作者：Elizabeth Yin

編譯：張?zhí)K月

核心提示：很多創(chuàng)業(yè)公司在展示其pitch時總是千篇一律，那么如何在眾多公司的pitch中脫穎而出呢？本文給你四點建議。

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2萬份pitch的由來

我剛剛完成了500家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司兩年的市場調(diào)研。有一天,同事問我親眼看過多少家公司的pitch。當我們計算出來時，發(fā)現(xiàn)大約是2萬份 !

平心而論，這個數(shù)字包含了像我前同事 Sean Percival回復的pitch郵件在內(nèi)。

事實上，我已經(jīng)看過的絕大多數(shù)pitch可能屬于這一類，而且只需要花費幾秒鐘的時間就可閱讀和存檔，這就是我可以以如此快的速度瀏覽2萬份pitch的原因!

話雖這么說，但是在短短2年內(nèi)看到這么多pitch也是相當震撼的。下面是我看到一個pitch時所思所想以及我從中學到的東西:

2萬份pitches帶給我的四點啟示

1、創(chuàng)意不稀奇…重要的是要新穎。

作為一個企業(yè)家，你認為你的想法是獨一無二的。如果你仍然處在創(chuàng)業(yè)教育/旅行的早期階段，你甚至可能會認為需要保護你的想法，不與任何人進行分享。但即使你已經(jīng)是一個成功的企業(yè)家，你還是覺得你的想法是獨一無二的話,或者至少可能只有一兩個公司跟你的想法類似,我認為這是因為你在TechCrunch讀到這個想法的。

事實證明，每個人都有與你同樣的想法。

這不是一件壞事，但這意味著你需要建立自己的思維模式，從而脫穎而出。好消息是,如果你的商業(yè)模式實現(xiàn)了業(yè)務(wù)上的推進,你可以證明你正在執(zhí)行的是正確的。大多數(shù)企業(yè)家夸大了他們的想法但低估了這些想法的執(zhí)行階段。收入、牽引、建立基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施等等，都可以讓你與眾不同,因為我看到絕大多數(shù)的企業(yè)在種子階段只有想法沒有行動。

2、速度很重要。

不僅是展示你已經(jīng)做的事很重要,而且你執(zhí)行這件事的速度也很重要,這是更令人印象深刻的。有些公司在種子階段停留了5個月，而有些則5年了。所以你不僅要基于某些已經(jīng)制定的標準到達里程碑,而且要基于自己的步伐適當調(diào)整速度。

Mike Cassidy關(guān)于創(chuàng)業(yè)公司要加快步伐的演講一直是我最喜歡的。這證明你可以迅速地瞄準目標，不管是獲得客戶、雇傭或解雇員工，產(chǎn)品研發(fā)等。在你的pitch中要傳達出這些內(nèi)容。

3、如果你處在一個非常激烈的競爭環(huán)境中，那么重要的是要解決前期的競爭。

如果你處在一個非常激烈的競爭空間：例如環(huán)?；蝻嬍车阮I(lǐng)域，競爭將比你所能想象的更殘酷。即使你正在迅速地取得進展。因為在這些領(lǐng)域,投資者看到數(shù)以千百計家公司正在做同樣的事情，而不是少數(shù)幾家公司。

因此，想要在這么多家公司中脫穎而出，你需要做到下面兩件事:

一是，在你pitch的開篇即展示自己的優(yōu)勢，而不是放到最后。這樣就表明你意識到還有其他企業(yè)可能有像你一樣的想法。也表明你對目前的競爭格局做過思考，盡管知道有競爭存在，但你仍然相信有機會戰(zhàn)勝其他公司。

處在競爭激烈的環(huán)境中并不是一件壞事——就像谷歌，它是第8個進入市場的搜索引擎公司，但結(jié)果證明谷歌處于有利的競爭地位。不過，前提是你需要解決競爭格局。

二是，找準自己在這個競爭格局中的位置。這是真正了解自己不同于其他玩家的地方。

舉例說明。

我在上周與一家公司討論了一個新的招聘平臺。他們向我展示了幻燈片，說了一些問題 如“有很多人失業(yè),很多雇主找不到好的人才” 的影響。在線招聘網(wǎng)站已經(jīng)存在了幾十年,甚至在今天仍然極具競爭力!每個人都明白這個問題。

