Last week, I attended YC Demo Days, and saw twenty great pitches. I had to laugh, however, when Paul Graham started off the day by asking us not to judge the presenters too harshly, because they were "just engineers that had been coached on how to present over the last two weeks". I've attended many a venture forum, and normally, I have to reach for copious amounts of caffeine - so hats off to the YC team for crew for a great day.
I don't really need to offer my opinions specifically on each of the presenting companies (you can read more about them at TechCrunch and Guy Kawasaki's blog - ignore the goofy pic of me). However, I'll offer my comments as to why these "kids" blew most veteran presenters out of the water:
- Short and tight presentations - Seven minutes each, to be exact. Most companies focused on showing off their killer features, as opposed to diving deep and explaining the technology.
- Minimal use of PowerPoint slides and more use of live demos. You could see the crowd nodding, and hear them oohing and aahing when great features were shown.
- Scripted, but no cheating - all of the companies scripted their demos - they had a person driving the computer, and others that presented. And even though some of them were a little nervous, none of them resorted to reading from cheat sheets.
- Passion, enthusiasm, credibility, and humility - it's kind of obvious that these would be endearing traits for presenters, but you wouldn't believe how often they come across as the exact opposite. If YC invests in these companies primarily because of the founders, I think Paul, Jessica and the rest of the YC team made great choices.
- Beta test information and early reviews - investors love the hear what companies are doing to confirm market acceptance. Bonus points - some companies even presented comparative metrics from the market leaders.
- The right amount of aggressiveness - Paul had instructed his recruits to be aggressive and strike up conversations. Most people had no problem introducing themselves to Guy Kawasaki and some of the other star VCs in the room, but I was pleasantly surprised when they engaged me in conversation. I was in stealth mode (translation: I haven't done anything significant enough to be recognizable in the valley), so it would have been easy for them to ignore me.
Congratulations to this very talented group of YC grads for making this far, and best of luck on the road ahead!
I'm glad you enjoyed the presentations. It was great speaking with you afterwards, I hope other groups got the same opportunity because it was very helpful for us.
Posted by: Mike Montano | August 29, 2008 at 12:12 AM
It is interesting that there are so many posts about this topic - How to pitch to investors - and yet people continue to suck, thus, more posts about the topic.
Great points here thanks!
http://ryanagraves.com
Posted by: Ryan Graves | August 29, 2008 at 08:40 AM
Having attended a number of Y Comb demo days, the quality of the presentations is always, always top notch, better than almost any I see or hear. I really think the major factor - and all you mentioned are relevant - is that time limit; having that short period requires the presenter to focus on what is absolutely necessary to communicate the problem being solved, the way it is being solve, and passion of the presenter/
it works every time.
Posted by: Andrew Weissman | August 30, 2008 at 03:51 PM
Having attended a number of Y Comb demo days, the quality of the presentations is always, always top notch, better than almost any I see or hear. I really think the major factor - and all you mentioned are relevant - is that time limit; having that short period requires the presenter to focus on what is absolutely necessary to communicate the problem being solved, the way it is being solve, and passion of the presenter/
it works every time.
Posted by: Andrew Weissman | August 30, 2008 at 03:51 PM