The Pitch

I recently took part in a great business plan competition amongst MBA students from across North America (and some other places as well) at the Stu Clark Centre of Entrepreneurship, University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg (there is a whole blog to be written about my time there!) and it was really great.

The competition brought together some great judges, VC’s and Angel Investors as well and there was business to be done there!

The thing that I really noticed was the quality of the pitching at the event. Each company got to pitch for two minutes to a very large audience and then they did 10 minute pitches to a panel of three judges.

During the detailed pitches many companies used videos. Some used it badly and some used it with brilliant effect. Of course I am biased as Chairman of www.wooshii.com, I hope that more and more companies switch on to the benefits of using video to either explain their pitch or what the company does for consumers.

I am also on the board of another company, www.curingresin.com that recently used Wooshii to get a great video produced which explains what they do (which is very technical) in a great impactful way. It was also incredibly cheap to produce and is a great intro to the business on the website.

Adding a video to the deck you email a prospective investor is also a great idea as it gives you an engaging way to pitch your business. Sites like CrowdCube, (business crowdfunding), Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, (creative crowdfunding) have seen that projects with video pitches raise on average 122% more than those without – http://www.indiegogo.com/blog/2009/12/indiegogo-insight-videosraisemoremoney.html -

It is easy to see why when you thumb through some of the projects.
If you are pitching something which is difficult to explain or very technical, nothing beats using a great video to explain what you do. But, I think video can be very badly used.

First off there needs to be a discipline in terms of time. You can really have no more than 2 minutes of someone’s time – and the first 10 seconds will determine whether or not the entire video is viewed. Secondly it needs to be good quality. There is nothing worse that a poorly made video shot on someone’s webcam being used to try and pitch for my investment. I expect to see business plans that are well laid out, neatly formatted and professional in style. Your video should be the same to gain my confidence.

Of course, it is in my own interest for you to use Wooshii – but I recognise that many other companies provide video services. You should just look at using video to enhance your pitch.

But you have to make sure it doesn’t take over – or actually interrupt with the pitch. It has to enhance it.

Best of luck