tech-company, investors, lean-startup, pitchMy question today is about the dangers of pitching a business too often in the early stages of a company.
I have always said that the only way to get better at pitching is just getting out there and pitching, so this question is ignoring the fact that pitching more often will improve your pitching ability in general.
Question:
What are some of the possible negative effects of pitching your business too often early in its life?
I will start by bringing to light some of my possible thoughts.
Pitching too early can give a less than stellar impression of your business and that if no significant changes happen by the next time you pitch some may think the business is stagnant.
I am looking forward to hearing some of your thoughts on the disadvantages (and advantages) of pitching your business at events and to investors early in a startup’s life.
PS. I do not mean for this to be used as an excuse not to pitch, pitching is important but it is also important to pick your spots wisely.
I don’t think there are any drawbacks to pitching your business too early.
As you noted, the more often you pitch, the better you will become at it. And that can only help.
Here is another tip I learned from experience that I will pass along to you and anyone else reading this.
Memorize your elevator pitch.
By elevator pitch, I mean a one to three sentence description of your business that anyone without any familiarity with your company can easily understand. This task is significantly more difficult than it sounds. Yet extremely powerful.
It requires you to distill the essence of your business into a few key, yet commonly understood words. Then, you need to practice speaking it out loud, repeatedly until your muscle memory kicks in and you no longer have to work to remember the words. And anytime someone asks you, So what do you do? You go into autopilot mode and kick in your muscle memory.
If you, and you should, ever make sales calls pitching your business you need to do your elevator pitch immediately after introducing yourself and your company. Just before you state your purpose for making the phone call.
This is a crucial skill set and asset you need to have at your fingertips.
After letting this question sit for a while and giving it some thought I will post my 2 cents...
I think that pitching has many different forms. As stated by Mowzer, a elevator pitch is essential to have and should be at the ready whenever you need to quickly pitch your business to someone.
As for a more formal pitch (with a script and deck), there are a few different types that should be considered.
The most common would be the pitch that would be given at a formal pitch event or at an accelerator and I think there are advantages and disadvantages to pitching these often.
Advantages:
Pitching will make the business' pitch tighter and feedback will help fine tune it over time.
Pitching more will improve your general pitching and public speaking skills. It's really the only way to get better.
Creating a pitch and pitch deck is a great way to get a good grasp on the important aspects of the business. See 10 Slides to start from.
Disadvantages:
Giving the same (or similar) pitch too often can leave certain (often important) people to believe that the business is not progressing.
Pitching after a number of pivots in your business can come across as wishy-washy to some potential investors.
Investor Pitches:
These are even more formal, they include a much more detailed slide deck and are usually intended to be a stand alone document of needed.
This type of pitch usually happens in a meeting with a potential investor and will be more of a conversation that a "pitch". While there may be a script written, most of the time it will get derailed by questions and discussion.
This type of pitch deck has more detail and would likely be designed to act as a stand-alone document if needed. For more information see this great book (Get Backed)
And for a very detailed view of an investor pitch deck check out LinkedIn's Series B Pitch to Greylock.
Great question.
You can never pitch to early. Some might say that you should wait to pitch your idea until you have a patent on it. But trust me, getting a patent is way more complicated than you think and costs way more money than you'd expect. Also, it takes more than just the idea to grow your company. Even though somebody they might hear your idea and plan to copy it, the chances that they will actually execute it are close to zero.
Now let's dive into the advantages of pitching:
Here's the article which goes further into this topic: When and Why You Should Be Pitching
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