所以,在此次pitch都沒有抓住問題的重點。實際上，重點是要指出為什么現(xiàn)有的招聘平臺解決方案是無效的，為什么會出現(xiàn)這種情況的細微差別，隨后，提出差異化的解決方案,保證沒有這些微妙的問題存在。

在某種意義上，如果你處在一個激烈的競爭空間，你的工作是指出,“公司A、B和C的問題都很糟糕，而我這樣做的原因就是這個?！比绻隳茏龅竭@一點，這至少將幫助你在pitch上得到關(guān)注。

4、我對推薦和自薦一視同仁。

一開始，我認為別人的推薦信其質(zhì)量是遠高于公司的自薦信的。有時確實如此。但往往不是。這在很大程度上取決于是誰做推薦的。結(jié)果往往是“著名”投資者推薦的公司不一定是更好的公司，而且創(chuàng)始人也不一定參照一些偉大的公司,許多創(chuàng)業(yè)者都是通過鼓勵來幫助他們的朋友。另一方面,有一些人你可能不會聽說過有人推薦，但是他們反而是我最值得珍惜的。

所以，最后就有點泛濫了。作為一個企業(yè)家，這就是我為什么認為你現(xiàn)在可以寫自薦郵件來有效捕捉投資者注意的原因。

5、人們在pitch中如何展現(xiàn)自己讓我知道是否應(yīng)該參加此次會議。

我使用pitch電子郵件作為一個很好的索引來尋找最靠譜/敏銳的創(chuàng)始人。雖然，我不能立即指出誰是靠譜/敏銳的，但我可以指出誰不是。拐彎抹角的郵件副本不是一個好跡象。糟糕的拼寫/缺乏標點也不是一個好跡象。語法錯誤是可以被原諒的,如果你是一個母語非英語的人,但是,如果你是一個母語是英語的人,這就是不可原諒的。使用公司域名而不是Gmail /雅虎/ Hotmail /美國在線的電子郵件地址。否則，你的錯誤似乎并不那么嚴重。

盡管以上問題都無需過于強調(diào)，但你會吃驚地發(fā)現(xiàn)有非常多的pitch出現(xiàn)一些基本操作問題。如果你不善于關(guān)注細節(jié),你可以尋求一個擅長的朋友幫助您校對。開篇展示你最佳的一面是非常重要的,因為在你寫郵件的時候這是容易被忽略或漏掉的。

一份好的pitch郵件要能抓住要點

盡可能通過要點,而不是段落進行展示。這樣更容易閱讀。要點展示的是業(yè)務(wù)核心。下面是一些關(guān)于要點的例子:

收入: 現(xiàn)在的MRR是15 k美元，MoM增長了30%

月流失率小于 1%

LTV到目前是是700美元;通過混合支付渠道的CAC是250美元

試點客戶包括三星、微軟和甲骨文

CEO之前建立的一個營銷科技公司賣給了Marketo;CTO之前是一名在Google X工作的軟件工程師;他們已經(jīng)一起合作了2年。

如果你發(fā)送一個郵件,請參考該模板。你的郵件目的就是激起收件人的興趣來參加會議…而不是要獲得投資。

在過去的2年，我從事這個工作學到的東西還有很多，但上面這些都是當我看到pitch時所想到的。

英文原文：

I just passed my 2 year mark at 500 Startups.? The other day, my colleague asked me how many company pitches I’ve personally seen.? When we were calculating it out, it came out to about 20k!

To be fair, this number includes pitch emails like this (incl a response from my former colleague Sean Percival).

(In fact, the vast majority of pitches I’ve seen probably fall under this category and these only take a few seconds to read and archive, so this is how you get to see 20k pitches!)

That being said, it’s been quite a ride to see so many pitches in just 2 years.? Here are some learnings and what I immediately think about when I see a pitch:

Ideas are a dime a dozen…AND it’s important to stand out.

As an entrepreneur, you think your idea is unique.? If you’re still in the early stages of your entrepreneur-education/journey, you may even think you need to protect your idea and not share it with anyone.? But even if you’re in the later stages of being an entrepreneur, you still feel like your idea is unique or at least maybe there’s only one or two other companies out there like you, because that’s what you read about in TechCrunch.

It turns out everyone has the same ideas.

