Show Your Product

When you are presenting on stage don’t do what everyone else is doing. Don’t spend the first 2-3 minutes explaining the product, why you made it, all the cool features, and the profiles of your team. This gives the audience the impression that you don’t really have a product and you’re not excited enough to show it to them. If someone is really passionate about what they have they would want to show it off right away. Think about when you were a little boy or girl. When you got a cool new toy, your first reaction is to run to your friend’s house to show the toy and all the neat things you can do with it. Treat your product the same way and demo quickly.

A good rule of thumb is show the audience the product immediately within 15 seconds of your presentation. Show them what it can do. The product will speak for itself. The more time you spend on talking about your product rather than showing it is negatively correlated with how good the product really is. If you show your product in the middle of the pitch, maybe your product is okay. And if you show me the product towards the end of the pitch, I will know you have something to hide. Maybe the product is either not completed yet or just don’t work.

Leave Your Audience Wanting More

Remember to show and not tell. Do not talk about what your product does but show us what your product does. Show the audience visually what the produce is doing on your phone, presentation slides, or computer. Most of us are visual learners. We can better understand something when we see it. By showing us the product we get to experience the awesomeness of the product and it’s functionality. If I were to explain to people how Dropbox works, “Dropbox is a cloud service that allow users to…bla bla bla.” I would be up on stage for over 5 minutes and confusing the heck out of most people. If I were just to show them Dropbox it would take less than 30 seconds. Click file, drag, drop, and share. Done. So by showing the audience as quickly as possible gives your product that much more value.

If you treat the fundraising as an event and set a clear end date, the advantage is huge. Investors will feel there is a pressure to get in on the offering and you are more likely to get an attractive term sheet. Of course, this article can make it sound like attracting investment is a straightforward process. Remember, the two main things that investors will be looking at when you pitch to them will be the skills of the team and the USP of the product.