“Hey, here’s your mic, soon as he finishes you can take the stage” – Boom, this is it, you’re just 5 minutes away from your time to pitch.
You feel your sweaty forehead, shaking hands and your stomach feels like its spinning at the speed of light in a washing machine. While you realize that all the work, effort and sacrifices you’ve done are now depending on a 5 min-pitch, that Exit sign in the back somehow begins to stand out, almost sinfully attractive to you.
You hear the audience clap after the last speaker and without realizing it, your body is already walking towards the stage. Time to take a deep breath and go for it.
Even though there are certain universally accepted steps to follow to create a good pitch, pitching is more of an art than a science. Naturally your main focus is on how to structure the pitch – how will you present the problem and the solution? Among all the things that seem relevant, which ones really need to be included?
The internet is packed with pitching tips about everything you should include but soon as you have all the info structured and while you’re practicing countless times you should also pay attention to other, often forgotten, techniques that can help you deliver a great pitch.
Your aptitude to tell stories, your posture and the tone of your voice, your speech rate and your ability to create a connection with the audience through empathy are just a few examples of other different factors that can have a huge impact on the way you engage with the audience and the way they can understand your message clearly.
So here are 3 great Ted Talks that will help you to deliver a pitch that everyone will carefully listen to and will not forget
How to Speak so That People Want to Listen by Julian Treasure
Have you ever felt like you’re talking, but nobody is listening? Here’s Julian Treasure to help you fix that. As a sound expert demonstrates some useful vocal exercises and shares tips on how to speak with empathy, he offers his vision for a sonorous world of listening and understanding.
Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are by Amy Cuddy
Body language affects how others see us, but it may also change how we see ourselves. Social psychologist Amy Cuddy shows how “power posing” — standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel confident — can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and might even have an impact on our chances for success.
The Clues to a Great Story by Andrew Stanton
Filmmaker Andrew Stanton (“Toy Story,” “WALL-E”) shares what he knows about storytelling — starting at the end and working back to the beginning.
“Everyone wants media coverage — it can boost sales, attract investors, and give you something to post about on Facebook. The problem? Everyone wants media coverage” – Amy Westervelt, Tech & Business Journalist.
It’s normal for early-stage startups to find media coverage extremely appealing and the thought of appearing in the news, a quick way to boost awareness and credibility. But much like the poisoned apple that Snow White received as a gift from her stepmother, PR can sometimes go array when done wrongly or poorly planned.
Every founder should know the basics about PR, when to use it and how to take advantage of these opportunities.
Will Moore was the invited expert for today’s talk at Lisbon Challenge “PR for Startups” and we sat down with him to learn which steps to take.
Will Moore has more than 10 years of experience in content marketing, social media and tech journalism. He was recently head of Marketing & Communications at Faber Ventures and is currently working at Creation Healthcare as Chief Evangelist, developing storytelling around pharmaceutical market innovation.
So, in a very clear and practical way,
Here’s everything you need to know about PR
ASSETS
To successfully market you need to make sure you are prepared, so this is what you should put together:
Photos of the founders
Logo packs for the press on your site
Founder Bios
Company Vision Statement
Company biography (Vision, Key trends/issues your product addresses, the technology behind, founder facts (city banker, pro footballer, doctorate etc) Company Values and DNA, Investors/advisors, Customers)
Press page on website
Who will speak to the media when needed
Budgets for marketing outreach
DATA
How can you make the most of your data?
There are 3 types of data
Platform
Industry
Community
Platform – Data from you as a company/product. In smart cities this might be the number of tracked vehicles per square mile and stopping patterns. In Health, it might be the number of calories burned, miles walked. In B2B it might be the number of users, data points gathered, lines of code corrected.
Industry – The good thing about data is its abundance. Looking back at our smart cities data – is there a report on GDP for tourism in Lisbon?
Use this data, and gain insights from overlaying your data on top. Unbabel as an example: The industry average translation is ¢14 per word whilst Unbabel’s is ¢4 – from this we can create a story using outside data (Zero cost)
Community – The last point here is community data.
How can your community serve to promote you through numbers? A simple example is a customer using a travel app to save €1000 on their honeymoon. It is a datapoint with a deeper story behind it.
How do you find those stories?
Start by digging into your data – do you have a user that spends huge amounts of time in your app, on your site or using your product? Find them and ask them what they think. From this data you can create compelling media stories, marketing messages and more.
HOW TO TALK
Do you know how to sell your product to the media?
Are you prepared for the hard questions?
Who will speak?
If you’re going to get international coverage, your English level should also be something to work on.
Media training can be a very useful tool.
