Elevator Pitch – get what you ask for

Workshop for students, researchers and EXIST women

Pitch Training – Practise your own elevator pitch and learn to act as if you love the stage (even if you don’t). Get what you ask for – money, sympathy, support. Pitch anything!

Part 1: Design your pitch

Prior to the workshop, I ask you to listen to my introduction-audio file, to read the following instructions and to do the three exercises.

Pitching to an investor

If you want to win the deal, there are a few simple rules. If you follow them, you will convince others. It’s like a recipe. However, the problem for most scientists is that they are used to presenting in a scientific context: giving a talk at conferences or presenting a poster.

The way you present is very different when you’re presenting to an investor, someone who knows nothing about your topic. Additionally, decision-makers are usually overloaded with work. Their email inbox is full, their phone is constantly pinging, and someone is always asking something of them. So, when pitching your idea to an investor, you need to make it exciting, as simple as possible, and as short as possible in order to grab their attention. You need to break through to their brain. This is why the following rules are absolutely essential.

It‘s important to appeal to emotions in your presentation. The problem should hurt, and the solution should bring relief (the pain and the aspirin). Explain how hard you worked to find the solution. Use the power of storytelling.

You can also read and apply Aristotle’s principle of the “Rhetoric Triangle,” which you can find here.

Pitch Deck

The business idea should already be prepared in a pitch deck, prior to the workshop. We can fine-tune the slides in the workshop, but the basic framework must be in place beforehand. The slides should be sent to Cheng-Wen Jaw as a ppt or pdf file.

For your slides you may sure the standard format, which is the following, but you don’t have to, not all slides may be feasible for you:

1. first slide/hook (you may start with a question or statement etc)

2. problem (the pain- use the power of story telling)

3. solution (the aspirin – use the power of story telling)

4. your technology/USP/secret source

5. proof-of-concept

6. market

7. competition

8. go-to-market/distribution channel

9. KPI/metrics

10. finance (Turnover, profit, scalability, required investment volume, What do you use your prize money for?)

11. traction (what have you already achieved and in what time?)

12. team (What is your expertise, introduce your co-founders. Which expertise do you have to buy in?)

13. Closing slide with call to action (Distribute your product, actively invite people to talk to you, show your social media profile to network, etc. Be creative!

Analyze your Pitch Deck: Does each slide only have one message? Could you communicate each slide to a kid?

Presentation

Use short, simple sentences
Avoid filler words like „uh“, „äh“ unnecessary expressions
Run through your pitch once and time yourself. You only have 4-5 minutes for your pitch. Do not exceed that time.

The following exercises must be completed before the start of the workshop. Estimated time required: less or close to 1 hour.

Exercise 1: The power of storytelling

Watch a successfull pitch on Youtube, e.g. Rener Gracie’s pitch at Shark Tank. Rener Gracie received an offer from investor Lori Greiner which was never finalized but the appearance on Shark Tank drastically increased the sales. I know, science isn’t like selling hoodies, but strong storytelling is key in academia too!

Exercise 2: Reflect on your startup idea and your pitch concept

What could be a call-to-action at the end of your presentation? Encourage the audience to do something: think about your idea, take a note, check out your social media channel, take your business card, or take your product into their hand?

What could be a prop for your pitch? Successful pitches often use a prop. Maybe you can bring something that illustrates your technical principle? Or bring a sample?

How could you get the audience to participate? If you’re feeling bold, ask your audience to stand up and do something, like imitate a movement. This will help you stick in their memory.

You might not have an idea for all these points, but at least try to think of something.

Exercise 3, most important: Your opening

Design your first sentence for the stage—the opening of your pitch. Create three variations, each with increasing conviction or exaggeration, matching your pitch.

For example:

My name is Andrea, and I study medicine (Neutral/understated/kind of boring)
My name is Andrea, and I would like to present my outstanding idea (Bold/confident)
My name is Andrea, and I am going to cure cancer (Very bold/exaggerated)

Content Workshop – we are going to work on

theory and exercises (mainly acting-based exercises)
Posture on stage, power moves, power gestures, positioning in the space
Using the voice, changing volume
Maintaining eye contact with the audience
Use the power of the pause
Storytelling: Who has incorporated a story into their pitch?
Exaggeration exercise: At which point are you most convincing?
creative props: testing the ideas, what might work on stage?
Pitching and giving constructive feedback

Part 2: Make it even better – Frequently asked questions

Your pitches were already very good and well thought out. Now it’s time to improve them and make them even more compelling.

