Last week the BUILD team of teens that I mentor had their penultimate business plan presentation. This was the team that had won the last time, so they were pretty pumped up. But, this time they didn't win - and I must say wasn't surprised. We got to see this team in comparison with teams from other schools, and I guess it's somewhat similar to VCs seeing a bunch of startups pitching to them. You've really only got one shot at it and you've not only got to be great, you've got to beat the competition, which is made up of other great teams.
BUILD does an excellent job of simulating the entrepreneurial world while keeping it within the grasp of the teen mindset. So there's a panel of judges (all adult) who're coached on what to look for, but there's also the huge subjective factor of whether a judge just plain likes the team and their presentation. Again, this is pretty much what all 'for-real' entrepreneurs face when making presentations - you've got to cover all the business basics, but the investor has to want to work with you and that could be affected by everything from the way you dress to the way your team answers questions.
Last week's loss had a couple of great lessons that apply to all entrepreneurs. The #1 lesson was 'practice'. The team had a few changes to their slides and didn't do a dry run. In fact, two minutes before they were up they turned to us and said 'we don't who's speaking when!' as every one of their 'exec team' had some slides to cover. Granted they had other things like classes and homework to deal with, but every other team was in the same boat and the fact that they didn't put in the extra hour showed as they stumbled through the transitions and gave contradictory answers - though they were quick to recover. Practicing your presentation is super important, particularly for funding (and sales) presentations, but it is very easy for people with experience to think they can handle it as they've done it before. The key here is that you may have done it before, but you and your team may not have done it before - together. I have personally experienced this. One time, my team and I worked on the slides together and knew who was presenting what, but we didn't do a practice run together - mostly because we were experienced and I was (mistakenly) thinking I'd avoid the role of a micro-manager by forcing a dry run when we were hard-pressed for time. Instead, I found myself chiming in even when it wasn't my turn to speak because my team member's ad-libbing, outside the points on the slides, was not always in sync with our overall message. It proved that we were articulate and could think on our feet, but it also showed that we weren't prepared - thankfully it was a friendly group and we weren't demolished.
The other important point is the attitude. Our teen team had one faux-pas when talking about why they would be successful (again, ad-libbing) and made a statement prefaced with 'no offence'. It was mild and raised a laugh and was not a deal-breaker, but it may have gone the wrong way on the subjective factor with some judges. Judges, as well as investors and customers, are funny that way - they want the team to show confidence, but not arrogance, and there's a clear difference. Confidence appears to be based on what you have done and what you have learned, arrogance is based on who you are.
But it was all good and a great learning experience for all of us. The winning team, in my opinion, won not only because of the smooth delivery of their presentation, but because they presented themselves as a well-knit team - another lesson for all startups. And a good rule of thumb - don't ever say anything during your pitch that requires 'no offence' before it, unless you're talking football.
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