GOALS
What is your objective in using PR? – It’s probably a combination of increasing traffic/sales and building awareness – however is there something specific you want to achieve?
Example: I would like to be seen by holidaymakers traveling in Europe this Summer.
SECTORS
If the above is your goal (holiday makers) then which sectors do you need to target? Travel, local news, national media.
MEDIUM
Think about where your story will have the biggest impact in relation to the goals you want to achieve and the sectors you want to operate in.
Is TechCrunch where you will see the best possible return?
Is there an industry outlet that could better suit you? Travel sites, in-flight mags as well as other more general targets (national, tech etc)
Which is better? 100k views and 5 sales/downloads or 5k views and 15 sales/downloads?
Crafting your story
What’s newsworthy?
Data driven
Through a startup platform, we have access to a vast wealth of data with the potential to couple with third-party surveys and analytics, creating compelling data stories. Data is one of the modern journalist’s key assets, so if we can be the ones to provide that data – it will greatly increase the odds of success.
Case Studies
As mentioned previously, certain media outlets will be more receptive to telling the story of a vendor through the benefits delivered to its customers. With appropriate communication and agreement, we should identify transparent clients, whose positive customer stories can be told through target media verticals.
Thought Leadership
Supporting the data-driven stories, I recommend we utilise users’ data to reveal trends which can be used to fuel a prolonged thought-leadership programme. Thought-leadership not only helped raise awareness for Unbabel, but was also used to raise the profile of executives, whose names the opinion articles appeared under.
Reactive Commentary
As well as proactively pushing out data-driven stories and angles, there is huge potential to be had from providing journalists with timely statistics or case studies in response to a breaking news event.
Once you have a feature in TechCrunch or similar – what next? How do you increase value?
Website
Put the logos/quotes on your site
Build a press section with clippings and mentions
Social/Ads
Share via social channels (not just once)
Add positive quotes from journalists to your site and other marketing
Paid Extension
Consider putting money behind the ongoing promotion of the article
The End..
..Is it? Nope, there’s always more great content from which you can learn:
Will has covered pretty much all the basics you’ll need on Media Coverage however here’s your chance to gather more precious tips, by reading about the talk Robin Wauters, Editor and Founder of Tech.eu, gave at Beta-i and his 6 Rules of PR for Startups.
One of the hottest topics on Startup Fundraising is what you can do to raise the odds of being funded whilst identifying what are the red flags that scare investors. As this is a long-term commitment and you’ll need much more than just somebody with a checkbook, you should also ask yourself: Why would I choose them?
We know it’s not easy to refuse offers from investors but don’t let your urge to get your idea off the ground make you strike a deal with the first investor that makes you an offer without thinking twice. Whilst some investors will help you others can make your life more difficult.
You should be aware of investors that don’t have real experience in building companies and who fire away opinions about everything and anything without giving enough thought to really understanding your project – “VC Seagulls” as Mark Suster calls them:
“They would swoop in for one day to check on things, shit on you and then fly away. Seagulls.”
We know you’re short of time so here are 3 tips that you can easily remember when the time comes to look for and choose an investor:
– What are you looking for? (beyond the money)
Define your Goals: in what area(s) of expertise do you need help, what kind of resources and contacts do you need, what are your biggest barriers and main challenges you face?
– What can their Portfolio tell you?
Do your homework and look for other startups funded by the investors you’re talking to. Not just the ones they show you, the “successful” ones, but all of them – try to reach out to some of the founders in order to understand the reasons behind a successful relationship or a troubled one.
– Are you on the same page? You’ll be seeing your investor more than your own shadow and both are things you can’t run away from, so ask yourself a few questions. Are they aligned with your vision, culture and interests? Do you see yourself working with somebody like them? What does your gut tell you? – You’ll need somebody you can trust, who advises you on a regular basis and that doesn’t turn their back on you during hard times.
Extra tip: Joining an accelerator can be an important step in your fundraising efforts. Not only can you test, validate and improve different aspects of your Startup, but you’re also able to grow your own network (remember it’s always better to be introduced to an investor by someone than cold emailing) and some of these programs have already done some of the filtering for you, offering you the chance to meet of the best investors in the ecosystem.
2nd Extra tip: If you want to get great insights on fundraising in a surprisingly informal and slightly unexpected startup conference, see what we’ve got planned and who the The Top Speakers and Investors you’ll meet at LIS Summit,
whilst the early bird price is in effect. Do you have any other tips to suggest? Share your doubts or past experiences.
