Franck DebaneDigital Evolution

Pitching and presenting

8 notes, 2010 to 2023 · All guides

A pitch explains an idea quickly and with impact, whether you need to raise money, hire or convince a customer.

Start with how to start your pitch, from my experience as a member of selection committees and a business angel and as a pitch coach: begin with the problem, told as the story of the dragon, the princess and the knight. Two extracts from my book appeared in Les Echos Entrepreneurs, one on pitching to convince and one on six ways to test your offer. Cyril Chambard’s talk at the Lean Startup Day 2023, in French, argues that it is better to be incomplete than misunderstood.

Then structure and delivery. Creating effective business presentations borrows from strategy consulting firms and tells the story in three parts, situation, analysis and recommendation. The elevator pitch exercise is a sentence with blanks, and Nick Morgan describes five basic stories for speeches. speaking.io collects practical advice for public speaking.

Last, a real example: the application Drew Houston sent to Y Combinator in 2007 for Dropbox.

Start here

  1. How to start your pitch

    If you either need to raise money, hire or convince a customer, you need explain your idea quickly while making an impact. Here is a …

    1 min read Startup

  2. Deux extraits de mon livre dans Les Echos Entrepreneurs

    La surprise du matin : se retrouver dans Les Echos Entrepreneurs avec deux articles (extraits de mon livre). Pitcher pour convaincre Pitcher, c'est …

    1 min de lecture BooksLinkedIn

  3. Lorsqu’on pitche, mieux vaut être incomplet qu’incompris

    Voici la vidéo de la conférence de Cyril Chambard sur les 5 étapes pour être percutant et mémorable à l'oral lors du Lean Startup Day 2023. La compétence …

    1 min de lecture StartupLinkedIn

Story, delivery and an example

  1. Creating Effective Business Presentations

    Get your ideas across by presenting them the right way Your ability to present ideas in a precise, articulate and convincing manner makes a huge …

    1 min read Marketing

  2. The elevator pitch, fill in the blanks

    Inc. (December 2013) presents an exercise designed by the pricing expert Stephan Liozu: a fill-in-the-blanks sentence that forces leaders to state what …

    1 min read MarketingLinkedIn

  3. The five basic stories that give your speeches power

    Nick Morgan, in Forbes (2010): five story archetypes connect with any audience, the quest, the stranger in a strange land, rags to riches, the love story …

    1 min read StartupLinkedIn

  4. speaking.io: tips for public speaking

    speaking.io, by Zach Holman: practical advice for speaking in public, from planning the talk and designing the slides to preparing for the day, delivering …

    1 min read StartupLinkedIn

  5. Dropbox’s original Y Combinator application

    The application Drew Houston sent to Y Combinator in 2007, published by YC: what Dropbox would make, a service that synchronises files across computers …

    1 min read StartupLinkedIn