Update: Scoble, Fred, and Lance have since commented on it as well.

My views on the pay-to-pitch thing are pretty well known, as I’ve written about it a ton in the past, and we’ve torn the topic to shreds several times on the podcast.  And I think we (the larger community, of which I am but a small part) have done a pretty good job here in Atlanta, at least, of (A) educating the entrepreneurs, and (B) tearing down the walls that allowed that sort of thing to come about in the first place.  Many of the pay-to-pitch groups don’t even bother with Atlanta any more (because they know they’ll get a boot in the face from the community). But I will add a few additional thoughts here …

I think the fact that someone with Jason’s “web-clout” is a bit late in jumping on this bandwagon is illustrative (to me, at least), of how “disconnected” the valley-minded crowd can be from the rest of the country.  Don’t get me wrong – I want Jason to fight the good fight :)  But StartupLounge (and others) have been screaming about this, and fighting against it, for several years.

There is a difference between someone in a place like the Valley paying to pitch, and someone in Des Moines, or Tampa, or Atlanta, et al.

If you are paying to pitch in the Valley, you and/or your idea, must really blow. It’s like the handful of applications for CapitalLounge that we get from startups in California that want to come to Atlanta to find money.  Wow – really? WTF?

If you are paying to pitch in some other part of the country (i.e. an under-served capital region, like Atlanta), you may very well be sitting on the next Google, but you likely don’t have the infrastructure and support system around you to tell you that you are wasting your capital paying to pitch – you may think that you don’t have an alternative. And that is where education comes in play.

Uneducated entrepreneur + desperation = “Gee, I bet I can charge this clown $5K to come ‘pitch’ at my service-provider dry hump fest.”

To me, it is all about supply and demand.  How do you kill the demand, since killing the pay-to-pitch organizers is, well, illegal? We’ve found that making more well-rounded, educated, and agile entrepreneurs is the best antidote for the pay-to-pitch problem.  If I had a nickel for every entrepreneur that we’ve collectively “converted” from the dark side through stuff like StartupLounge/CapitalLounge, PitchCamp, Startup Riot, ATDC, Startup Gauntlet, mentoring, et al, I could fund half the deals in the Southeast at least through Series-D :)

At any rate – good read – Jason’s a firebrand – gotta love it.  Kick ass – take names – peace out.

Cheers.

We get a TON of applications every time we put together a CapitalLounge event. While most of the applications have some degree of merit, and eventually get accepted, there are many that don’t.  Historically, we have a non-invitation rate of anywhere from 20-30%.   Despite the enormous level of detail that we’ve published as to our selection criteria and process, invariably, we get a flood of emails the week or so leading up to the event with people appealing and arguing with us (or trying to) about why their deal was rejected.

Here is a tongue-in-cheek look at some reasons why the event applications for some entrepreneurs and investors get rejected.  If you don’t find any of this at all funny, then you most likely fall into one of these categories.

Jorg...@wytehowse.guv

We can’t bloody well deliver a confirmation (or rejection) email to you if you can’t even type in your own email address properly.  Please be sure to double-check your email address before submitting a company profile or application!  There have been some really interesting looking startups that have excluded themselves because we just couldn’t reach them.

The Gettysburg Haiku Tapes

Your “pitch” comes across as a rather arcane series of mutterings that is reminiscent of an amalgam of Haiku, the Gettysburg Address, and the WaterGate Tapes.

Four score and seven
I was not a criminal
You must invest now

COMPANY works closely with our clients to ensure they are dealing with only the best.

We innovate technologies to creation for selected markets within the U.S. and abroad.

We are a leading consumer products company that is seeking angel funding.

Our firm is about MAJOR ROI while innovating the solutions that are needed.

We need angel funding to get our first customers that will be Microsoft and possibly Oracle.

We are a subscription based SaaS company that is vertically focused for maximum ROI.

We are passionate about the overall benefits of our product.

COMPANY is the innovator that will bring many industries to the next level.

The good news is, these types of pitches are outliers – our educational efforts with PitchCamp (for example) seem to be of value to the broader community, which is cool.

The Great Zorba says you are a SaaS company, no?

