9 tips for virtual pitches and a step-by-step guide how to record it
In these days more than ever, virtual pitching (or online pitching) has become more important. Actually, it is the only way of pitching for at least a couple of weeks more.
Now there is basically two ways of pitching virtually. Either you join a live pitching event on a platform like for example Zoom, where you and possibly others have to be ready to share your screen and give your pitch in a row, one after the other. Or you pre-record your pitch and then it will either be streamed at a certain moment or it is accessible a-synchronically.
Which way to go will most likely not be your choice. Therefore we will give you advice for both processes. We will start with general advice regarding the setup, give you a step-by-step guide how to record it and in the end we have tips for virtual live-pitching.
The setup
#1 Place your camera slightly above eye-level
After seeing many pitches online we came to the conclusion that the angle from slightly above eye-level is simply the best for a pitch. This means, that you either have to place our laptop on a stand or pile of books so that the webcam is in the right position or you buy an external webcam/camera. We would recommend you to actually buy an external webcam. It is most of the times safer for your laptop and the pitch and most external webcams actually have a better quality as well.
#2 Use a real microphone
If you are already buying a webcam, consider buying one with a good microphone or even buy an extra external microphone. The overall sound quality will be much better. Even though most investors won’t realise the difference directly, you will make sure that everyone understands you as good as possible — especially if you are nervous and start to rush or mumble.
#3 Have a source of bright light behind your camera and don’t sit it front of a window
If you want to be properly seen, you need to make sure that the light is coming from the front and not from the back. Otherwise you either have shadows on you or people simply can’t see you correctly. to make it even more professional, you could place a lamp right behind your camera and turn off any other light. Just make sure that the video looks good and people can read your facial expressions.
#4 Sit in front of a plain, light-coloured wall
The reason why you are filming yourself is to support the presentation. The attention of the viewer should be on the slides and on you, not on anything in the background. A wall of books in the background might lead to an investor trying to read the titles of the book instead of listening to you.
#5 Don’t sit in a rotating chair
This is a quick one. Simply get a kitchen chair or anything similar to avoid swivelling around during the presentation. This just distracts the viewer.
#6 Look at the camera, not your screen
I know, this is a hard one, but try to look as much as possible into the camera and not the screen. Just because you have the slides in front of you doesn’t mean that you should read them. You have to be able to present without looking at the slides all the time, just as you would if you pitched in person.
In a video conference you cannot look into someones eyes, because the camera is above the the screen. But it is important to look towards the audience and not the screen in order to catch their full attention.
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The recording
When it comes to recording your video, it is essential that you record your screen but also yourself while pitching. If you already don’t have the chance to meet the investors in person, they should at least see you (and hopefully your passion) in the pitch. Therefore you need to record your screen as well as yourself. I will walk you through the different ways of doing this.
Use zoom.us and their recording function
Probably the easiest way is to use zoom and its recording function. You simply open zoom, start a new meeting, share your screen ( I recommend to share the fullscreen view of you presentation), start your webcam and then you start your recording. The recording will be saved on your computer as soon as you end the meeting (That’s important, you actually have to end the meeting completely in order to save the recording. It took me a while to figure this out.) For more details, please follow these instructions: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362473-Lokale-Aufzeichnung.
If you use zoom to record your pitch, you have two options for how (and especially where) you see the webcam video of yourself. Either you can see it overlapping the slides or you can put the video next to the presentation. I personally think that the last option is the better one because like this you do not overlay anything important on the slides with your video.
In order to place the video next to the shared screen, you need to go to your zoom settings -> Recording -> Place video next to the shared screen. During the recording, you will still see the video of yourself on top of your presentation, but in the recording it will be next to it like in the screenshot below.
However, if you prefer to have the video overlap the presentation, make sure that nothing will be on the slide in the corner where you place your video. And please, don’t try to move the place of your video during your presentation. That will just distract the investor. If you like this overlapping video, you can also use other tools such as loom.com to record your screen and yourself at the same time.
Manual Setup
You can get to the same result with a little bit more effort by using the Mac- or Windows- native screen-recording and webcam functions.
Mac:
You start Quicktime, click on File -> New Movie Recording. This brings the video of yourself from your webcam on the screen. What you need to do now is to arrange the presentation, the webcam video and a white text page to look like in the picture below. The benefit of this method is that you can actually use the space below the video of yourself for some text or a logo.
Now, in Quicktime, you click on File again and this time click New Screen Recording. You then pick Record selected screen, make the appropriate selection and start recording your pitch. Make sure that you allow the screen recording to capture your voice and if you are using and external microphone, make sure that this microphone is selected for the audio input.
Windows:
In windows you do exactly the same, only that instead of Quicktime, you can use any Screen casting tool.
Professional software
Last but not leat we also want to mention the option of using a professional video editing software to record your pitch. I am not going to explain this in detail, because there are many different ways of doing it, but what you basically have to do is record yourself via webcam and your screen separately and then bring both videos together. When you bring those videos back together you can decide where you want to place your video (overlapping or next to the presentation) and you can also add text, like in the example above.
3 Tips for virtual live pitching
Last but not least some tips for virtual live pitching.
#1 Know the tool you have to use
This is an obvious point, but please make sure that you tested the tool that you will be using for the video conference. Call someone and test out how to share your screen and how to pick the right webcam and audio signal.
#2 Join your meeting 5 minutes early
I have seen so many pitches where people joint last minute or even too late and this was always bad. It is not just because it is the worst first impression to be late, but also because this will increase your nervousness unnecessarily.
#3 No videos
Unless you know 100% that the video will really start right away and that the audio signal will be delivered correctly, don’t use videos in your presentation.
If you want to share your pitch and all other relevant information about your startup with investors, sign up for INEX now!
