3 tips to giving a KILLER presentation

Splitty was one of my favorite startups of the program.

I was honored to be chosen as a mentor for the inaugural Atlanta Techstars program, something that I was extremely proud of our city for pulling off. By all accounts (IMHO), the fact that Techstars came to Atlanta showed that we are a player in the startup space.

You can read more about how Techstars operates here, and it culminates in what they call Demo Day. At Demo Day, the ten startups pitch to a room full of investors in the hopes of attracting, well, investors. In this case, the “room” was The Tabernacle in downtown Atlanta.

I’ve never seen more professional, on-point, killer presentations in my life. Clearly these startup CEO’s practiced their pants off and it showed. The leaders at Techstars, Michael, Tyler, and Rachel, are rockstars for how well prepared they had their teams.

After reflecting on the pitches, I realized there were three elements that each of their presentations had:

1. Start with the problem. In a big and bold way, state the problem so that everyone in the room can do nothing but emphatically agree. As each startup presented, I found myself say, “Heck yeah, that’s a HUGE problem! Can’t wait to see how you’re going to fix it!”

2. Add the drama. Storytelling is key, you gotta make it personal. Each of the presenters either made the problem/solution personal for them, or for the audience. You could feel that this was something that they wanted needed to fix, and the stories really pulled you in.

3. Confidence. I can’t overstate how immensely different a presentation is from someone who is confident and someone who is not. A confident person knows where they’re taking you, they know how to flow with the room, and they know how to bring the big ending home. The good news is, confidence is something you can manufacture through practice and repetition.

Additionally, David shared a great video on how you use/move your body during a presentation, and it’s definitely worth a watch. The presenters at Demo Day clearly had received similar coaching, as they were making great use of the physical space on the Tabernacle stage.