This isn’t a bad thing but it means that you need to go in with the mindset of figuring out how to stand out.? The good news is that if you’re making progress on your business, you can show that you’re executing.? Most entrepreneurs overpitch their ideas but underpitch how they’ve been executing.? (revenue / traction / setting up infrastructure / etc) This can set you apart, because the vast majority of businesses I see at the seed stage are just ideas with no action.

Speed matters.

Not only is it important to show what you’ve done but if you’ve been executing on a fast time scale, then that’s even more impressive.? At the seed stage, there are companies who have been around for 5 months and others for 5 years.? So you are not only being benchmarked on hitting milestones but also based upon your pace.

This is one of my favorite startup presentations of all time by Mike Cassidy on going fast.? Demonstrate that you can pull the trigger on things quickly — whether it be getting customers, hiring / firing employees, or product development.? And convey this in your pitch.

3) If you are in a super competitive space, it’s important to address competition upfront

If you are in a super competitive space – areas like cleaning or food delivery, for example – it’s going to be harder for you than you can ever imagine.? Even if you are making progress quickly.? In these areas, investors are not just seeing a handful of companies doing the same thing but hundreds or thousands.

To give yourself the best shot at getting noticed, you need to do 2 things:

A) Demonstrate immediately — not at the end of your pitch— that you are self-aware that there are other businesses like yours. This shows that you have thought about the competitive landscape and despite knowing that it’s competitive, you believe there is an opportunity for you to outcompete all other companies.

Being in a competitive space isn’t a bad thing — Google was like the 8th search engine to enter the scene and they turned out ok.? But you need to address the landscape.

B) Address where you fit into this landscape. This is about really understanding how you are different from the other players out there.

For example: I was talking last week with a company that is a new type of job board.? They showed me their problem slide which said something to the effect of “There are so many people who are unemployed and so many employers who cannot find good talent…blah blah blah”.? Online job boards have been around for a couple of decades and even today is an incredibly competitive space!? Everyone understands this problem.? So, this is not the correct problem to outline in this pitch.? The right problem is to tell me why existing job board solutions suck / are ineffective / etc and be super insightful into the nuances of why this is the case. And then after that, present a differentiated solution that doesn’t have these same nuanced issues.? In some sense, if you are in a crowded space, your job is to say, “The problem is that Companies A, B, and C suck, and here’s why.”

If you can do this, this will help you at least get attention on your pitch.

I treat referrals and cold-emails the same (for the most part)

In the beginning, I thought referrals from others would be much higher quality than companies emailing in cold.? Sometimes this is true. But often it’s not.? It depends a lot on who is doing the referrals. It would turn out that “famous” investors referring companies don’t necessarily refer better companies. And founders don’t necessarily refer great companies either – lot of founders are doing favors for their friends by putting in a good word. And on the flip side, there are some people whom you wouldn’t have heard of whose referrals I value the most.

So, in the end, it’s a bit of a wash, and this is why I think you, as an entrepreneur, can now write cold emails effectively to capture the attention of investors.

4) How people present themselves in pitch emails tell me if I should NOT take a meeting

I use pitch emails as a good proxy for finding the most on-point / sharp founders.? Rather, I can’t tell immediately who is on-point / sharp, but I can tell who is not.? Meandering email copy is not a good sign.? Bad spelling / lack of punctuation = also not a good sign.? Bad grammar is excusable if you are a non-native English speaker, but if you are a native English speaker, that’s inexcusable.? Use a company domain name as opposed to a Gmail / Yahoo / Hotmail / AOL email address.? Otherwise, your business doesn’t seem serious enough yet.

These all seem obvious and not worth addressing, but you’d be surprised just how many pitches have basic issues.? If you are not good at paying attention to detail, ask a friend who is good at that to help you proofread.? Getting in the door with your best foot forward is so important, because it’s easy for your email to get ignored or lost.

Use bullet points when possible rather than paragraphs.? They are easier to read.? Bullet out the key awesome things about your business.? Here are some example bullets:

Revenue: now at $15k MRR, growing 30% MoM

Monthly churn is < 1%

LTV to date is $700; CAC via blended paid channels is $250

Pilot customers include Samsung, MSFT, and Oracle

CEO previously founded a marketing tech company and sold it to Marketo; CTO previously worked as a software engineer at Google X; have worked together for 2 years

If you are sending a deck, refer to this.? Your email is just to pique interest to get a meeting…not to get an investment.

There are a ton of other learnings from having done this job for the last 2 years, but these are the things that come to mind when I see pitches.

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