Elaine Chen

MIT Global

Entrepreneurship

Bootcamp

How to give a great 10

minute pitchMarch 2016

The Ten Minute Business Plan

• Core slides suggestions

• Apply these suggestions with reason

• Feel free to expand, remove, consolidate and/or customized to your situation

• In the end, it must tell a compelling & logical story that covers these key points

• But you have to stay in the time allowed!!!

Content to cover in 10 minutes

1. Tell a story – make a connection

2. Introduction (company name, logo, tag line, “ask”)

3. Target Customer / Pain

4. TAM / ROI / Why does this matter

5. Your solution

6. Competitive positioning / advantage

7. Buying process / Go to market strategy / Business model

8. Financials

9. Team

10. Summary and “ask”

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Levels of commitment

1 minute 3 minutes

10 minutes 45 minutes

5Check out the venue and get comfortable with owning the space

Know your audience and tailor your pitch for their needs

Create an emotional connection in the first 60 seconds

Use pictures liberally, use words sparingly

Don’t drown the audience in meaningless minutiae

10Use simple, powerful visuals to help highlight your message

Quick tips on effective pitches

• Focus on the audience – what do they need?

• Tell stories – make an emotional connection

• Use powerful images – very few words

• Simplify – less is more

– Don’t cram a 60 minute talk into 15 minutes

– Don’t have 6 speakers in a 15 minute talk

– If more than 1 speaker: Make 1 the lead/MC

• Practice – especially the beginning

• Be prepared for Q&A – have backup data/slides

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Resources on giving great pitches

• “Made to Stick” by Chip Heath and Dan Health

• James Currier at STIRR FounderHacks II: “Hit it

hard”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtVK066iEIg

• David Rose’s TED talk on how to give a pitch to VC’s

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_s_rose_on_pitching_

to_vcs?language=en

• Nancy Duarte’s TEDx talk on great presentations:

“What is”, “What can be”,and ending with a call to

action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nYFpuc2Umk

End

Questions?

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