At EigenSpace we have a co-op student from the Faculty of Arts as an analyst. Stephanie’s contribution has made our program a lot better! This is Stephanie’s note on founder demos.
—
In order to communicate your company vision you need to learn how to do it in a way that tells a story. We have been practicing demoing with founders and helping them to be more convincing in their presentations of their products. Like a theatre production, demos involve rehearsal, tweaking and feedback. You rarely (if ever) see actors get it right on the first try. Same principle applies to founders and their demos.
Every week we have had the founders we work on their demo/pitch. There is no doubt that every single founder in this cohort has an excellent product and vision; the delivery or presentation of that product on the other hand… could use some work.
While observing the demos, I’ve noticed some patterns in what our founders are doing well and what needs improving. In other words, I’ve noticed common demo do’s and don’ts in our founders.
Don’t (almost all founders seem to do this):
Talk about secondary matters at length
Do (things we are working on):
Be confident and excited
Practice
Start with a short description of what you’re doing
Start with the coolest thing first
Have a conclusion
The biggest mistake I found founders made is one that Paul Graham cautioned against; talking about secondary matters at length. It’s easy to get excited about what you’ve built, but running through all the features of your product is a guaranteed way to make someone snooze. Doing this also takes away curiosity and the desire for people to want to learn more about your product. It’s best to showcase the coolest part of your product first, create curiosity and leave people wanting more.
Another aspect of the demos that could use help is confidence. None of our founders seemed particularly confident when doing their demos at the start of this process. This is problematic because if you don’t appear confident, how are you going to convince others you have something great? To help with this, practice is necessary. Our founders are all somewhat familiar with doing demos for potential clients, but it is different when you don’t start with a customer that has the problem their product solves. By practicing a demo made for investors, it can help increase confidence and improve the overall delivery. Another good ‘trick’ to be confident, is to let the product speak for itself. This can be done by giving growth numbers, showing user testimonials and emphasizing what’s great about your company.
Any performance on stage (or Zoom) is telling a story, it is important to structure and deliver your demo as a short story. There is an intro, the story that leads to something, and a conclusion. Founders don’t often have proper introductions or conclusions in their presentations.
First and foremost, when presenting to people, they have to understand what your product is. The best way to do this is to start with a short description of what you are doing and why. This sets the stage for the rest of the demo and ultimately lets people know what you are doing. When it came to the founder’s conclusions of their demos, I found they were quite unfinished. It’s easy by the end of a presentation to say “so yeah that’s it, any questions?” but it’s not ideal. Although this is something many people do, it comes off as aloof and unfinished. The conclusion of a presentation is a great opportunity to leave a lasting impact on the audience. Whatever you want people to take away from you and your company, make sure to say it directly here, otherwise it’s a wasted opportunity.
A clear, exciting, informative and memorable presentation is a good short story. If this is done, people will want to hear more from you.
—
We are planning our next cohort at EigenSpace.com — keep an eye out for new information on that in August!