The Art of the Pitch 

7 Insider Secrets to Getting You Funded

I’ve love seeing and working with brilliant entrepreneurs over at The Cove (part of UC Irvine’s Applied Innovation), but there, as is everywhere, creating a sexy pitch is paramount. Whether you want to get funded, appear on The Shark Tank, or get a green light for your project, you must create a pitch that works.

7 Secrets to Creating a Pitch that Gets You Funded 

Sexy soundbites are the secret sauce to successful #pitches to get #funded Click To Tweet

1. Create a Head Whip Effect in Your Opening Sentence – Startle us; give us an amazing statistic, tell us a story, but make sure we tune in from the get-go.
2. Make it Absurdly Simple – As I often say, “Your mother should be able to understand and invest” without a Harvard MBA. Yes; make it that simple!
Make #pitches so clear even your mother understands enough to invest w/o @Harvard MBA Click To Tweet
3. Get Rid of Every Acronym – Your audience doesn’t work in your field so ANY acronym makes no sense to us; spell out every single word. From IP to FP.
4. Tell Me About Your Competitors – If you don’t have any competitors, I assume there isn’t a market. Very few products today are so revolutionary that they are the first in their field.
Use metaphors to translate the unfamiliar to the familiar. Click To Tweet
5. Translate the Familiar to the Unfamiliar – When I was a book editor at Times Mirror, we often pitched new books this way: “it’s like a Sue Grafton murder mystery set in the 1800s;” or “It’s like Die Harder up in space.” Or, use a metaphor: it’s as if yogurt for the skin providing soothing relief.
6. Make An Ask – What do you want? How much money do you need? What is the next step you want to happen? Remember: There is no selling until you ask a question.
7. Master the Art of Q&A – Handling the question and answer period is rife with danger; it’s too easy to insult someone, speak over a question, or invent an answer. Practice handling rapid-fire questions in advance.

Need help with your pitch? Let me know! I love creating red-hot, sexy soundbites that turn heads…and get you funded.

 

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November

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