Thousand of people filled the seats at TechCrunch. This is the big stage at the Moscone Conference Center in San Francisco. Will Smith and the movie director Ang Lee are there to discuss the upcoming movie, Gemini Man.
At one moment, Will Smith said he wanted to invest in Startups. So the host invites 4 startup founders on stage to pitch.
With a once of a lifetime opportunity and 40 seconds to pitch, the first founder becomes nervous and fumbles. The second founder pitch became so complex that it went over 40 seconds.
The third founder steps onto the stage, takes a breath, and with a polished rhythmic pitch, the crowd erupts.
Cheers roared as Will Smith's open mouth face said it all. The fourth founder pitches. But at that moment everybody knew who was clearly the winner.
The founder who was able to obtain Will Smith as an investor was Kofi Frimpong. Founder of a startup called Socionado.Kofi loved the idea of pitching and the idea of storytelling. It became his skillset.
To him, a pitch was the notion of who could tell the best story.
With this approach, he has won hundreds of thousands of dollars in startup pitch contests.
Blueprint of a successful pitch
He wasn’t supposed to pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt 2019. But two hours before Will Smith arrived, he received an email.
Will Smith wants to hear pitches. No winners or losers and you’ll have 40 seconds.
Surprised, Kofi immediately took a seat from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. working on a pitch.
He went straight into his routine trying to structure his pitch.
He begins by finding ways to capture the audience. Usually starting with a Did you know (fact) in the first sentence.
Next, he unpacks the problem,
presents the solution (his company),
and reveals the exciting opportunity (the size of the industry).
When he prepares a pitch, he doesn’t memorize it. Instead, he allows himself to freestyle a little so that it comes across as more organic rather than robotic.
During backstage, TechCrunch had assigned a coach to Kofi to help with the pitch. Recommending a number of changes. But he didn’t change a thing.
A lesson from his worst pitch. Making last-minute changes to a pitch is a disaster. It ruins the story.
Preparation is key so always have a pitch prepared and be ready to tell it.
As Kofi was pitching to Will Smith, it was important to become calm. Despite a famous movie star sitting there and behind him were tens of thousands of people watching.
In his mind, Will Smith is just a human and the crowd isn’t there.
Key Takeaways:
Always be prepared: Success happens when an opportunity meets preparation. The better prepared you are, the better the pitch will be.
Storytelling: The best pitches are stories, not formulas.
Become calm and confident: Pitching can be overwhelming especially when the stakes are high. But it’s important to find your rhythm and remove the distractions.
So remember anytime you are pitching to an angel or VC, tell the best story!
I also found a link to the whole pitch you can find it here