Startup Pitching - Lessons From a Rock Show

This is a guest post by Robin Malau, an Indonesian music industry veteran who's also a blogger, creative entrepreneurship mentor, and digital consultant. He can be seen at the offices of Cerahati New Media Communication, a multimedia production company in Jakarta, as its Digital Media Producer. You can follow him on Twitter @lowrobb.

One day while giving a lecture at an Entrepreneurship class, one of the students asked, "Mr. Robin, why are you no longer in a band, don't you miss being a band member?"

My answer, "Of course I did. But I can still feel like a band member and this (teaching in class) is my own show."

After retiring as an active musician nearly 10 years ago I began to understand that the most important lessons I received from being in a band for over a dozen years can be implemented beyond the field of music. In reality, every process of becoming a musician can be applied to in life.

One of the lessons was the process of doing a show. Steps from preparation until the end of the show can be implemented not only in music but also for internet startups. In this case, the equivalent of a show is the pitching process.

Setting Goals

Deciding your goal is the first step that you need to take. This is the most crucial step and cannot be ignored. Why? Because all of the strategy that's being put together must be oriented towards the goal.

• Deciding your goal can start from self assessment:
• Does my business need more capital?
• Does my business need a new investor?
• Is participating in pitching events the correct step right now?
• And many others

Aside from deciding your goal, don't forget to prepare your personal expectation. Distinct from business vision, personal expectation should be more grounded.

The thinking goes, if your expectation is ordinary and you receive something more, you can consider that as a bonus. Conversely if you set your expectation all the way up to the heavens and you failed to reach it, you'll have underachieved. Prepare an expectation that makes sense according to your and your team's capabilities.

Getting a Gig

The show is the vein of a music group. All of the strategies and efforts must be geared towards getting a show contract. In this case, show means pitching.

For internet startups, a successful pitch can change the fate of your company.

Here, startups can look for pitching gigs through any medium. The easiest way is to seek information from friends in social media or by following important individuals and accounts on Twitter. Events with good promotions will always reach their target market (startups). So by mingling in the right community, startups will always have this information.

Tips:

• Just like a rock show, get to know the pitching event before deciding to register. Find out who is the organizer, who are the judges, what's the prize, who's the audience, and what's the reputation of the event, and so on.
• If the judges are known, try to find out the background of their education and line of work. For example, if the judge is a marketer, try to include marketing aspects in your pitch.
• If you can, find out what other startups are participating. This will determine the pitching strategy itself.
• Try to find a mentor before presenting. It could be a friend, sibling, relative, uncle or aunt who has experience in running a business.
• This preparation practice does not only have to be done before a pitching event, it could be for meeting angel investors, individual investors, and others.

Rehearsals

After getting a show, it's time to practice. A band practices to prepare for a show in the studio. Here, bands recollect old songs or practice new songs. Each band member practices with their own instruments as per their responsibilities.

Like a band, ideal startups have a team with members having their own individual skills. It doesn't necessarily mean that the responsibility of having each skill falls on individual members. For example, the guitarist can also double as backing vocal; a back-end programmer can assist the front-end developer.

Ensure the following:

• Show's duration (for the band) and presentation duration (for startups)
• Prepare enough songs for the duration of the show (for bands) and the nubbier of presentation slides (for startups) including the set list.
• Each member must complete his or her respective tasks according to preparation materials.
• The team practices the presentation and prepares a plan B if necessary.
• This one is simple but important. Find out the projector's resolution and aspect ratio (16:9 or 4:3), and adjust the slide template accordingly.

Pre-show Preparation

After enough praciting, it's time for the band to do the final rehearsal before the show. Here, bands would go over their preparation using a check list. Battery for guitar effects? Check! Bass pick? Check, Drum sticks? Check! Hotel? Check! and so on. Before the show, the band's coordinator must also ensure what stage equipments will be provided by the organizer. Bands need to find out how to prepare for the ones that are not.

For startups, ensure the laptop's battery is fully charged pro to presenting, make sure the team has had enough sleep the day before D-Day, and practice the presentation scenario.

Tips:

• Getting enough sleep is more important than most people think. By sleeping enough, the team will be fit. No successful startups have unfit members.
• Find out the route to the venue. Try to be at the venue 15 to 30 minutes before the show. DO NOT ARRIVE LATE

Backstage Networking

Aside from doing the show itself, networking at events is equally important. By getting to know or just meeting people in the music industry, musicians also will have opportunities for other gigs. Normally other organizers, artists, and all kinds of industry people will be at the backstage running wild waiting to be captured.

For startups, who knows you might meet an executive from an investment firm at the restroom for example? Don't forget to always bring your business cards.

The Show

The show itself is a repeat of what was already done in the studio during practice. The difference is there's an audience. Playing a song until the end of the show shouldn't be difficult to do. Of course, experience is a critical factor especially the ability to control the audience and personal leadership skills.

Quoting Seth Godin: "The purpose of a presentation is to change minds. If your goal isn't to change minds, perhaps you should consider a different approach"

Tips:

• Ever seen someone deliver a presentation? Mostly nothing special. That's exactly how most people will see your presentation. No need to be nervous.
• Avoid using too much technical language. Startups sell products, not just technical abilities.
• If there's a technical error beyond your control, for example the show is delayed, power outage, and so on), try to keep the team energized. One of which is by reminding the team they have a purpose. Focus on the efforts to attain the  the goal and refrain from activities that lower the mood.
• Enjoy the show

Sex After Show

For strategists, post show is no less of an orgasmic moment than the show itself. After the show the band would regroup for briefing. Identify mistakes so they don't get repeated and commit together to make the next show a better one.

Team should discuss what went on during the presentation. Don't forget to evaluate whether the team achieves the aim of the presentation. If yes, good. Tie to decide on the next step. Otherwise, find out why, fix the mistakes.

Many people succeed without going through higher education. What they do most of the time is fix the mistakes that happened. It's a simple logic. By going through that process, accompanied by commitment, a person's ability will improve over time.

After all is said and done, don't forget to celebrate. Parties don't always have to be costly.

Points:

1. Startup pitching is not always through pitching events
2. You can treat pitching events like rock shows.
3. Find the gig that suits your company, your business goal, and expectations.
4. Preparation is key to success
5. After presentation, do a team evaluation
6. Don't repeat mistakes
7. Celebrate each milestone, even if it's small.
8. Enjoy every step

Internet entrepreneurs, let's rock and roll m/