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“I pitch therefore I am.” This week I read the chapter out of The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki called “The Art of Pitching” (CH3). The chapter is about how an entrepreneur seeking funding from VC’s can optimize his pitch to be most successful. Also, this week I had the first meeting for ActionsTalk and I found the chapter I read significantly helped my pitch to the group at that meeting. Due to the fact that it was the first kick-off meeting I had an opportunity to pitch the vision and the known plan for ActionsTalk to about 7 people who had no idea what we had in mind. No, none of the people at the meeting are potential investors in ActionsTalk (at this time) but it was great practice to throw the idea out there, work through the wrinkles, and receive constructive feedback.

Although I’m at least months out from being in a position to pitch a product idea to potential investors I found the chapter to be very applicable. Guy makes a point in the chapter about how VC’s (the audience) isn’t here for an autobiographical monologue, rather they are there to hear your idea/s. So, he advises that you immediately dive into your idea versus introducing yourself excessively and going into your background. I did this consciously at the ActionsTalk meeting and it worked wonders. The group was captured by the vision for ActionsTalk and moved towards finding out how they could be involved. After the attention of the meeting was placed on the vision of ActionsTalk it was simple to introduce myself and introduce how I will help the ActionsTalk conference become a reality. My story did not take away from, bore, or force the group to wait, rather, it was a building block in the plan of ActionsTalk.

Much of this chapter discusses the best ways to use a presentation in a meeting and Guy lays out ground rules for a Powerpoint presentation. I did not need to use a actual powerpoint pitch in this scenario but will definitely need to in the future and I will surely use this chapter as a reference at that time.

Lastly, one of the best take-aways from the chapter is the idea that you need to pitch constantly. It is stressed that always talking about your idea will do nothing but help you refine the idea, refine the pitch, and increase the likely hood that you are able to communicate your mission clearly and convince someone to give you money, resources, or support. Just another crucial lesson in learning the art of starting a start-up.