Welcome to the pitch battle, a new VC play every startup founder should get ready for
The startup life is made of ups and down, it can be very rewarding, but also brutal and merciless. Things you can’t control will knock you down, and success hinges on whether you get back on your feet or not. Either way, it’s just you against yourself in the early days of business. You make your own decisions, and consequently your own mistakes.
If boxing requires an equal level of focus and determination, it’s also a very different story, where two opponents go head-to-head, exchanging blows in an electrifying bout of skill for a relatively short period of time. And in the end, only one is left standing.
Interestingly enough, at Biggerpan, we experienced this very narrative about a month ago, but it did not involve boxing gloves. Instead, the weapon of choice was the power of words, and the venue, a stage on the packed showroom floor of VivaTech, one of Europe’s premier tech conference with over 50,000 attendants.
We had the privilege of being selected among 16 startups to participate in a one-of-a-kind pitch battle organized by investment firm OneRagtime. Made up of successful industry leaders and a team of creative millennials, the venture platform strives to develop innovative approaches to source startups — and the pitch battle perfectly illustrates this school of thought.
But when it comes to the venture capital ecosystem, standards are quick to catch up, so you’d better get ready for this new pitching format. We didn’t find much literature about it online so we decided that someone should break it all down for you, so next time you have to face off in an epic pitch battle, you’ll know exactly how to prepare to get that knockout punch.
What exactly is a pitch battle?
The pitch battle, as I’m sure you guessed, is a pitch competition. But it deviates from the ordinary pitch format by adding an extra degree of difficulty to the mix.
A test of skill, wit and guts, it’s the ultimate startup challenge, forcing companies to rise above pressure packed situations, or fall trying.
📣 Rules: startups are put head-to-head in a bracket-style format — think March Madness or Roland Garros — where they pitch against one another regarding varying topics about their business. Over 3 rounds, a jury of investors decides who moves on, until a winner is chosen.
Here’s a round by round breakdown, with details of what you can expect at each step:
Round 1️⃣
16 startups were given 1 minute to pitch a high-level overview of their business, covering the basics of the product, the problem being solved, the market size and who the users are.
Round 2️⃣
With half of the field moving on to the next round, 8 startups remained. This time around, each contestant had 1:30 minutes to address their technical differentiator, secret sauce, user acquisition strategy, and competition.
Round 3️⃣
In a 4-way head-to-head battle for the championship round 🏆, each startup had just 1 minute to pitch their numbers, including metrics, financials and funding.
Then the jury of investors could ask follow-up questions to each finalist for up to 3 minutes each.
Sounds pretty familiar, right? But if you think you can simply take your standard 5 or 10-minute pitch and slice it up to fit in 3 rounds, think again.
Prepare, prepare, prepare
First, trim the unnecessary fat and keep only the most relevant and impactful information for your pitch. You have a very limited time each round, so you want to be concise, on point, and memorable.
Anyone can write a pitch, but the tricky part is how to make the content enthralling and stand out in a competitive field of 16 startups.
- Tell a story: You need to keep people’s attention from the start, and the best way to do that is an action-packed plot with cliffhangers along the way. In short, turn the problem your company is solving into a story that is captivating and relatable to everyone listening. Show passion for what you are doing, inject emotion, and use just the right amount of humor to make people remember you. As New York Times bestselling author Cal Fussman says when teaching the art of storytelling, touch people’s heart first, then aim for their reasoning and finally speak to their soul.
- Know your crowd: Doing some background research on the jury beforehand will allow you to shape specific examples that can relate to them even more.
- Let your product shine: Give some concrete examples of how it works and why it is the best at solving the problem it addresses.
- Share your customer stories: Nothing will convince people more about your product than other people using and vouching for it, so don’t forget to name some happy users, partners or customers!
- Nail your numbers: Whether it’s your number of users, growth rate, market size, ROI, etc. you should know these figures perfectly and be able to articulate them in a convincing manner.
- Prove your legitimacy: Leverage any proof of past success, including awards, notable companies you work with, or renowned experts on your team, in order to let people know just how outstanding your company is.
- Call-to-action: In the final round, don’t forget your call-to-action! Whether you are looking to raise funds, seeking new talent to join your team, or simply want people to learn about your product, you have to leave a little homework for your audience to take home. You came on stage for a reason, so they should know explicitly what it is you want them to do or remember you for.
Boom! Now that you have dynamite content to wow your audience, you’re ready for the pitch battle, right?
Not so fast.
“Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth.” — Mike Tyson
Practice, Practice, Practice
The pitch battle is an unforgiving smash-mouth style event that will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t bring your A game.
So learn your pitch by heart ❤️
And once you know it, forget it, so that it comes out naturally, like a friendly conversation, allowing you to shape and mold your pitch based on the jury you’re presenting to.
Rehearse in front of a mirror, in the shower, in bed, pretty much anywhere you can so that it becomes second nature to you. This way, even if nerves kick in on stage, you will be able to maintain focus and let your pitch flow without hesitation.
When the big day finally arrives
When the big day is finally here, it’s time to get pumped up and pitch your heart away. *Cue ‘Rocky Balboa’ theme song*
Get mentally and physically ready for the slugfest event: Exude energy from the start, and when you’re on stage presenting, don’t forget these 3 key points:
- Anchor your body to one spot and look people directly in the eye when speaking.
- Create rhythm by using pauses to highlight facts, emphasize words, and incite emotion.
- Don’t forget to speak loud and clear so everyone can hear your brilliant ideas!
Stand out by adapting to your competition: During this heated head-to-head battle, agility is key in order to stand out from your competition and capture the attention of the jury. Quickly size up your opponent and analyze their every move so that you bring a fresh and unique approach on stage. Differentiate yourself by adapting your voice, tone and body language, but don’t forget to always embody your product in order to maintain your core business ideas and values throughout your discourse.
For example, if your business is in the party industry, you should be a firecracker of energy on stage to personify your product and give it an exuberant identity.
And finally, a champion startup is crowned 👑
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
The pitch battle was one of the most demanding events we’ve experienced, but the returns were well worth the hard and intense work. Once you step into this kind of fiery and competitive atmosphere, everything you do from then on will feel like a breeze.
For startups — and people in general — success stems from learning and growing through new experiences. However, human nature teaches us to become comfortable in our routines, and repeatedly do the things we know. The pitch battle is the ideal event that pushes you out of your comfort zone, shatters the standards, and forces you to give your best in order to stand out.
So next time you’re invited to a pitch battle, first make sure you read this post, and then eagerly welcome it with open arms — it might just be the best pitching opportunity for you and your startup.
See you in the ring!
A big thank you to Antoine Delanglade for emceeing this one-of-a-kind event and to the whole OneRagtime team for inviting us to be a part of it!
If you enjoyed this post, then you’ll love this one too — it’s about how to crush your Product Hunt launch campaign with these 7 best practices. Enjoy!
Questions or comments? I would love to hear from you! Feel free to reach out to me via email at luc@biggerpan.com, or on Twitter @luchancock.