If you decide that providing a “short pitch” is not worth your time and leave it blank, or you completely half-ass it, well, you aren’t likely going to get approved.  We aren’t mind readers, and we don’t have time to chase you all over the internet to try and figure out what it is you do.  Luckily for us, The Great Zorba doesn’t approve CapitalLounge applications; we do.

Meaningless Wall of Text Syndrome

We ask all entrepreneurs who have attended CapitalLounge before to provide a brief “progress report” when they apply to the CapitalLounge event.  The idea is simple.  Deals that seem to making tangible progress in between events are going to score higher and move ahead on the list.  Those that are stale, or just flopping around waiting for someone to write them a check, are going to get rejected. If your “progress report” on the application is a copy/paste text version of your business plan, or doesn’t actually mention any recent milestones for your venture, you turn our vetting process (at least in terms of looking at your deal) into a very simple one.  Fail.

According to GoDaddy, my Venture is Coming Soon!

If you have no web site, and you are using an email address of biz...@hotmail.com, you have relegated the status of your deal to a split second, one-way decision on our part.  Sorry, but in this day and age, there is no excuse.  Even a simple teaser web site goes a long way.  And get your own domain for email, for the love of Pete.

Stealth Company That Will Change the World!
If you are in stealth mode, we understand.  Sometimes you don’t want to reveal what you’re doing until you are ready.  We get it.  But if you apply as a “stealth mode” company, you have to give us something better than these for your pitch:

Early stage stealth startup.

Changing the way we work.

Early idea still.

Mulling my next trick.

Everyone Will Want to Buy a Thin Llama Wearing Raybans!

If your startup focuses on establishing a chain of weight loss clinics, Llama ranches, or Sunglass Huts, the closest you’re going to get to our event will be the coffee shop across the street.  Come on, already.  Have you not read the event details?  The blog posts?  The rants and raves on our podcast about the criteria for getting in?  If you use the words franchise, consulting, clients, strip mall (“mall” in general), or  importer, that is almost a guaranteed rejection.  Nothing wrong with those businesses, mind you.  Just not a fit for CapitalLounge.  Talk to the SBA or your bank.  They are probably going to turn you down, because that is what banks are supposed to do.  But that should be your first stop.

And for the love of Pete – don’t send an email telling us how “we just don’t get it” because we didn’t put your REI or franchise opportunity on a pedestal.  Trust me.  We do.  That is why you aren’t allowed to come.

Have you been injured on the job? Suffered a car accident?

If you are an attorney, accountant, consultant, etc. , wow … you must be completely incapable of comprehending simple English.   We realize that lots of entrepreneurs (would-be or otherwise) work for service providers.  We really do.  But when you apply to attend our event as an “entrepreneur”, and then we research you online, only to find out that you really work for a marketing consulting company, a financial services advisory firm, etc., we have to stick true to our vision and reject your application.

Additionally, we have to be respectful of our small stalwart band of sponsors who pay us money to offset our costs.  We give them exclusivity in terms of attending the event (e.g. we have a legal sponsor, and they are the only law firm in the room).  Works out well for everyone, except you.

Um.  Jimmy works for our startup.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.

If we reject someone’s application to attend, and then you apply and list that person as your “guest” – not so good.  There is a reason we try and vet the attendees for this event.  If you can’t be respectful of this, then you can’t come and play.

Confucious say “man who have bad reputation, doesn’t get to attend CapitalLounge”

If you are known around town as a slimeball, predator, shyster, trickster, slickster, spinmeister, or just someone who “loves me some me”, you can sit outside and pat yourself on the back all night long – because, well, this is America, and you can do that if you so desire. But if you’ve ever taken advantage of an entrepreneur or investor, asked people to pay to pitch, have a reputation for taking but not giving, provide introductions for a “fee”, or  served hard time because you got caught up in one of Mike Blake’s “schemes”, you aren’t getting in.

You don’t know me, but I was the guy who invested first in Google.

If you claim to be an investor of any level, but:

• no one has heard of you
• no one can vouch for you
• you can’t cite or refer to any past deals that you’ve done
• you don’t have a web site (in the case of VCs)
• trying to find you is like trying to infiltrate the Witness Protection Program
• you wear a seersucker suit, put three gallons of Vitalis on your hair every morning, and live out of a 1974 Chevy Vega

… you can sit outside and invest in the guy who is patting himself on the back, while he tries to take advantage of the entrepreneur peddling the Llama ranch PPM.  I will admit, VCs are pretty easy to vet.  If you are a VC, you have a web site, and have raised money from LPs.  If you are a “corporate venture” type – we’ve heard of your company.  If you claim to be an angel investor, well, you better come strong with your pitch and application, or be referred to us by someone – because out of the box, we just assume angels are service providers, consultants, etc.  It’s much quicker than playing the Google game for 30 minutes trying to figure you out.

