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Question answered in Quora - I am presenting my startup to investors. Should I state the problem tha


The art that is required here is Communication

Typically Communication has three parts to it

i) - Do a great start with boots spurs - Provide a great opening, show the energy

ii) - Tell the Core of the Message - Tell a great story

iii) - Do a memorable wrap - Tell the end so they remember it well

Opening

I would say the most impressive accomplishment so far, it could be any one of the following

a) - We have 200K in revenue so far

b) - We have got a pilot with Fortune 500 company

c) - We just got a 6 digit PO from a customer

d) - We have acquired so far x (impressive) number of customers - show the list of customers or the number of customers

Core of the Message - Tell the Story

What works well for the core of the message is you explain the problem with a nice story, story always grabs attention, humans like stories, especially if you have surprises and suspenses, it is even more fun. Tell your story on how you came with the idea, what is the problem you saw, how you empathized with your user and then tell how you came up with a solution. Also include a day in a life of the user having that problem. Add pauses, ups and downs, show excitement in your presentation, show that you are coming alive, not too much drama or anything, but real excitement, also dress well, be clean shaven and bring the best demeanor possible, when you dress well, with your best appearance you get an extra dose of confidence and that shows, people will wonder, Oh look at this guy with so much enthusiasm that brightened my day, I want to talk to him.

Memorable Wrap

Make your wrap memorable, leave something that is intriguing, make them ask a question, show them a core feature that is the most value add with your product, make them say WOW that is a cool concept, that is really cool. This could be a quick demo of your product, solution, the core feature etc.

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Again communication is a two way thing, pay attention to the listener when you are delivering the message, pay attention to the body language, are they bored, then switch, modulate your communication technique based on the mood of the audience, if they ask a question, drop everything you are doing and start answering the question with as much information as possible, don't focus on finishing the presentation, because that is the dumb thing to do, nobody cares about your presentation, it is always about the listener, get them hooked.

I would rehearse many times, it is not just rehearsing but also recording it and playing it again and observing it, so you see how you come across, where you need to tone it up, where you need to tone it down, the "coming across" aspect is not completely under your control because it also depends on the mood of the listener, so you have to modulate it a little bit depending upon the audience, it is a 50+ crowd or is it a 30 young and hep crowd, so you need to on the fly adapt it to the audience.

Good Luck.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Puga Sankara is the co-founder of Smart Gladiator LLC. Smart Gladiator designs, builds, and delivers market-leading mobile technology consisting of Smart Gladiator Wearable Scanguns, Tablets, Mobile Tech & Apps for retailers, distributors, and 3PL service providers. So far, Smart Gladiator Wearables have been used to ship, receive, and scan more than 100 million boxes. Users love them for the lightweight, easy-to-use soft overlay keyboard, texting&video chatting ability, data collection ability etc. Puga is a supply chain technology professional with more than 17 years of experience in deploying capabilities in the logistics and supply chain domain. His prior roles involved managing complicated mission-critical programs driving revenue numbers, rolling out a multitude of capabilities involving more than a dozen systems, and managing a team of 30 to 50 personnel across multiple disciplines and departments in large corporations such as Hewlett Packard. He has deployed WMS for more than 30 distribution centers in his role as a senior manager with Manhattan Associates. He has also performed process analysis walk-throughs for more than 50 distribution centers for WMS process design and performance analysis review, optimizing processes for better productivity and visibility through the supply chain. Size of these DCs varied from 150,000 to 1.2 million SQFT. Puga Sankara has an MBA from Georgia Tech. He can be reached at puga@smartgladiator.com or visit the company at www.smartgladiator.com. Also follow him at www.pugasankara.com

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