Two months ago Protechting by Fosun & Fidelidade kicked off, but if at first sight it seems that time just flew by, for each one of the selected teams, each day was a hard battle to take their startup to the next level. If at Beta-i everyday was a learning opportunity through access to workshops, talks and meetings with mentors and experts, outside they had the challenge to get user feedback, test their platforms and approach potential clients.
It all started two months ago and now, only two days away from the Demo Day, the teams are collecting all the relevant and final info and goals achieved to craft their pitch. Last week we did a status update on three of the teams and now we bring you news on other seven teams.
Here are the other seven teams and what they’ve been working on
iVigilate is working on behavior monitoring using a web-based platform and beacons that are strategically placed in the location and the person to monitor. The technology is aimed to help control individuals that might not be in their full capacity, such as elder people and children.
What initially started as an attendance management platform is now designed for the Healthcare and Security markets. They have a working pilot, waiting to be implemented at Hospital do Mar and iVigilate is also working with BClose on a platform targeted to the Security market, allowing to monitor security rounds.
It’s always interesting to witness first hand when two Startups have the chance to partner inside an accelerator.
What started as a platform to standardize all the interfaces of different security equipment at big companies is now a B2C IoT portal that joins more than 50 features. The app analyzes real-time info on human behaviors, detects patterns and then suggests different actions according to the context. They already have a working platform where diverse devices are integrated, all related with safety, health, wellness and energy management but Bclose gets stronger as more services are continuously getting included.
They’re already in Spain, France and Switzerland and they plan to approach the Asian and American markets. Fidelidade is doing an internal testing with the app and José Villa, Marketing Manager at Fidelidade and one of their Coaches at Protechting has been one of the great assets, providing valuable inputs to the team.
When you detect some loss or damage at your house you usually call your insurance and they send an expert to evaluate, right? These are claim experts and even nowadays they still take almost a whole day to do the evaluation and the full report they need to deliver.
MotionsCloud developed a mobile solution that allows them to complete the whole process in about 3 hours, saving extra time and costs. They already have a (paid) working pilot running with a claims firm in Germany, where they’re based. It was there that Lex heard about Protechting and immediately knew it could be the perfect accelerator to work on some of their biggest challenges.
Truth is it’s usually not easy to get access to some of the top players in the market, and right now the team has access to great insights, feedback form different departments and also the chance to personally follow the day of a Claim expert. Thanks to Nuno Soares and the other Coaches from Fidelidade a possible pilot with the insurance company is now in due diligence stage.
Diogo works as a doctor in a Clinic and when he arrives home he still has the opportunity to do more appointments. How? He created a telemedicine platform where patients can schedule their appointments, do the video consults, pay and receive their prescription. Right now is already working in the area of travelling appointments, “Consulta do Viajante”, but the plan is to expand to other areas such as General Medicine, Pediatrics and Mental Health.
Right now the payments and prescriptions are made through third parties so one of the main challenges is to work on a way to do them internally.
One of the most valuable learnings was when they heard about NPS (Net Promoter Score) and how to get and work on customer feedback, a talk by Diogo Teles, from FaberVentures.
How did Diogo discover about the Protechting program? He worked as a volunteer three years ago in a Beta-i event and since them he stayed tuned until he saw this was a chance he could not miss.
They’re currently talking with Fidelidade to implement a pilot focused on Occupational Health.
When something unfortunate happens to someone, it’s never easy to have their assets distributed.
With the premise of “Keep your legacy”, Kylega started with the goal of allocating any person’s assets to his relatives in case of death. The concept created by three Iseg Alumni has now evolved to much more than that, allowing anyone to manage all their assets in their life: from bank accounts and houses to social media profiles.
For each one of them, the user defines an accountable person and a general “keeper” that is responsible for activating the distribution when something happens.
They have a working platform that is now being tested inside and outside Fidelidade to get as much feedback possible. All these inputs will be included on the final Pitch, one of their priorities in these final days.
So far Protechting has helped them work on issues such as the user experience, design and how to adapt their product to different corporate solutions.
When the grandfather of the founder suffered from several strokes without being able to fully recover due to the lack of the proper follow-up and help, Lifesymb was born.
This is a platform with a complex algorithm that uses a camera and sensors to analyze your posture and body movements. After the scan the platform recommends exercises, through video tutorials, or even a physical therapist if it’s more serious.
With a working platform, posture corrections and injury healing were some of the tested features with the athletes of last Iron Man Triathlon competition and also at the main triathlon competition in Stockholm. Through Fidelidade they managed to make a deal with Multicare for a pilot starting in July with Luz Saúde clinics.
We all know how choosing the right insurance for your needs can become a real challenge.
