5 Things Marketers Can Learn From the VC Pitch

Stealing Techniques from Start-ups at SXSW 

At this year’s SXSW I’ve been fascinated by watching tech start-up pitches like Quirky+GE’s Night of Invention which marries the TMZ-bullpen approach with the crowdsourced ideas and votes of the web, plus Bill Nye and Andy Samburg, quickly vetting invention pitches live.

Most instructive have been the SXSW Accelerator series. In those, rising startups pitch to a panel of experienced VC financiers and industry advisors in healthcare, social, entertainment, content, as well as social and “world” technologies. While these sessions have proven less dramatic than TV’s Shark Tank, they’re molded in the same ethos: short deck (10 Prezi pages — or less) and purposeful angling by the start-up leader within a limited time, with Q&A from the skeptical panel. All value, crisply articulated. And in these past days I can’t help but observe that start-ups pitch very differently than us advertisers and marketers…and there is much we may learn from their approach as marketers’ ideas start to look increasingly like start-up tech, app, and device approaches:

1. REVEAL THE ‘TAH-DAH’ UPFRONT Whereas Marketers have been trained by classic Aristotelian narrative — a slow build up to a big climax, start-up pitches just get straight to ‘the what’ upfront. In fact they get to ‘the what’ in the first or second sentence, and in exactly a sentence.
2. SOLVE A (BIG) PROBLEM I can’t help but marvel at how winning start-up pitches are so very Ron Popeil in their framing. They point out a big relatable problem (in Ron Popeil’s case it may have been male pattern balding, or dull knives), and then they reveal a “no duh” bright idea that so obviously solves the problem (in Ron’s case Spray-On Hair or Ginzu indestructible knives). Too often, I’ve witnessed us get enamored with our ad messaging about the idea, or the zinger of a name. Its as if we pitch tech ideas so that we may have something to make an ad about rather than really interrogate the problem and design an elegant solution.
3. EXPLAIN ‘THE HOW’ The winning start-ups confidently detail exactly how the idea works. Advertisers — classically trained by the rules of filmmaking, where ‘the how’ can always be “figured out in post-production” — tend to forego ‘the how’ until well after the client buys it. “Let’s sell the big idea first” is the advertisers’ refrain. And yet, the client cannot buy the idea without some clarity and confidence that ‘the how’ is actually achievable. Hungry upstarts must stand and deliver on some tough considerations: “Why get into hardware? Why not leverage the existing devices?”, “Why are you betting your idea on that platform (Google Glass, iOS, QR Code, etc)?, “How does the idea scale?”, “Who is on your team?” These are not afterthoughts to be “figured out later.”
4. PROTOTYPE, VERSUS MOCK-UP It’s mandatory that winning start-ups have a working prototype, they call it the minimum viable product (or MVP). And while the MVP may not be pretty or even advanced, it is a real, working prototype that proves the idea is doable. And it works even better with your financial support, of course! Us advertisers could learn to get beyond the “visual mock-up” and actually get dirty with working betas to fuel trust and confidence in our ideas. And lastly,

5. REVEAL ‘THE WHY’ John Sculley, investor, ex-CEO of Apple and Pepsi, and panelist for the SXSW Accelerator Health series, keenly observed: “Successful entrepreneurs can describe their vision in context to a noble cause.” Can we marketers say the same? A recurring question to hungry upstarts, here, has been “Explain your passion for this project?” Passion seems to go far in collecting the check from VCs.

I lament the fact that advertiser’s tech ideas, too often, tend towards the tactical doodad and lack this level of passion and noble cause. We often lack emotional gravity and greater mission in the world that contrastingly feeds many start-ups.

The start-up’s pitch is powered by a more motivational ‘why’. And in this time of increasingly skeptical and conservative brand clients, we marketers would do well to steal from these approaches if we want to start selling the level of game-changing innovation that we strive for.

Aki Spicer is Director of Digital Strategy and Content Planning at TBWA\Chiat\Day NY and he lives and works at the nexus of consumer culture and technology.