Yesterday it was the Don'ts. Today let's balance the scales and end the week on a positive note. When you're crafting your pitch to angel investors there are several keys to getting your presentation right:

1. Click the first slide immediately. Make your introductory remarks on the next slide. By starting the presentation right away we know you know your time limits.
2. Do tell us about your prior startup, even if it wasn't successful. Practice makes perfect and we offer extra credit to you whether or not you succeeded. (Whether we should or not, is another question.)

3. Close with the ask. Tell us your pre-money valuation, how much you want and what you'll do with the money. If you've done the rest of you presentation right this is where you should reach climax.
4. Start with a quick description of what you do and who your customer is.
5. Introduce your team on the 3rd or 4th slide. Not too early, we won't care; not too late, we'll be wondering instead of listening.
6. Use photos that take up the entire slide. A single image for a singular idea.
7. Use trigger words as bullets, not whole sentences. For example, when you see the phrase MULTIPLE MARKETS, you'll know what to say.
8. Use a BIG FONT, like 44pt, so we can see something from the back of the room.
9. Bite size. Feed us one idea at a time. Put one idea on each slide. Yes you'll have more than the magical 12 slides, but you'll zip through them. Angels like fast moving presentations; we can keep up. Next slide.
10. Show financials we can see. Maybe only a couple of rows and a few columns, not that entire spreadsheet; this is our first meeting, if we want more detail we'll ask.
11. Read Garr Reynolds' Presentation Zen. You'll be doing us both a big favor.

You don't need to tell us everything about your product. What you hope for is that when you finish, every hand in the room goes up. Now you're selling! Good luck with your next presentation!

Download 25 Pitching Pointers.