Oh man, I’m so messed up.

Any combination of one or more of the above is going to be an insta-fail.  We’re happy to be proven wrong …. we just haven’t been yet.

Cheers.

I worked pretty diligently to follow the guidelines that TAG gave us for the Top 10 Innovative Company presentations. Pretty simple: “3 slides, 3 minutes. Any more than that and you will get the hook.” If you ever been to a big event like this, you know how hard it is for them to stay on schedule with so many speakers, presenters, exhibitors, breaks, etc. Everyone has to do their part, however small it may seem.

I was surprised, and a little taken back by how many of my fellow entrepreneurs ran roughshot over the rules. Some of the companies had what appeared to be a dozen slides, one guy tossed up a video, and some ran WAY over the limit (I swear one guy took 10 minutes). I know that Tino (TAG) didn’t seem all that thrilled about it either. Then again, these were supposed to be the same pitches that the judges saw during the audition … who knows.

I will say this, though. If you can’t pitch the essence of your company in 3 minutes to a room full of people (and obviously can’t follow simple instructions), that is a pretty clear indicator to me that you either have no advisors, some really iffy advisors, or you’re just toast.

Whenever I watch other people pitch, I also try to take notice of the crowd … what are they thinking? doing? gesturing? When people start breaking out the Blackberries that’s a pretty good indicator that you have a first-class ticket on the non-stop to nowhere. At that point, the applause is simply gratitude that you’re done. Trust me, you don’t want to be that guy (or gal).

The goal of the 3 minute pitch is not to raise money, and it certainly isn’t to provide due diligence – it is to get your message out there. Who are you ? What do you do? Why are you great? That’s it. Say enough to spark some interest out there – you want people seeking you out during the break, not praying for you to stop talking. That isn’t the time to amaze the crowd with your superior knowledge of dynamic link libraries.

Jeff Haynie (Appcelerator) had a nice pitch … nice, clean design … easy to read … got his message out there, and got the hell off the stage. You could tell he’s done this before. His pitch was reflective of a professional entrepreneur. Hopefully, TAG will post the videos soon – should be very instructional for some folks.

One suggestion for future events: It would probably be beneficial if TAG did a “bootcamp” pitch session for all entrepreneurs that are presenting at the Summit. Since we already do this coaching via our free PitchCamp sessions via StartupLounge, I’ll offer that up to TAG as a way to do it for free. We’re happy to help, and provide some sounding boards for you. Or, if you’re an entrepreneur who is getting ready to hit the pitch trail, stay tuned to StartupLounge.com for dates as we post them and come on your own – again, it’s free.

There’s no such thing as the “perfect pitch” (I’ll include every pitch I’ve ever done as well) – there is always room for improvement. But good lord … some of those pitches illustrated this fact: as hard as it is for companies to find capital in Atlanta, the entrepreneurial community has work to do to meet the money half way. Blocking and tackling …. the basics.

I will close with this, though – the TAG Summit definitely keeps getting better every year.  I remember past Summits with pretty thin crowds.  Much like building a company, it is an iterative process.   As Lance pointed out, Tino does a good job of listening to feedback from TAG members, and the event continues to evolve.

Cheers.

One of the things that we’ve implemented for the upcoming StartupLounge.com Capital Connections event is that we require all attendees to provide us their “one-line” elevator pitch as part of the application process. We limit them to 125 characters. How important is it? Extremely. You have 125 characters to convince our steering committee that your particular venture will be of interest to fast-growth investors.

It is a curse. Most entrepreneurs CANNOT construct a concise, effective pitch for their venture. However, turn them loose on a friend’s deal, and they can work magic.

Below you will find a sampling of a few good one-line pitches that we’ve seen, some bad ones, and some really ugly ones. We’ve anonymized them where appropriate. We also have some from investors, too – wheee!

