The Anatomy Of An EIE Pitch

Spotlight on. Sixty seconds. Spotlight off. Polite applause. Six months of work for EIE17 was done.

Engage Invest Exploit is Scotland’s premier investment conference, I suspect it may be Scotland’s only investment conference, but it rightly deserves the premier adjective none the less.

By any measure, not least the acreage assigned to the 3 huge screens at stage rear, EIE17 was bigger than ever. EIE has been running for many years and I’ve attended a few as a visitor, but this year I’d allowed myself to be pushed forward as part of the cast.

The encouragement to take an active role came from an old friend and recent investor in the business, as well as his one-time business partner. “You’ll be ideal”, they both insisted, I swallowed the flattery easily.

The EIE process is lengthy. The process started in November 2016 with the online application process, a full 6 months before the spotlight would hit me. The application was painless – an 80 word “why we are wonderful” type thing, and a one minute video to back it up. Just a Saturday used up, but easy.

I did, however, hesitate before hitting submit. Did I really want to discuss my businesses needs and desires in what to all intents and purposes is a public venue? And I’ve watched enough of the dreadful Dragon’s Den TV sitcom to know that perfectly sensible businesses and individuals can stumble and fall when asked the most simple of questions. I ignored the monkey and pressed submit.

A few weeks later I got the congratulations email from the EIE team – good.

Bootcamp – All Part Of The Process

The EIE17 cohort met each other for the first time in January, at a two day residential Bootcamp in Stirling. This was to provide a few surprises for me.

The first surprise was that some of the cohort were serial EIE pitchers, and it suddenly struck me that EIE was about supporting companies as they develop, not just when they are kicking off. Individuals were back to pitch again, this time for more, this time with a stronger story, this time with a little more swagger and, this time, with a lot more experience.

The second surprise, or maybe more of a disappointment, was the proportion of women at the Bootcamp. I’m not trying to sound like a feminist (some of my best friends are female), but the proportion seemed low in my opinion. And no, I don’t have a statistic to throw out. I’m sure it will have reflected the number of female applications – but it did make me wonder why more women hadn’t applied. Puzzled.

The presence of a 4 strong coaching team was the third surprise, it included a professional opera singer, people from theatre and a public speaking expert. We went through breathing exercises, techniques to help you relax, exercises to warm up the voice, and how to stand (yes, seriously how to stand, and I still can’t do it).

Two days to learn how to present for one minute on a stage and not get freaked out – surely that’s overkill, isn’t it? At the end of day 2 I proudly delivered my 1 minute pitch to the pitching expert. She waited patiently till the end of the pitch and with her eyes saying “I’m not angry, I’m just very disappointed”, she said, “1 minute 27 seconds”. I agreed to cut out the preamble and just get to the point.

The EIE web site features the various pitch videos filmed over the two day Bootcamp, including my time travelling 1 minute pitch. For me learning my little pitch, to then deliver it in front of a camera was easy enough (tip: go into a corner and learn it). However, speaking to the video production crew I learned that a few had delivered their video pitches in 15 second sound bites, to be edited together later, funny how the presence of a camera can scramble brains.

Bootcamp finished.

For Five Minutes More

Attendees at EIE will know that it’s not all 1 minute pitches, there are also extended 6 minute pitches with a 4 minute Q&A session from an invited panel. If you fancy the opportunity to be grilled by 4 well known experts and entrepreneurs in front of 600 people live, with no ability to vet the questions or edit your answers, then this is for you. So of course I applied for it – why on earth wouldn’t you?

With only 12 slots for the extended pitches there is an audition to filter the applications down. In the audition around 10 or 12 EIE supporters and sponsors do a little bit of cross examination and judging. This, it has to be said, was the low point of the whole EIE experience for me.

I drafted and redrafted my 6 minutes, I had listened carefully to the advice at the Bootcamp – PowerPoint is death; use metaphors; use a prop; engage with the audience; be entertaining. I can do that. I invested time in this, a whole lot. Other business activities were delayed and dropped, this was a big investment for me.

My original script was way too long – so I lost some of the paragraphs, despite them being carefully crafted. I worked on my metaphors, I created a world in prose that would fill the audiences mind with images and memorable comparisons. I rehearsed timing: endlessly. I rehearsed while driving; I rehearsed in front of my colleagues; I rehearsed in the shower.

I studied and re-studied the Business Plan – no chance of me being caught out by a sneaky year 5 EBITDA performance question. By the end I was fight ready, Rocky Balboa standing at the top of a flight of stairs in Philadelphia couldn’t have been more ready.

This was nailed. Except clearly it wasn’t: I didn’t make the cut. I’d let down my colleagues, I’d missed an opportunity to promote our business. I was properly down, about this.

