You do you, be Yoda, and other bits of wisdom I learned by pitching

“Founders Live is an unforgettable happy hour competition sweeping the country where up to five handpicked companies take the hot seat, with only 99 seconds to pitch their company and describe their value proposition in front of an eager audience.” — Nick Hughes, founder of Founders Live

Last week I pitched the 99 second vision of Wanderlust Society. Travelers are looking to get beyond the generic travel recommendations presented on Trip Advisor. We are in the early, beta testing stage of building that solution.

Founders Live was a great opportunity to interact with a crowd, and earn to $5k in Amazon Web Service (AWS) credits. When I was stressing out preparing for this event, the AWS credits gave me a reason to keep going.

Having 99 seconds to pitch a business is more difficult than five minutes. Every word needs to be carefully considered. I didn’t waste a second introducing myself, and instead I had my name on the intro slide. Every time I practiced my pitch, I came in at 90 seconds, so when I was cut off mid-sentence during Founders Live I was shocked! The audience didn’t get to hear my closing half sentence of encouraging people to give Wanderlust Society a try, but all in all it was a great opportunity for our team to really think about the big vision of what we are building, where we are now, what sets us apart, and how to communicate our product verbally when the audience can’t see a full product demo.

Here are some examples of the advice I received for planning this pitch:

Explaining product features? Audience will snooze. Sell the grand vision. Make the pitch about the audience. What are their problems? What is your solution?

Start with a statistic. I never did find a good stat to work with. I started searching for one but figured that could end up being an hours long rabbit hole I didn’t have time to go down, but now I’m keeping my ears out for statistics that will help me create a good story in the future.

Start your pitch with a hot start. Drop a bomb. Wait for it to sink in to the audience, then begin your story. 99 seconds didn’t allow for a mic drop moment, but maybe during my Ted talk one day I can use that nugget, right?

Make eye contact with a few people in the audience. Hell no. I smiled into the abyss and didn’t even look at my team or encouraging husband. I was afraid if I really looked into the audience I’d see someone texting or fidgeting and get distracted. I didn’t want to risk that approach, but kudos to the super star presenters who can pull off making eye contact with strangers and not forget what they are saying.

You do you. Even geeks can give a great, engaging speech.

Be Yoda, not Luke Skywalker. Yes, for real, I was given this advice and even for a non-Star Wars fan girl, it made sense. (For further explanation, contact Jennifer Woodbery, a professional Ted talk trainer, who gave the most engaging hour long presentation on presentations.) Don’t paint yourself as the person to save the day, Luke style. Be more like Yoda, unassuming wisdom giver. Audiences will appreciate it and be more engaged.

The advice definitely helped a novice public speaker like me. As an entrepreneur I am always weighing the amount of time I should take making presentations vs. working on the product. For the month of February, it is back to product work!

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Are you planning a trip and would like a simple, visual, place to save all your locations and see them on a map? Join the Society, and sign up for our Beta!