How to pitch an investor in 90 seconds.
I'm not a mathematician, designer, strategist, developer, or marketer. I'm an entrepreneur.
Writing
I came across this great post today about how many businesses blow the prose written for their website by targeting the wrong reader, especially startups. μ
Business Plans
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I feel like I’m beating a dead horse to death, but there’s so much complexity still out there I feel it’s my mission to keep breakin’ it down like a fraction.
If you do decide to go the VC roadshow route (and that’s a post for another time), they do NOT want yet another 80-page plan to slog through. Try boiling everything down to 10 slides, and better yet, into one page. Below is a great example, in web app form, called plancruncher and created by a division of Lunatech Ventures.
Integration
My problem with the various to-do and project management apps out there (read: Basecamp), is that they don’t move as fast as your brain or the real world. They quickly become an administrative burden constantly going to the app (whether web or mobile), updating, crossing things off, etc. So how do you fix this? I think I may have a solution…and it has to do with integration.
Simplicity + Achievements = Powerful
You’re just going to want to click through and view the picture. An excerpt simply doesn’t do it justice.
Data Visualization
PowerPoint often adds complexity rather than taking it away. Similarly, the charts and graphs most “practitioners” produce require a PhD to decipher.
Why not make it easy on the reader and add a “call out” box detailing exactly what you want him or her to take away from the chart. A few examples are shown below for inspiration.