Member Article

Present your business: Why appearance is everything

The rise of venture capital companies and angel investors in Silicon Valley, as well as here in Europe, has fuelled a laser focus on chasing the acclaimed unicorn status. For many, this prestige is viewed as the golden ticket to securing further investment or being acquired. But what is the ‘je ne sais quoi’ that these companies have that helps them to secure this status? It’s all in the presentation.

There’s more opportunity than ever to pitch and showcase your company. Take Uber’s recent partnership with venture firms Atomico and EQT Ventures. Whether its 10 minutes or an hour, when you’re pitching for investment, you need to nail it, making it as engaging and compelling as possible.

While funding or acquisition represent long, complicated processes, the underlying principle for success behind each is simple. Make your business look like an attractive investment opportunity. We can learn from some notable acquisitions over the past few years that cut through the noise and resulted in accelerating their brands into the mainstream.

Microsoft acquires Skype (2011)

Though Skype had been acquired before, with the owners apparently seeing little return on investment, in 2011 the over-IP communications specialist was suddenly snapped up by Microsoft. Both Google and Facebook had reportedly been considering acquisition, but Microsoft seemed to swoop in from nowhere to claim its largest acquisition in years for $8.5 billion.

BUSINESS LESSON: Look like both a threat and an example to your competitors

Microsoft’s Windows Live Messenger and Skype were direct and obvious competitors. At the time of acquisition, Messenger had significantly more active users each month than Skype (roughly 330 million vs 124 million) but Skype had a major advantage – it had managed to build a service that 8 million people would actually pay for. The numbers alone may not have been convincing, but looking at the full story made Skype too tempting a prospect to ignore.

PRESENTATION LESSON: Don’t list stats, tell a visual story

You need to have cold, hard facts in your presentation, but that’s not enough. Potential investors want you to tell them a compelling story about your company and the investment opportunity it presents. It needs to be visual and engaging. Plan the story you want to tell, then add supporting facts and figures to the storyline. But once you’ve done that, go through and remove as much text as you can from your presentation.

It’s easy to get bogged down with facts and figures, but these shouldn’t dominate your presentation. Our memories find it much easier to recollect images than text, so use well-chosen imagery to tell your story and be more memorable. What’s more, neuroscientists agree that humans can’t really multi-task, so expecting your audience to listen to you and read text in a presentation is a recipe for divided attention. Keep things concise and visual to leave an impression.

Facebook acquires WhatsApp (2014)

In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion. By the time it was acquired, WhatsApp had become the world’s biggest mobile messaging service, allowing millions of users to send each other direct and group messages for free. This simple idea meant consumers were no longer under pressure from their mobile provider packages, making it a genuinely disruptive company with a unique proposition.

BUSINESS LESSON: Don’t give too much away on the way to the top

WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton were methodical in their development of the service and didn’t take much venture capital investment before Facebook’s deal landed on their desks. This meant that they still had large stakes in the company, and – most importantly – hadn’t ceded too much control to their backers. They were able to make decisions and act on them, developing the company and its offering the way they wanted to, and therefore making any prospective acquisition smoother and far more attractive.

PRESENTATION LESSON: Build trust and demonstrate leadership through conversation

Connecting with your audience is a vital ingredient in pitching success, helping to build trust in you and your brand – a vital factor in funding decisions. By delivering your presentation like a conversation, you’ll make your audience feel as if you’re working together already, as well as showing that you have the confidence and mastery needed to be strong, adaptable, and successful with them.

Ask your audience questions, talk to them about their goals, and then let that steer the flow of your presentation. As well as portraying yourself well, you’ll be able to focus on the areas of your pitch that your audience wants to know the most about, rather than guessing or assuming.

Twitter acquires Periscope (2015)

While Periscope wasn’t a unicorn when it was acquired, it’s worth mentioning, as it was snapped up by Twitter for just under $100 million before the app had officially launched! The live-video streaming app was quietly acquired by the social media behemoth while it was still in beta, as a clear part of Twitter’s efforts to build its video capabilities.

BUSINESS LESSON: Address a specific issue for a growing marketplace

Other apps and companies had already enabled live streaming for video calling, such as Skype and FaceTime, but Periscope had a slightly different, specific purpose. It was designed for users to share what they were doing at a given moment with their friends. This clear purpose particularly aligned with Twitter’s broader strategy and plans, and the company just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to grab this capability for itself.

PRESENTATION LESSON: Collaborate beforehand to please all audience members

Different investors will focus on different elements of a pitch and think in different ways. This is why team work is essential during the process. To prepare effectively you need to draw on a variety of people, with numerous viewpoints, when developing your presentation. Collaborate with a wide group and harvest their thoughts, feedback, and input, then review and amalgamate it all to cater to the various possible mindsets in your audience.

Here are three common types of audience member and the things you should bear in mind for each:

- Factual – provide detail and explain ROI quickly

- Creative – deliver a slick presentation, high-level business view, and just enough detail

- Emotional – will judge you on your personality, appearance, body language, and the opening section of your presentation

Overall, great businesses are driven by meaningful, engaging conversations. Learning from past acquisitions, or those who secure funding time and time again, helps us to evaluate and evolve the way to present a brand.

By Spencer Waldron, UK country manager for Prezi Business

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Spencer Waldron .