We are a startup accelerator
We provide marketing consulting to new ventures, turning great ideas into successful companies.
Contact us
Categories
- Anticipate (2)
- Case studies (1)
- Communicate (21)
- Competition (2)
- Create (13)
- Exit strategy (2)
- Funding (6)
- Jobposting (1)
- Standing out (15)
- Startups (19)
October 9th, 2009
Explaining what you do in five minutes
in: Communicate, Funding, Startups
I’m helping to judge and counsel the participants, and in doing so I’m remembering just how hard it can be to explain what you do from within your own company. In a pinch, here’s what I usually advise people to do if they have no idea how it’ll go. You can break a presentation up into five chunks of a minute each, and use 2-4 slides for each minute, to get your point across. As you’re explaining this, remember that many of the people in the audience won’t know what you do. Give them analogies, or concrete examples from their daily lives. When I’m talking about cloud computing, for example, I often ask people, “do you use GMail, Hotmail, or Yahoo Mail? Where are all your mails stored?” They may not know clouds, but they grasp that concept quickly when it’s made relevant to their lives. This is where you mention comparables — other companies that did well in an adjacent space, or who have had success in this space but aren’t competitors. Lucrative comparables make investors drool. Now that you’ve told the audience about a huge opportunity, where’s the gap? What’s the shortcoming? Hopefully, this is a major disruption: The broad adoption of mobile devices; economic pressures changing budgets; consumer understanding of web applications; concern over healthy eating; etc. You want to show a hard problem. If the market gap is easy to overcome, then the audience will question whether you can build any kind of sustainable competitive advantage. But if you state a hard problem that’s genuine, it’ll be interesting. Your problem doesn’t have to be technical, either: you might say that it’s hard to reach consumers, but you have a partnership that bundles your product in with something they already use. This is where you can drop the names of competitors to show you know them, and know why you’ll beat them. Now the audience is ready. There’s a change coming, and there’s an opportunity. At this point, you need to prove that you can fill the need. This is the only part of the presentation that should include a demonstration, and it should demonstrate only that you can overcome the big challenge. Don’t bother showing me the login page, or the account administration screen, if your key feature is a dashboard. Also, if your value is the viral loop or the process, show that. Make it personal. If your target customer is a small business owner, for example, then give her a name and follow her through a day in her life. Making your product concrete will help others put themselves in your customer’s shoes and understand the benefit you offer. Now that you’ve shown value, explain how you make money. This is simple accounting: Remember Sergio Zyman‘s definition of marketing: Selling more things to more people more often for more money. How do you do that? Don’t get into financial projections here. You’re not expected to use real numbers; instead, you’re helping the audience to think about the fundamental equation that drives your business. Revealing your business model happens in stages. If you were Netflix (or in Canada, Zip.ca), for example: Don’t get into this kind of detail in an open forum unless you’re directly asked. But when you are asked, answer quickly, clearly, and without hesitation. Prospective investors are testing to see whether you really know your market. Also, if you have a convincing way to get the word out or drive down costs, emphasize it here. Remember — this is about your business model, not your technology. There’s always an ask. If you just present without a goal, you’re wasting your time. Some examples include: Know which of these you’re after and leave the audience with a clear call to action. This conveys the impression that you’re confident, and you know what you want to achieve, which is a good thing. I’m really looking forward to next week’s event, and to hearing what marketing veterans like Chris and Tara take away from it. Let’s hope the participants have a short, pithy explanation of their companies so we can understand them quickly and provoke some healthy, challenging discourse.Next week, the ever-energetic Phil Telio is organizing the fifth Startupcamp in Montreal. He’s assembled five excellent new ventures from a long list of submissions, and both Tara Hunt and Chris Shipley will be attending the event.
Minute one: How big is the pie?
The first thing you need to do is set the stage. What industry are you in? What market are you servicing? Why is this segment of the world growing, or poised to gain attention? This part should feel like a TED presentation, telling the audience something surprising that inspires them to continue listening.
Minute two: Why is there still a piece of the pie left?
Minute three: Why will you claim that piece of the pie?
Minute four: How will you make money from it?
Minute five: What do you want from the audience?

Tags: presenting, Startupcamp
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.