open session on pitching with Beth Susanne - Silicon Valley pitch coach

 Beth Susanne - Silicon Valley pitch coach @ HappyFarm
  • Who is Beth?
    • Ukrainian origin - moved to amsterdam - speaking french, spanish and learning dutch
    • Owner of pitch coach company "Vision in focus"
    • Presentation coach for 20 years
  • how things work in Silicon walley - understanding USA cultural traits
    • US is about direct, effective communicaiton
      • what it cost?
      • how they would get their profit with you?
    • task orientation or relationship orientation
      • US is task oriented - you are supposed to talk about work not your life
      • Not relationship oriented - where you go to school, who is your friends
    • Why are americans so direct?
      • raised to be as children:
        • say what you mean
        • speak up in class
        • look in the eyes to show honesty
        • present your views clearly
    • egocentric vs "we-group" orientation
      • individualism
        • self reliance
        • status is achieved by own efforts
        • equal economic social and political opportunity and is birth right of an individual
        • achievement is good and requires competiveness
    • Activism
      • being active in face of uncertanty is virtue
      • track record counts
      • achievement and goal-oriented activities
    • pragmatic
      • what good is what works
    • progress
      • change in itself is good
      • improvement, especially presonal - is duty of an idividual
    • nature
      • in US humans have responcibility to control nature
        • build dams
      • on opposite - dutch learned how to use the nature.
    • efficiency
      • expected from machines
      • you supposed to be punctual
        • if you late - you have to call in advance, and then come in exact time you proposed.
    • time
      • is a resource you can't waiste.
    • aggressiveness
      • ambition, competition, self-assesitiveness
      • high status not equal to superiority
        • in US superstars are nobility - NOT royalty and NOT politicialns
        • they treat you with who is working with you - who is buying from you.
        • they discount what you say by 25% - so you CAN and should exaggerate
      • excelling is good
    • discipline and freedom
      • preschool : discipline from parents
      • school age : increased freedom and responcibility
      • adulthood: time of greatest freedom
      • old age:
    • mobility
      • great physical and social mobility is good
      • create your own business
      • 40% CEO from Silicon walley are outside of US
    • work
      • valued as an end in itself
      • people don't have long silences - people are interacting
      • working is good - lazyness is bad
      • people sleep at work
      • people spend whole life at work
      • in reality - after 45hours a week productivity is going down
    • money
      • an economic tool, plus yardstick for social status,
      • you are supposed to talk about money
      • europeans are "not hungry" because of social safety nets
      • in Ukraine people are hungry because of their (nets) absence
    • youth
      • highly valued
      • old people wish they were young
      • elders feel outmoded by rapid change
      • huge market for anything that promises to recapture youth
    • education
      • influence is declining, used especially to attain skills, cost a lot of money
      • affects family prestige - but only if you go to well known institution
    • authority
      • rules/laws generally obeyed but don't liked
      • authorities must not infringe individual rights
      • mild suspicion of authority
    • moral superiority
      • moral smugness stemming on conviction that US people are special.
      • after 2008 it changed - influence of a world crysis
      • silicon valley don't care where you come from
      • you have to come to them, plug into network, establish a company there.
      • they don't fund you if you are outside.
    • social conformity
      • outward conformity
      • you have to understand unspoken agreements of how you should present yourself
    • other US traits.
      • business before pleasure
        • two weeks in a year vacation. if you get a vacation they look at you with question?
        • not looks well in common eyes to relax
      • track record is more important than who you know.
      • need to make contacts counts
        • you have to do what it takes to achieve goal
      • no small talk. business is everywhere.
    • cross - cultural success factors
      • cultural self-awareness
      • open-mindeness
        • open personalities - warm reception
      • outgoing personality
      • tolerance of ambiguity
        • you must have discomfort endurance - going out of your comfort zone.
        • the more you practice - the better you get
    • steps to getting buy-in on your great ideas and efforts
      • need an office locally to support you.
      • great customer service: as good to US as any competitior
        • you have even to be better in keeping contact
      • communicate frequently
        • level of communication should be good
        • always respond
        • respond fast - learn from Singapore - they don't understand what you are talking about, but respond.
      • communicate clearly, concisely and briefly
      • email, skype, phone, web conf
  • what you need to pitch you ideas in silicon valley (and maybe everywhere else)
    • An example from life - you are on a conference of 70 pitches a number 63
      • 20% twitting
      • 30% emailing
      • if you start with "social network for..." - additional 20% would stop paying attention
      • you have 30sec for them to decide whether they would pay attention. attention spans are shortening.
      • nobody is oblidged to listen and pay attention now
      • who you will remember from 70 presenters you had just heard?
