Reading a post from a TechStar "graduate" about his advices on Demo days, I though it was pretty good and I will relay the information adding some of my own comments. As organizer of iWeekend (one weekend to find teammate, get mentorship and pitch at the end of sunday) I read a lot about Demo and saw a few of them already.
Here are some advices to keep in mind for my next iWeekend, alot inspired by the article below:- Go to the Demo of your product as fast as possible (I read before somewhere else you should Demo within 2min of your presentation). Challenge: make sure you gave enough context to the audeince
- Have an enemy (love this part). Why do you think yourproduct is need in the world, what is the old fashion way you want to see disappear? I remember in Jasom Lim presentation at last iWeekend, in his 3 min pitch to attract participant to join his project group, he state his product was to "kill the middle-man in real estate". It upsate my friend who is a real-estate agent, but people remembered very clearly what Jason's service was about.
- Practice, Practice, Practice. Maybe not your presentation in full each time, but practice as much as you can.
- Investor slide deckjust doesn't work for demo day. For this advice I can just rely on Jason Baptiste (author of the below article) as I never pitched investors. But I agree witht he logic. Demo Day are not for investors, particularly in iWeekend but also when you exit any incubation programs. It is usually still a bit early to focus only on investment. Demo Day actually adress 3 audience: media (let the world knwo about you), investors (let money come to you), and potential partners (if your team is not complete…this is what you shoudl focus on!!!!!).??
The article: 13 Ways To Pull Off A Killer Demo Day Presentation By Jason Baptiste
(Thank you Startup Reading List)