TLDR: Here are a few factors that can help.
Entrepreneurs should strive for the opportunity to speak to a large audience of potential investors where they can pitch their latest startup venture. There are many ways to go about getting in front of such an audience including attending conferences and joining startup accelerators. Regardless of how you get there, it’s even more important that you are able to deliver a great pitch while on stage and the following tips can help. First, own your call-to-action. Although there may be many important messages you want to get across with your pitch, make sure your end focus is on some sort of call-to-action. This means that if your goal for speaking to this audience is to gain investors, customers, talent, whatever, make sure they know that by the end and construct your pitch accordingly. This doesn’t mean you should end by simply asking the audience to call you or give you money. Instead strive to create a memorable pitch where the audience wants to of their own volition answer your call-to-action. For example, your message should be so convincing the audience feels as if it is their idea to invest in your business rather than yours. Next, focus on design. Since you are trying to raise funds for a new company, there is a good chance nobody in the audience will be especially familiar with the products and services your company will offer. Therefore the only thing they will be able to base their decisions on with regards to whether or not to give you money will be your presentation. That means don’t expect any virtues of your business to speak for themselves or already be known. It’s up to you to make sure the audience hears what you feel is important. Also, avoid relying on lengthy videos to do the talking for you because they change the presentation atmosphere and if anything will cause your audience to forget what you said beforehand you pushed play. Venture Beat continues, “A wise mentor once told me, “The first five times you give any speech, you’ll be terrible.” That’s because there’s so much more to public speaking than the words and slides. If you don’t interact with the crowd and feed off its energy, your message will fall flat. Find a group of strangers willing to listen to your early pitches. Sign up for Startup Digest and be on the lookout for public entrepreneur meetups and pitch events. Volunteer to speak at a local high school or college. Work on your new material in low-pressure situations, and you’ll feel much more comfortable when D-Day comes around. You have your speech memorized. Now practice making a mistake. It sounds crazy, but something always goes wrong in the real pitch. The slides get out of order. The clicker runs out of batteries. You trip and fall on your way to the stage. Even seemingly good things can throw you off your game. I’ve seen speakers get completely flustered when the audience laughs at one of their jokes. So I practiced dropping my mic or clicker, picking it up, composing myself, and getting back on track with the pitch. I practiced with and without slides. I practiced facing a brick wall. Anything to throw me off my game. Most people in the audience won’t even notice if you get stuck for a second. Learn to relax and get back on track smoothly, and you’ll be fine…”
