TED: David S. Rose on pitching to VCs

These are my notes from the first 5 minutes (the rest is worth watching too):<p>Single most important thing that a VC is looking for when you're pitching to them: you, the people. The entire purpose of a VC pitch is to convince them that you will make them money. Angel pitch takes 15 mins, VC pitch, less than 30. You have to convey around 10 characteristics.<p>#1 Integrity.<p>#2 Passion<p>#3 Experience. "I've done this before.", where this means creating value. That can be starting a company, other teams or organizations, etc...<p>#4 Knowledge.<p>#5 Skill. Technical skills, marketing skills.<p>#6 Leadership. You either have the team that has these skills or the ability to inspire people to be part of your team.<p>#7 Commitment. Someone that will be there to the very end.<p>#8 Vision. Don't want a me-too company. You need to see where it's going.<p>#9 Realism. Before you get to change the world bad things are going to take place and you need to be able to plan for that and have rational projections.<p>#10 You can Listen. You need to be coachable. The VC has experience and they want to know you're willing to listen to it.

Additional piece of advice: Pitch to lots of people who have not seen the pitch before. You've seen the material a billion times! And you know it backwards and forwards... but the downside is that it can be unclear what is a logical step and what's an impossible leap. Pitching to friends who don't know what you're doing is the best way to improve.

I noticed that some VCs insist on knowing your background (like this one) while some say (like Kawasaki) says that they couldn't care less about you and only care about the problem and solution.<p>The funny thing is that both are very patronizing about it, as if theirs is the only true way.

I am surprised that David encourage you not to demo the product and just show a screenshot... if I were an investor, I'd like to see what I am investing in.<p>It also go against all the other recommendations I have read -- they usually recommend demo your product early if you have it.