Pro Tips from FinTech Lab’s Demo Day: How to Perfect Your On-Camera Elevator Pitch

Last month, the New York FinTech Innovation Lab reached an exciting milestone as it graduated its tenth class of emerging technology companies at an all-virtual Demo Day.

The FinTech Innovation Lab, which promotes collaboration between financial institutions and innovative entrepreneurial talent, ran its tenth-anniversary program online. Despite the unexpected pivot, this year’s Lab was a tremendous success. The ten fintech and insurtech companies had over 400 virtual meetings with our 43 financial institution partners, entrepreneur mentors and venture capital firms. The 2020 class is working on over 40 pilots that were identified through the Lab.

To create our virtual Demo Day this year, the Lab worked with two terrific partners, RELAYTO and MarkMedia. RELAYTO, a graduate from the FinTech Innovation Lab London program, is a no-code publishing platform that turns traditional documents and decks (e.g., PPT, PDF) into interactive digital experiences. For the FIL NYC Demo Day site, RELAYTO enhanced a traditional website format with embedded videos, pitch decks and other information about the Lab. RELAYTO Document Experience Platform co-Founders Alex Shevelenko and Nikita Korotaev also leveraged their experience as Lab alumni to ensure the site would maximize engagement between the startups and potential customers.

However, the virtual format posed new challenges for this year’s class when it came time to showcase their technologies — mainly, how to create a do-it-yourself video pitch for your product. Maria Gotsch, co-founder of the FinTech Innovation Lab, caught up with Mark Thompson, founder & creative director of MarkMedia, to discuss his top tips for at-home entrepreneurs looking to create professional, high-quality videos to promote their businesses.

Maria Gotsch: Mark, you helped coach our 2020 class as they prepared their video presentations for Demo Day. With limited opportunities for in-person engagement, many entrepreneurs are relying videoconferencing tools to engage with potential customers. What are some ways entrepreneurs can make their content stand out?

Mark Thompson: To create content with an impact, it’s important to understand your audience, the medium you’re using and your goal. There’s no shortage of content vying for your audience’s attention. Video is a powerful tool to leverage your voice and insert your personality into your message. Remember to tell a story and avoid merely reading lines off your presentation.

For Demo Day, we combined each company’s video with their presentation slides for a more polished look.

Your content will stand out once you identify what’s unique to your business model that will add value to your customer. Try leveraging key partnerships, behind the scenes access to your facilities or testimonials from current customers.

Also, before you create video content, do some research and create a moodboard of content that you would like to recreate. Once you find what works, ask yourself, “given the technology I have, what is the minimum viable way to recreate this format?” Decide what you can create with what you already have and build from there.

To record a simple demonstration of your product, tools like Loom or Zoom can help you record presentations from your computer. For a more polished look, find a creative that understands your audience and messaging to help you turn what you have into a compelling visual.

MG: What are some technical tips that you gave the FinTech Lab class to help refine their video pitches?

MT: First, we wanted to establish a consistent visual theme that would help the companies leverage the power of video to tell their story. For Demo Day, we provided video and written instructions along with a template as a visual reference, which combined each company’s video pitch with their presentation slides.

We provided the companies with a simple template to help ensure consistency.

Once we communicated the creative direction, we gave some general guidelines to help each company create streamlined, high-quality videos.

1. Avoid distractions and make it easy for your audience to focus on you. We encouraged everyone to record against a blank wall and remove potential distractions from the background. With video, you are competing against other distractions for your audience’s attention, so do what you can to remove items from the background like furniture, wall décor and plants.
2. Good audio is key. Low-quality audio also distracts from your message and you risk losing your audience. To improve audio quality, stay as close to your microphone as possible or try using headphones. Before you record, find a quiet room with good acoustics and away from outside noise. Also, try turning off air conditioners or other appliances to remove ambient noise.
3. Maintain eye-contact. Videos are like conversations. By keeping your camera at eye-level, you maintain good eye contact, which helps you engage with your audience and keep their attention. We suggest using books, a tripod or phone mount to get the right height.
4. If you’re using slides, keep it simple. Your audience can’t read your presentation and listen to you at the same time. If you’re using slides, make sure they complement and quickly communicate what you are trying to say.
5. Repetition. No one is comfortable on camera at first, so record yourself multiple times and review the footage. As you listen to yourself, identify areas where you can be more concise, slow down or insert a pause.

MG: What are some common mistakes people make when recording their own video content and what steps should you take to get the best video quality?

MT: To produce a quality video, leverage what you already have at home — a blank wall, a quiet room and a smartphone — to effectively communicate your message. Minor adjustments in lighting or positioning will help you to avoid these common mistakes:

1. Poor lighting. Set yourself up so that you are facing the window or light source. The light should be in front of you, not behind you. If you don’t have enough natural light, turn on all of the lights in the room.
2. Camera quality. Some people purchase external webcams with lower resolutions than their smartphones can produce or have a fisheye lens. We find that using the built-in camera on your smartphone provides the best quality.
3. A busy background. Make it easy for your audience to focus on what you’re saying. Avoid adding logos or signage behind you. Once you record your video, you can add your logo at the bottom.
4. Looking at yourself instead of the camera. While speaking, remember to look into the camera (center top of laptop or phone), not at yourself. If you need to check your appearance, take a few minutes to see how you look and then press the record button.

(Before) When filming, the light should be in front of you, not behind you.

(After) Always stand in front of the light with the camera at eye-level and no distractions in the background.

The FinTech Innovation Lab would like to thank Mark and his team at MarkMedia as well as RELAYTO for their help making Demo Day 2020 a success. To see the finished product, head to the recap of our Demo Day here.