As Inside VT KnowledgeWorks readers will know, I submitted an application to be one of five companies to pitch to angel investors at the First Annual VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Summit. As you also know, my company was not selected.
With amazing coincidence, just before the announcement of the Second Annual VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurship Summit, David Rose left a comment on a post which included my angel investor video pitch.
Who is David Rose?
Only a venture capitalist, a TED speaker, the founder of Angelsoft - considered the industry standard for online application for angel and venture funding which I filled out so carefully to apply for my company to pitch at the VT KnowledgeWorks Entrepreneurial Summit - and a panelist at the Summit, with whom I had a brief online dialogue via comments.
Did I mention that my company was not selected to pitch?
***
This post originally appeared on Handshake 2.0.
***
"...the video completely fails as an angel investor pitch!"
- David Rose
In The Age of Transparency Akin to Nudity, Someone Might Tell Us Our Pecs Sag or Our Thighs Are Fat, I wrote that David Rose, a venture capitalist and founder of Angelsoft, took the time to leave a comment on Video Yourself about my angel investor video pitch. I mentioned a variety of reasons why I didn't enjoy qualifying for the Fail Blog.
Still. Take a look at the value in this comprehensive trashing. It is ultimately a brief, direct, expert guide to creating an angel investor video pitch.
Feel free to follow the trashation along in my video.
Anne, Good post. Would you like some feedback on your angel investor pitch video? (I hope so, because I'm about to give you some!)
While you come across as completely sincere and enthusiastic about Handshake 2.0, the video completely fails as an angel investor pitch! Why? Because in your 1:10 of video, not ONCE do you tell me anything about the business!
You spend the first half telling me how wonderful it is to go looking there as a viewer, and the second half telling me why you'd want to participate as a vendor. Both of these are sales pitches for the product. But you don't spend a single second discussing anything related to the venture in which I'm investing: the market size, the market need, the business model, the target customers, the market entry strategy, your unique advantage(s), the financials, the management team, the exit strategy, etc. etc. etc.
Remember that investors are NOT investing in the product. I can't tell you how many wonderful products that I've been pitched, that I loved, and might even purchase myself...but I'd never invest in the business because it didn't make sense (at least for me as an investor). What investors ARE investing in, fall into the following categories (more or less roughly in the following order):
- YOU, the entrepreneur
- The Market
- The Business Model
- The ability to execute
- The product
- The financials
- The deal
The first one (YOU) involves communicating a lot of things to a potential investor, starting off with Integrity and Passion (both of which come across in the video). But, unfortunately, without the rest of #1 (such as your background, abilities, experience, etc.) and absolutely nothing of anything else (even after watching the video, I still don't know what Handshake 2.0 actually does), there's just not a lot to help an investor make the decision to invest.
Rose concludes his comment with, "I'd love to see a re-shoot of your video after you've watched mine [TED], and taken the lessons [Angelsoft Blog]!"
I'll take that as both an invitation and a challenge.
What does Handshake 2.0 do, David Rose? Attracts commentary by experts, for starters. So, for my comprehensive "completely fails" - and for the gift of your ideas to our site's audience - thank you.
***
VT KnowledgeWorks is a unique growth enhancement program open to entrepreneurs in the New River Valley of Virginia and beyond. Acceleration center and incubation facilities are located in the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.
VT KnowledgeWorks sponsors include Attaain, Inc., BB&T, Handshake 2.0, Harris Office Furniture, Hodges, Jones & Mabry, P.C., Latimer, Mayberry & Matthews IP Law, LeClairRyan, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and The Becher Agency (TBA).
Comments