The Pitch Prep

We have completed the following so far:

• Patent explanation and understand
• Basic pitch presentation
• Financials
• Business model and sales strategy

This week we focused on finalizing our business plan, creating our P&L statements and refurbishing our pitch to create a bigger impact on the investors. After the presentation of investor psychology this week, we as a team realized that it was much more than completed the set of tasks assigned to us. Rather, we needed to target our product to “wow” them, not logically, but excite them for something big.

Our session with Rick

During our short catch-up with Rick, we dramatically changed our presentation. While discussing our strategy with him, he suggested that dramatization was missing. After all, if you’ve been following so far, our technology allows a breakthrough that revolutionizes the way smart devices are worked. In a more casual and science-fiction tone, it allows you to ‘read minds’. He suggested we present the investors with a movie scene, to really showcase the science-fiction nature of our project and how it’s not so much of “fiction” anymore. Referring to X-Men, he gave us the idea of showing a clip of Professor X trying out Cerebro for the first time - a technology that allows him to mentally connect with our mutants. It sounded bizarre at first, but we realized that it would capture the investors attention and allow us to build a rapport with them. After this, we all got thinking about how we need to market this product to truly distinguish its capabilities.

Distribution

Primarily, we were thinking of selling our technology online or through other retailers of such products, however during a team meeting, we noted that our technology needs to stand unique. If we sell with other smart devices, we don’t distinguish it as something revolutionary that needs to have a place of itself. So from B2B2C to evolved into B2C. Even though that sounds extensive, that’s how we must fascinate our consumer base. Hence, we decided to instead set up distribution centres in populated cities that allow an interactive experience with our product. This is similar to VR technology showcased in Microsoft in their store in Westfield Mall, San Francisco. We hoped to start showcasing in Silicon Valley and gradually extend to Dallas, New York, Seattle, etc. As our product gains traction and the recognition it needs, we will begin online sales through pre-order. Essentially, it’s all about creating the hype.

P&L

We struggled to understand the requirement of financials during the pitch. How much do we talk about it? How do we ensure to keep the investors engrossed while we do? How deep should we go in our analysis of profit and loss? After a short email interaction with Rick, we realized we were getting ahead of ourselves as the requirements of this were more basic than we expected. We were able to create a narration of how our product would evolve, our break even timing, and our ask for the investors.

Now, we are working more closely to create a timeline for how we expect to see our business grow and when the investors can expect a return. It’s been challenging to try and balancing something realistic but also something that’s inviting an investment. Additionally, we’re working on creating a pseudo-prototype to allow us to have a physical object to showcase. We were advised that having the device in front would make the vision much more realistic and allow interaction with our product. We will keep you updated on how this develops.