Also of note – if you want or need some help in this area, and will be attending our upcoming Capital Connections event, check out our free PitchCamp event. This is one of the topics we’ll be covering.

The Good

COMPANY is an a social network targeting the Harley Davidson crowd.

COMPANY allows recruiters to quickly find the best candidates based on requirements, not just keywords.

The Bad:

An early stage consumer product company focusing on the mass market.

We’re the leading service provider in our industry in our 3rd year of organic growth, that is moving towards software dev.

Web based communication platform bringing local businesses and communities together.

The Ugly:

A startup providing interactive directories.

Using the Power of the Pico-cell, Fed with Fiber to help bring FttP (Fiber to the Premise) to Consumers and SMBs.

Bonus: Crappy Investor Pitches

Yep – we asked investor attendees to give us their pitch as well. Just goes to show you that investors aren’t immune to the “curse” of not being able to formulate their own pitch.

The Good

Early stage venture fund focused on technology & healthcare/life science investments in southeast & mid-atlantic.

Seeks investments in communication tech, enterprise software, and IT services at all stages of co. development, 1-20m range.

The Bad

We invest in early-stage companies focused in the IT, Communications, and power/clean-technology sectors.

$200M growth stage venture fund investing in healthcare, IT, and industrial technology.

The Ugly

Experienced Angel investors and startup catalysts.

Seeking early stage tech companies who want to work with angel investors

Enjoy …Cheers.

I will say with certainty that for a 20 minute pitch, we probably spent four months preparing for it (at various levels.) However, no matter how well prepared you are from a pitch perspective, anyone can throw you for a loop. The bullet-proof pitch does not exist. Nevertheless, it pays to be as prepared as possible. So, in this piece, I am going to share some of my hard-earned lessons learned, so you won’t have to spill too much of your own blood in the process of preparing for your next pitch.

Note: There exists a wealth of opinions, tips, and guides on how to create an effective pitch. This is not such an animal. Instead, I am going to focus on how to prepare for and handle the unexpected. In other words, what you can do to fend off Mr. Murphy when he shows up at around slide 3 of your presentation.

Being ex-military, I tend be a buff of all things related to military history. One of my favorite quotes is from German Field Marshall Helmuth von Moltke:

Kein Plan überlebt Kontakt mit dem Feind.

No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Tip #1: Don’t simply prepare. Game plan instead. Among the investors we had lined up this week were Norwest Ventures (Promod Haque and Jeff Crowe), Kinetic Ventures (Nelson Chu), and several smaller private equity guys. While we were equally as excited about each of them, we prepared for each of them separately. Why? Simple. They all have their own unique needs, desires, hot buttons, and more importantly, professional backgrounds.

Research each investor, and put together a game plan for each one. Don’t just read their bio online and go off and think that is enough. Go beyond the bio. Talk to people. Dig. Use your noggin’. Finding out where someone went to school is one thing. Learning their hot buttons and pet peeves takes some good old-fashioned sleuthing. If you can’t find anything on an investor, that’s okay, but you need to try. If you learn one thing out of it, then it was worth the time.

For example, from networking and listening we determined that one of our potential investors didn’t prefer slides, but instead preferred to just “chat” about the deal. So we adapted. As another example, we learned that one investor’s area of expertise was in user conversions, so we game planned for this, and tried to make our user conversion strategy as defensible as possible. When the tough question comes (and it will), you’ll be ready to field it.

If you aren’t willing to spend this type of effort game planning for your pitch, do yourself a favor and hang up your cleats.

Tip #2: Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, tell ‘em, and tell ‘em what you just told ‘em. While I have heard this a million times, I owe my buddy Gregg Granberg for poking me in the face and reminding me of it this week. On your opening slide, frame the discussion by telling them a 3-5 sentence executive summary of your pitch. For example:

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time today. I am pleased to have the opportunity to share with you our story and vision, and I hope you get as excited about it as we are. Today, I am going to demonstrate to you why we are going to be the best widget maker in the world, and why our team is nicely positioned to make a run at the $10B sparkly widget market. We have a unique product, a solid team, some initial sales, and are ready to go. With that being said, let’s get started.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our presentation. I thank you for your time today. It is my hope that you are now as excited as we are about Acme Widgets, and our plan to take aim at the $10B sparkly widget market. Just to recap: we have a unique product, an experienced team, some early customers, and are ready to scale this thing. If I can answer any followon questions, or provide a clarification, I am certainly happy to do so.

