#ptich

Cartinelli AU Part 2/2 (Part 1)

Originally Posted DATE: 6/4/2013 10:32:50 PM -----

Everybody has an idea and every idea has to have presentation.  Preparing to pitch your startup takes practice.  Knowing first hand that nervous energy can be channeled, its not always easy but it can be done.

I like to take lot of freefloating notes, leave it for a day or so and come back to see what I have written.  I then extract what I see as thoughtful and informative expressions and start drafting an outline.

After the outline, I come back to it after a day and start preparing a speech.  Debate class served me well, but you aren't always going to follow the words written for batem....so I suggest, you say it all out loud while walking or moving...keep practicing the speech with headphones more times than you care to count.  

I then come back to the computer, walk through each slide, practice in front of the camera...then the mirror...you can always delete them but these excersizes work for me because it forces me to check in and see where my eyes are shifting too...chances are, I was nervous and just free floating..not good.  Get back to que cards and then let it rip. 

Women especially haven't jumped on board to incubaters as aggressively as men so I also suggest, we should get over the fear of rejection and just attempt pitching your startup to investors.  Remembering that sometimes, we aren't ready to go after VC partners, or if we are, know what you are getting into.  Yes, you may look a fool but so what, everybody will root you on because they don't want you to fail...they will encourage you to finish.  Put on your most bad-ass clothing that brings you compliments and just do it.  Latina women in Columbia are making moves into political arenas, which means they had to learn the art of public debating and argumentation. Surely they have similar techniques. That makes me super proud.  So if they are going to make an impact in Latin America by publicly speaking, I suggest we all get on board regardless of the outcome.