Every year MIT’s Venture Mentoring Services selects a number of its ventures to present at Demo Day. A number of us mentors help the presenters by doing a two part pitch scrub for them in preparation for Demo Day. On day one of the pitch scrub they present their decks and we give them feedback, on every slide. They then take a day to revise their decks and present to the same group of mentors again. The changes are always amazing, as they far exceed our expectations. If you can say one thing about MIT affiliated entrepreneurs they learn and learn fast. And they can apply that learning superbly.
But it never hurts to get some tips, especially from Carmine Gallo, who is an expert on presentations and the author of several books on presentations that I highly recommend, including The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs.
Lyft’s anticipated IPO roadshow kicked off this week. Carmine extracts five communication strategies from Lyft’s 24 minute presentation.
1. Start with the inspiration behind the product.
Origin stories as they are known, are powerful ways to open a presentation. They quickly answer the “Why should I be interested in this presentation” question. “Why does this product exist?” Co-founder John Zimmer studied hotel management where he learned about occupancy rates, a key metric in the hotel business.
“Cars are occupied only 5 percent of the time. The other 95 percent of the time they’re just sitting there. If you have a hotel with a 5 percent occupancy rate, you have a failing business.”
It you don’t have a good origin story that’s ok, but you will still need to quickly answer the “why” question. One good way to do this is to present a surprising statistic about your target market or customers. Such as, “Do you know that X% of bicyclists fall at least Y times in their first year of competitive cycling?” While personal stories forge the strongest connections with your audience, stories about your customers can also work well.
2. Frame the opportunity.
While journalists call Lyft a “ride-hailing company,” the company does not position itself that way. I prefer the term “positioning” to “framing” as it tells the audience what you are and what you are not. The two co-founders position Lyft as “On demand peer-to-peer ride sharing.” Your positioning or framing basically answers the question, “What is it that your product does?”
This is also a good time to answer questions about your market opportunity: what’s its size? How fast is it growing? What are its dynamics?
Lyft does a great job of this:
“We have an opportunity ahead of us to deliver the largest shift to society since the invention of the car” and “Lyft addresses one of the largest market opportunities of our lifetime; a shift from car ownership to transportation as a service.”
3. Create simple lists.
People do love lists, as evidenced by the thousands of listicles begging us to click on them. Carmine Gallo notes how Lyft makes use of lists, by creating a list of why Lyft is a good investment. As I advise my mentors, Mr.Gallo advises you to keep your lists short, no longer than three to five points.
4. Focus on key metrics.
Investors need to see the numbers, and that’s never more true than at an IPO Roadshow. Lyft’s Chief Marketing Officer compares Lyft’s market, transportation to three other markets: healthcare, entertainment, and housing. Comparisons between the known and the unknown – your venture – are a powerful way to help the audience visualize the opportunity before them.
5. Make it simple.
This tip may be last but it is not least! At a pitch scrub yesterday with group of research scientists the words “you need to simplify your slides” were said to every presenter! I advise you to limit yourself to one point or message per slide. That can be conveyed in two parts, a text header and an illustrative graphic or even very short (15 – 30 second) video. Even more importantly, your product must be simple to use. If possible you should be able to demonstrate that ease of use and simplicity as part of your presentation.
It’s highly unlikely any readers of this blog will be presenting at an IPO road show any time soon. It usually takes years for a venture to go public. But these tips from Carmine Gallo will benefit any presenter. And do follow the links to watch the video of Lyft’s road show presentation. After all, if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures!
Mentorphile 