So what went wrong? Well, the 6 minutes went well, perfectly timed. My audience engagement questions got responses, my prop worked well, and it was all delivered without notes or the deadly PowerPoint.

Lessons Learned

So again, what went wrong? What I think I misjudged was that for me the 4 minute Q&A was part of the pitch. It was in that 4 minutes that I would be able to explain about previous Exit success, that selling in the USA was something that we had done before, that the team had all worked together for years, and that we already had raised a significant amount of cash in previous rounds. Those pieces of information would all come out in a natural Q&A session. And in the audition during the Q&A that is exactly what happened.

But during the feedback session it seemed that at least a couple of folks thought that those elements should be in the pitch. And as for not using PowerPoint – that seemed to totally knock a few folks for six. I’d used the Bootcamp training and applied it to an audience that hadn’t been to Bootcamp. They were playing by their perfectly sensible rules and expectations, not the perfectly sensible rules that had been discussed at Bootcamp.

Another two day residential session followed, this time at The Royal Bank of Scotland’s Gogarburn HQ. More pitch practicing, but by now I had learned that the rules that really matter are the rules of those judging, so the one minute pitch has been revised again: This time with a bluntness that would have made Gordon Ramsey blush. In short – “We manage millions of products on marketplaces globally; we carry out billions of price checks; we automatically adjust prices and stock; we generate significant sales for retailers; we’ve worked together since the 90’s; give us your f******money.”

Ok, I didn’t really say that Bob Geldof bit at the end.

I got a few 5 out of 5’s for the pitch during rehearsals – notably from the pitching expert who had been disappointed with my 1 minute 27 second pitch a few months earlier. That made me feel rather pleased. I’d got a star on my homework book, I was 8 again. Ready for the day.

Prior Preparation Prevents…

Preparation for the day is like almost any other show – except the EIE team make things as simple as possible. Many of the pitchers are at a conference for the first time, so the stands are all pre-cooked: just send the graphics and some cheery text for the brochure, and don’t forget an executive summary for the investors so that they get an idea of where you really are as a business.

The day before the event is the dry run – and this is where my nerves increased a little. Let’s face it, if my rehearsal goes wrong then tomorrow will be a total nightmare to get through. So don’t screw up the rehearsal. The stage management and rehearsal staff are on top form. Informative, relaxed, professional.

You walk out ten seconds before your timer starts. Stand still. Light on. Talk. Light off. Leave stage.

With a Super Trouper light in your face you can’t see the audience, all you can see is the 60 second timer on the screen in front of you. That was a big help to be honest. And by now you know the other pitchers well, the mutual support is real – it’s like Strictly but without any East Ender stars.

Pitch delivered. Done. Ready for the big day, tomorrow.

The Day Itself

So at 6:15 am, on Stirling Station’s Platform 4, I’m repeatedly using the station clock to time a 10 second walk up the platform and then deliver my 1 minute pitch. If the other commuters thought I was barking mad they didn’t say. The train arrived at 6:37 am – if I wasn’t ready now then I’d never be.

The EICC is a stunning and new venue for EIE, it sets a tone that says the companies here demand to have your undiluted attention. Investors and visitors came from far and wide, our discussion with Chinese visitors being very welcome. Our stand visitors came before my pitch thanks to the promotional efforts put in by the EIE folks, some just wandered by and wondered what we did, and some came immediately after the pitch wanting to find out more (bluntness had clearly worked).

With EIE done our profile in the international investment community is now higher than it’s ever been. Our ability to confidently pitch at any level is unsurpassed. And the feedback we already have had, is that the sector we are in is exciting and that we are doing well, very well.

And as for the pitch on the day… after 6 months of prep, guess what? Totally nailed it! And yes , I did do some breathing exercises before I walked on – but I still can’t stand properly.

There were times over the 6 months that I did wonder if it wasn’t perhaps a little over the top for 60 seconds of fame. Times when I was annoyed and frustrated. Times when I was bored senseless. Times when the day job had to be done at the weekends and sometimes not at all. But through all that, and above everything else, there was always a deep appreciation for the huge efforts that the EIE team were going to, to help my business, without any expectation on their part for any thanks. That’s rather special and deserves much.

A few pitchers dropped out along the way; not many but some; some didn’t attend all the events; some nailed it; some didn’t; and there were some where I have to admit that I still haven’t got a clue what on earth they were talking about. But everyone benefited significantly from the experience, that is well beyond doubt.

EIE shows the Scottish entrepreneurial, academic and business communities to their best advantage. It deserves your attention, it deserves your support, and it demands your attendance. Indeed it demands that you Engage, Invest and Exploit.