Companies that show themselves with more transparency to their clients can develop a more close relation with them, and the evolution of the market points in that direction. Miguel lived abroad for 12 years, where he had access to insurance aggregators and when he arrived again to Portugal he decided to work on his own platform.
QueSeguro was created two years ago and is now evolving with more insurance companies being involved and a growing user base. The relation with Fidelidade was a great opportunity for both sides to understand each other and see how they could eventually work together.
10.000€ and a Roadshow to China are waiting for the winners this Thursday
All these entrepreneurs are giving their best to steal the show at the final presentation and win the 10.000€ first prize or a place in one of the three selected teams that will participate in a roadshow to China where they’ll have the chance to meet some of the world’s most influential investors. The integration of their platforms with Fidelidade’s services can also be a dream come true for most of these Startups.
So far this has been a great experience for the teams, Fidelidade and Beta-I – if initially it might sound strange to get together the corporate world and Startups, now we can surely affirm there is a vast world of opportunities and benefits in this kind of symbiosis.
Stay tuned to see who the winners are on Thursday!
Startups are, above all things, about people. These last days we had the chance to meet the new entrepreneurs that were selected for the Beta-Start program and see their determination on taking the first step into the Startup world. Here’s your chance to also get to know them.
Beta-Start 2016 Spring Edition just kicked off last week with seven teams ready to take their ideas to the next level during an intensive one-month program. Beta-Start was designed to help all those that have an idea and the drive to make it happen, guiding them through the first steps on building a Startup. Through a strong network of experts and mentors, these entrepreneurs will learn all the basis that will allow them to build a sustainable business.
The workshops and talks cover subjects like Lean Innovation, Startup Culture, Validation Tools, How to talk with your Costumers, Prototyping, from Concept do MVP, How to Pitch and Go-to-Market strategy.
One of the most exciting aspects of the program is how we’ll probably witness some of the teams absorb all the learnings and customer feedback and start applying them into some very interesting pivots.
So we’re proud to present you our Beta-Starters and the market they’re addressing
Always on the Go: Sofia was born in Rio de Janeiro, grew up in Portugal and lived in Mozambique. With a strong background in Events and Communication she saw the main challenges in the industry at an international level and she’s now developing a way to bring that expertise to the market creating a channel that allows party planners and events organizers to plan their events abroad.
Buzaco: Diogo has already studied and worked in 6 different countries and his experience in a familiar business led him to the idea of creating an online community where designers, producers and consumers can work together to produce outdoor furniture that not only has a functional side but also a focus on design, contributing to a modern outdoor aesthetics.
FlyPilot: It was ever since a kid that Miguel wanted to build things, fly airplanes and study the stars. He’s currently a pilot so he’s now focused on his other goal, “build things”, developing a platform where plane owners can either rent them or promote plane tours.
Off the Line: Nowadays everyone is focused on online marketing, but the offline campaigns continue to be a major focus for medium-sized and big brands. That’s the opportunity Andre, with a Masters in Marketing, is addressing by creating a platform that allows marketing managers or CEO’s to choose where they’ll invest their budgets by analyzing the ROI of all the different offline channels.
Solo with Cris: Passionate about travelling, foreign countries and different cultures, Chris is also a true believer of the work-life balance and she’s now applying her vast experience as a solo traveller to create a platform that promotes and guides all those that travel by themselves, allowing them to make the most out of each place they visit.
Sweat Experience: Marvin graduated in Business Management and always had an interest for everything that surrounds digital identity and online self-representation. Andrew, who has a background in Computer Science, worked at IBM and shares Marvin’s passion for sports and innovation creates a team that is working on an active network whereby athletes can showcase their stories and gain support.
Viable: Jaime and Manuel were both at the Entrepreneurship Course at the Lisbon MBA, where their idea was born. They’re looking to create a way that allows all the stakeholders in the entrepreneurship world (entrepreneurs, incubators, accelerators, investors and funds) to evaluate projects in a simpler way, optimizing resources (financial, human and time).
All of these Beta-Starters have already taken the first step by having the courage to start working on their own ideas. Now it’s time to survive the Bootcamp.
Unfortunately, Eminem isn’t one of our mentors, but he perfectly summarizes the challenge at Beta-Start:
“Look, if you had, one shot, or one opportunity
To seize everything you ever wanted. In one moment
Would you capture it, or just let it slip?”
Diogo works as a doctor in a Clinic and when he arrives home he still has the opportunity to do more appointments. How? He created a telemedicine platform where patients can schedule their appointments, do the video consults, pay and receive their prescription. Right now is already working in the area of travelling appointments, “Consulta do Viajante”, but the plan is to expand to other areas such as General Medicine, Pediatrics and Mental Health.