Tip #3: Don’t be afraid to rework your deck. There is no such thing as the perfect deck, much less a perfect pitch. If your slide deck is torn to shreds by your audience, your peers, or your partners, examine your options. Don’t be so locked into your approach that you can’t be fluid. Being fluid is a critical skill of the successful entrepreneur. I’ll bet we’ve reworked our deck 10 times. And you know what? It is better because of it. We’ve also rejected the inclination to rework it at least 5 other times. There is probably a correlation with this ratio.

Tip #4: Take the opinons of others cum grano salis, or as they say, with a grain of salt. It is up to you, as the entrepreneur, to accumulate reputable feedback, synthesize this information, and determine what, if any, of that feedback you will listen to. If an investor or peer has some input, listen to them. However, resist the impulse to rush off and make sweeping changes to your presentation until you’ve had the opportunity to think through things carefully. You know what they say about opinions – everyone has one – just like that other thing that is usually included in that analogy.

I tell you this because invariably, someone won’t get your idea. And that is okay! If the pitch turns negative, take it for what it is – a chance to learn something, and possibly improve. Listen to their feedback, mull on it, then possibly act on it.

Tip #5: Don’t stress too much over the numbers game. For every person that tells you that you need a “10 slide deck”, I can find three more that will tell you that you need twelve, or twenty. For every person that tells you that you need to have the management team slide up front in your deck, I can find another that will argue that it should be at the end. For every guy who says a one page executive summary is the right path, I can find others who will argue that it needs to be 2, or 3.

At the end of the day, it isn’t about the size of your deck ( ha! ), the length of your business plan, or the order of your slides. It is about you (the entrepreneur), your idea, your market, and your traction or progress. Keep that in mind. If you are comfortable delivering your pitch, and the pitch itself doesn’t stink, it won’t matter what order your slides are in, or whether you had one marketing slide or two.

Tip #6: Don’t be a bullshit artist. “Winging it” in a pitch is the wrong answer. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know” when asked a tough question that you are not fully prepared to answer. Investors (particularly VCs) tend to be very highly educated people. More importantly, they see more pitches in a month than you will give in your entire lifetime. They have seen it all. Trust me, if you are blowing smoke, you will stink up the joint in quick order. If you don’t know the answer to something, or don’t have a firm strategy around it, simply say that, and promise to follow up with them on the issue. Trust me …

Tip #7: Don’t be afraid to say “I know!” Conversely, if you do have an answer to something, don’t be afraid to take a stand and say it. The VC may or may not share your opinion, but they will at least respect the fact that you took a stand and were confident in your approach.

Tip #8: Role play. Role playing isn’t just for nerdy geeks that like to run around dressed like wizards and hitting each other with wooden swords. Find a fellow entrepreneur, co-worker, or someone else who can listen to your pitch and play the role of VC. And don’t make the mistake of using just one person – find as many as you can. I can promise you that if you throw 3 or 4 people in a room, and have them shoot holes in your pitch, or ask you tough questions, you will be very prepared for 90% of the questions that an investor will ask. You will never be able to anticipate everything, but that is not your worry. Focus on the obvious – the things you can control.

Tip #9: Don’t do a hasty retreat. If your pitch goes south, resist the temptation to pack up your laptop and find the nearest watering hole. Ask for feedback. Most of the time, an investor will gladly share with you a few points about your pitch and your deal. Listen!

Tip #10: Follow up. You should always follow up after a pitch. A short email goes a long way to bridging the pitch with any future activities. However, if your pitch goes sour, you may be tempted to not follow up. This is a mistake. Write them an email and ask for feedback. Write them an email the next week and demonstrate how you’ve made your pitch (or product, idea, team, etc.) a better one. Explain to the investor how you’ve made a mid-course adjustment. After all, they are betting on you as an entrepreneur, and they will take comfort in knowing that you can right the ship when need be.

Learn. Never stop learning. Besides, you might just be surprised at the possibilities.

Hopefully, these ramblings will be of help to some of you. If you have your own suggestions or approaches for surviving first contact with your pitch, I welcome you to post them below!

Cheers.