You’ve founded a medtech company to improve patient care and outcomes, and now you have to pitch your idea to venture capitalists, other investors, industry leaders, and/or the general public. Your pitch shows your company brand, personal brand, your team, and your company’s expertise. We’ve compiled a list here of dos and don’ts to strengthen your pitch.

Step 1: Practice, but not the Way You Think You Should

“Practicing” to mean means simply running through your speech. However, pitching in front of an audience of 200 people who don’t know you can involve the following difficulties:

• You may look only to one side of the audience to avoid looking at the entire room.
• You will probably have to hold a clicker. Using it to change slides may interrupt your train of thought.
• You may have to hold your microphone. If you speak with your hands, you risk sound coming and going as the microphone moves toward and away from your mouth.

Follow these tips to improve your overall presentation skills:

• Practice holding an object in each hand: one that stands in for the microphone, and one for the clicker.
• If you have a thin slice of cork (about the thickness of three quarters), hold it between your teeth as you practice, enunciating enough to be understood. When you remove the prop, you should notice that your mouth feels more relaxed and that you’re speaking more clearly.
• Practice presenting while standing in one spot, with your back straight and your chin up. If you have to pitch from a lectern, you still want to ensure that your energy and passion still shine, and that you don’t lean over the lectern.

Running your company requires you to pivot frequently. Something as simple as preparing to pitch in different situations can assist you in showing your audience you’re ready for almost anything.

Step 2: Clean up Your Slides

Slides divide your audience’s attention between you and the screen. Don’t let that happen. Plan your presentation so you control the audience’s focus. Follow these tips:

• Instead of cramming a lot of information onto one slide, have each slide focus on only one point. Connecting the slide directly to the point you’re making will help your audience stay focused.
• Choose one professionally designed template, even if it’s a Microsoft template, and stick with it. Don’t squeeze in more than each slide’s template allows. Too much information on one slide makes it difficult to read.
• Keep the contrast in your designs high. Not all pitch sessions take place in the most suitable lighting environments. For example, maybe the house lights are bright, or you’re presenting next to a window with bright sunlight streaming in. A high-contrast pitch deck will give you more flexibility and help your audience to see better.

Your slides support your pitch: they are neither cue cards nor a separate presentation.

Step 3: Clean up Your Writing

Showing up at a pitch event as a confident speaker with informational slides is not enough. Everything about you in the five to eight minutes you have for your pitch gives an impression of you. This includes your writing.

Many of your colleagues and friends may claim never to pay attention to errors in writing. This may be true. However, irregular capitalization, punctuation, and list layouts give the impression of someone who ignores details and is highly disorganized. Don’t risk pitching to investors and supporters who pay attention to that level of detail.

Step 4: Define Your Target Market at the Start

Whether a venture capitalist, investor, end user, or a member of the general public, your audience wants to know whose problem you’re solving. Do not wait until three or four minutes into your presentation to explain who your solution will benefit.

Step 5: Slow Down

Presenting requires you to enunciate so audience members can understand what you’re saying. Remember: they may have difficulties hearing, could be distracted by the hum of the buildings HVAC system, or be new to your area of specialty. Slowing down gives everyone time to better understand what you’re saying. It also reduces mumbling.

Presenters may speak fast to impart a lot of information in the little time they have. This rarely works, because everything you say sounds like one run-on sentence.

Speaking fast also erases opportunities to emphasize key points. It turns your visually structured script, with its headings, paragraph breaks, and punctuation, into one wall of text. Think Victorian-era novels spoken as a startup pitch.

Pauses, appropriately placed stress, and a few seconds’ pause at each slide click add structure to your presentation, which will make it easier for your audience not only to follow along, but to remember what you said.

Guidance | Traction | Momentum

Public speaking is a special skill in itself, one that requires practice. Don’t mistake your pitch for a chat with friends, and remember that you have considerably less time than a job applicant has to leave a strong impression behind. Practice, practice, practice.For any questions on your pitch, or to book an evaluation, contact us.