed artificial ear was created

14. 2013: SLBenfica, my football team just lost every every final (championship,
cup and Uefa cup) in just one week.

15. 2013: I was finishing my masters degree un University of Coimbra, doing my
thesis and at the same time I was working in a Company called ISA

16. CEBT 2012: To improve my experience and know a little more about
entrepreneurship I decided to register in a 3 months Program on Technology based
entrepreneurship or CEBT

17. From january 30 to may 17, 2013

18. CEBT 2012 – January 30, 2013

19. CEBT 2012 – March 21: we needed to present the preliminary
results of our project in a Public Session

20. CEBT 2012 – May 17: We had our final pitch presentations for
Business Angels and investors
Not
me!

21. Seven? More like 10 sins for bad pitching…
PITCH?!

22. 1) Confusion: Know the critical point of your presentation, the main
message you want to share with your audience.
Based on that, create a set of slides with just one concept that contributes to
your presentation and message.

23. 1) Confusion: If the slide/graphic cannot be explained in 3 to 5 seconds,
should not be there

24. 1) Confusion: Be simple… So simple that without me the presentation
doesn’t work… Slides don’t say shit, you should say!

25. 2) Concealing: You should not hide behind your slides… Don’t put all
the information in your slides so you can go to second plan. This is a mistake!

26. 2) Concealing: You are the key element of your presentation. What
differentiate your presentation from others is YOU, not the slides!
Communication with the public is critical, look at the public and not to the
presentation.

27. 3) Ignorance: Know the people in the audience… Do your homework and
know who you are presenting to, this is the only way to create a presentation that
can transmite the message to your target audience
.

28. 4) Not shutting up: Pausing our speech allow us to think and give
time to the public to absorve our message… Moreover pausing creates
anticipation and maintain the public hooked!

29. 5) Reading: avoid notes… your body language is an important part of your
communication!

30. 6) Complexity: Pitch presentations are not about explaining complex
concepts… You must keep it simple otherwise you will create noise to your
message.

31. 6) Complexity : Use power point to explain complex processes its like
using radio to show a video… DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!
Don’t use spreadshits, yes, it’s well written

32. 7) Bullet Pointing: bullet points are not supposed to be used in
presentation…you should not present your message as a shopping list…
Bullets are for guns, not for
presentations

33. 8) Deceive: Don’t try to deceive your audience and conceal potential
risks and problems of your business… People in the audience are probably much
more experienced and intelligent than you, so understand what the risks of your
business are and share with your public, so they can know you already though
about it.

34. 9) Grumpiness: Smile… show that you are proud about your work, that
you have passion… Is the best way to create empathy with your public.

35. 10) Be prepared: This is the best way to avoid a bad presentation

36. Selling is not the coolest thing to do, but is damn
important!
You need to sell to investors, clients and most of all to your first employees, you
better be good at it! You have to sell them your vision, because startup life is not
easy for you and your early employees.

37. Wrap up: Poor design is a turn off for investors, it will confuse your company's
value from the very beginning

38. Wrap up
AVOID
NOISE…
NOBODY
LIKES NOISE

39. Wrap up: Use a remote-control device to advance your slides and builds. A
handheld remote will allow you to move away from the podium.

40. Wrap up: Remember the “B” key
If you press the “B” key while your PowerPoint slide is showing, the screen will go
blank. This is useful if you need to digress or move off the topic presented on the
slide. By having the slide blank, all the attention can now be placed back on you.
When you are ready to move on, just press the “B” key again and the image
reappears.

41. Wrap up: A personal story is the best way to keep the public hooked on you! We
should tell our personal stories to create emotion in public and empathy.

42. Wrap up: Don’t be on the 99% presentations that suck.

43. Want more tips or to know
more about us and our work?
SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER
But first, here’s a little heads up …

44. Whitesmith
We are a web and mobile product development studio
founded in 2013 and based in Coimbra (Portugal) and
London.
From Devops and Internet of Things to Web & Mobile apps,
we converge into solving real problems with great user
experience. We are more than simple designers &
developers - we are na empowered team of problem
solvers.

45. Lunch ‘N’ Learn
Each Friday, a member of our team shares a topic of his interest,
whether it’s something related with technology, business or even life-
hacking. This is our way of learning something new each week and
sharing a little bit of ourselves.
Now we are sharing some of our knowledge with you! However, since
it’s a spoken presentation, it’s natural that some information is missing
from the slides. So take it with a grain of salt.
This Lunch ‘N’ Learn session was hosted by
João Nogueira

46. 46
Based on
Slides that Rock, How to pitch a VC, redesigned http://www.slideshare.net/
slidesthatrock/how-to-pitch-a-vc-redesigned
Slides That Rock, 10 beliefs about presentation design http://
www.slideshare.net/slidesthatrock/10-beliefs-presentation-design
Blue Lobster, How to pitch an angel http://www.slideshare.net/
slidesthatrock/how-to-pitch-an-angel
Forbes, 11 Presentation lessons you can still learn from Steve Jobs http://
www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/10/04/11-presentation-lessons-
you-can-still-learn-from-steve-jobs/
The Next Web, If you haven’t seen Dave McClure’s ‘How to pitch a VC’,
now’s the time http://tenextweb.com/insider/2011/12/28/if-you-havent-
seen-dave-mcclures-how-to-pitch-a-vc-nows-the-time-video/
Pitch Deck Collection http://alexanderjarvis.com/blog/2015/05/19/pitch-
deck-collection-from-vc-funded-startups/