      • the goal is to grab their attention
      • you have to emotionally connect with them. if they look down - you have to get them up again. and when they get up they had already lost 60% of what you're saying
      • three ways to do it
        • make a joke and be funny - only if you are funny
        • do something that is surprise
        • talk about a problem they can relate to
          • a friend who designed a way to diagnose autism faster
          • her product could save 12billion a year (autism cost 35billion a year)
          • she started with something emotionally binding
          • she explained why she started the company everyday
          • she explained a problem that everybody could relate to
          • (A story about her brother who has an autism)
    • Fundamental problem of pitching
      • what the fundamental problem?
        • you have to pull from people the things that they achieved
        • its not boasting - it's aknowledging your achievents
        • stick the head out of the field and NOT getting it chopped - opposite to what europeans say
      • articulate your message
        • you have to know your audience
        • prepare in advance
      • how people accept you message
        • 38% your tone
          • intonation
            • in english you use your voice up in the end to get attention
            • in english there are pause between ideas and your voice
          • anunciate
            • atriculate or pronounce clearly and distictively
            • beginnings & endings of words
            • breathing out
            • giving space
            • in russian people are speaking with the back of their mouth but in english people are speaking with front of their mouth
            • if you have a presentation - ask someone native speaker to speak it in english - record it. listen to it. speak it. record your speaking and record you back and analyse.
        • 55% body language
          • gesture
            • body language has to support your message
          • eye contact
            • looking in your eyers for 1-2 sec as talking one-on-one
            • make it look honest (no side looking, shaking)
          • posture
            • if you are tall that gets you 25% more earnings in lifespan
          • nodding
        • 7% words
    • Preparing a pitch
      • Your business canvas - you should have ones
        • a template how to think about your business and how to talk about one
        • help you pivot, change your assumptions
        • have a business plan prepared
      • 10 important key points for your pitch
        • short memorable - three simple ideas - holywood
        • what's the problem?
        • why is you technology unique? (patents / barriers to entry) INCLUDE VIDEO / SCREENSHOTS
        • how big is your market?
          • bigger is better
          • top down - how big are the sources you got your info from = someone else is reporting
        • business model
          • how much does it cost?
          • how much you can make?
        • competition
          • if you have some megastars who are in your space and why you are better.
        • marketing plan
          • online
            • bloggers
            • SEO
            • social, e.t.c
          • offline
        • your team / hires
          • talk what your team had done that applies to this business
          • maybe a partners
          • give you credibility
        • financing
          • show next 6 month. market growth. no believability in numbers.
        • ASK: Money / Milestones / Customers / Partners
          • what you ask for.
          • if money - what you do with money. how you want the money. what is the schedule.
      • practice makes things perfect
        • rehearse rehearse rehearse
        • make sure your delivery is engaging
        • memorizing takes time - try changing your slides order every time when rehearsing
      • you have to focus on one main thing your company solve
        • if my company is about several products should I talk about all of them?
          • no - you should select one of them and concentrate on it.
    • Just-Before pitch
      • use trigger mechanism
        • think about something in your life that made you proud, standing out
        • re-live it. feel it. taste it. - that would bring you to the mood
        • remember the rush you had - that rush is a trigger.
        • you have the ability to change your reception of the reality any moment you want
        • you can rejuvenate yourself - bring your
        • you have to model for everybody your enthusiasm you have for you business
      • use breathing technique - soham.
        • when you are scared you stop breathe
        • this tech allows you to breathe
        • you breather in with your nose thinking "SO"
        • breather out with "HAM"
        • repeat SOHAM three times relaxes you then you do you trigger
    • During pitch
      • adjust your voice for the audience
        • if you talk to the microphone speak evenly
      • think about a fact that communication is a transfer of emotion
        • emotions. you want people to fund you.
        • and an attempt to get others to adopt
          • thoughts & ideas
      • Present yourself - 67% of ideas pivots when they get to the end. VCs are buying you.
        • how good is your team?
      • know who you are talking to
      • what's your story - who you are?
        • 5 different types of stories
          • personal
          • david & goliath
          • a hero
          • a vision for a new world
        • you are a focus of your pitch
          • you need them to listen to you - not read your slides
      • three ways to do catch attention of an audience
        • make a joke and be funny - but only if you are funny in everyday life
        • do something that is surprise
        • talk about a problem they can relate to
          • a friend who designed a way to diagnose autism faster
          • her product could save 12billion a year (autism cost 35billion a year)
          • she started with something emotionally binding
          • she explained why she started the company everyday
          • she explained a problem that everybody could relate to
          • (A story about her brother who has an autism)
    • Source for trainers/trainings udemy.com

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