Your slide deck

More is less! Reduce the text to simple and short bullet points or only headings.

Work on your timing. Try to speak as slowly as possible while still keeping within the 5-minute limit. That’s why you have to reduce the text in your pitch.

Try to design the slides so that each slide contains only one message that comes to your mind quickly and can be clearly formulated. This automatically reduces speaking time. If you have adjusted the length of your text so that you only have clear, simple messages to convey per slide, it will be much easier for you to present. You won’t forget what you want to say anymore. This allows you to speak freely or rely only on notes you hold in your hand (index cards, mobile device).

AI-tools

You may try Pitch.com to create your slide deck if you’re still at the beginning. If you are fine with your slides, work on them. If your slides are already good, then leave them as they are and work with them (most of you already had good material). AI-generated slides also take a lot of time to get them the way you want them. Above all, you can get ideas there and then implement them yourself in PowerPoint.

The slides from pitch.com already provide you with many graphics, but you have to live with the watermark.

Sales Pitch vs. Investors Pitch: A sales pitch sells a product or service, while an investor pitch sells the company or a business idea. Please focus on the investor pitch—you can include KPIs, revenue projections, competition analysis, business model details, etc., or keep them in your presentation. The jury you will pitch in front of consists mainly of three men (or even more), working in the translation/Start Up world who are interested in your business idea, they want to see innovation and feasibility (most of you integrated it).

You may also use gamma to create your presentation (also with water mark in the free version), but you have a good amount of free AI-pictures to generate.

Euros vs. Dollars

Calculate your numbers in Euros.

Pictures

People want to see simple images while they’re listening to you. Include graphics, diagrams and pictures as much as you can to reduce text.

It’s totally okay to use AI-generated images—you’re still at the beginning. You can use Unsplash; their images can even be used for commercial purposes! You can download one high-resolution image per day for free. Otherwise, find photos online that fit your needs and include the source.

In the workshop, I said: No matter the quality, which was nonsense—I meant: Don’t worry about copyright for now. For this pitch, you can use images with proper copyright attribution, but they should be high-resolution and sharp. Adjust the settings in Google Search, and you’re good to go!

Mockup

You can also prepare a mockup of your App or product if you have only one picture. You may use Placeit to create one. You have one free trial. They have a ton of App-pictures.

For a book or a broschure I give you some examples:

Team slide

You have to include a picture of you. It’s fine to take a selfie.

Contact slide

Please provide us with contact data. You may also use a QR-Code, if you like. You can prepare QR-Codes with Canva for free.

Here is my contact slide as an example.

Copyright

If you submit a pitch deck in writing, then each image must have a source citation. You must also provide sources if you are talking about the expected revenue, the market etc. This creates trust in your presentation and people understand that you have taken your research seriously.

You can cite Statista or destatis, for example, and if you use ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity etc. for your research, then try to get to the original source and cite it.

For the slides you use for your presentation, you can also omit the source of your research, as we discussed yesterday. But you should have an answer ready as to how you collected the information. Just using ChatGPT is not enough.

Performance

Opening: Please use the opening as we have practiced. You all put in a strong performance. Now you must have the courage to integrate this movement. Some of you started with a mission. Perfect!

If you want to, you may use the sentences I prepared for the „pausing and silence“-exercise:

“I will make an important decision today.“

„I am about to tell you something you have never heard before.“

„This moment could change everything.“

„What I am about to say might surprise you.“

„I have a question that will make you think.“

„Imagine a world where anything is possible.“

„The key to success is simpler than you think.“

„In just a few seconds, your perspective might change.“

„There is something powerful about silence.“

„If you remember only one thing from today, let it be this.“

„This is not just another presentation. This is a turning point.“

Pausing and silence

You have learned how powerful it is to remain silent. Take at least one break in your performance.

Practise, Practise, Practise

First the slides must be in place. Then you should practise, practise, practise the pitch. When you feel confident, the others will notice.

I am looking forward meeting you and your ideas!

Contact

If you have any questions, please let me know:

Web: ingrid-rupp.de | freitrauern.de | freiheiraten.de
Instagram: @dr.ingrid.rupp