There are at least two parts to effective communication: a “wrapper” or form in which the information is shared, and the data or actual content of the information itself. Miss both and you bomb, and get one right but not the other and thing can get bumpy.
My colleague Dr. Jo Whitehouse of Jumpstart BioDevelopment flagged a great resource courtesy Canaan Partners for entrepreneurs seeking start-up investment or just general investment period [Disclosure: Dr. Whitehouse is a client, and a Canaan portfolio company is also a client]. If you have not seen it, it’s worth viewing. If you’ve got a copy, it’s worth using.
Why is this imporant?
People spend valuable and sometimes wasted time figuring out what they need to cover for any investment pitch: the Canaan Partners Entrepreneur Pitch Workbook [downloadable via Slide Share here ] spells out what you should cover, how their particular process works, and indirectly what you should avoid. And, by the way, it makes a great template for just about any pitch whether it be for money or the elevator variety.
The (downloadable) summary page by itself is great – it defines all the key items anyone running any start-up should be thinking about and have front and center on their mind.
Starting any business is hard work. This Workbook goes a long way to helping form content, as well as packaging around it, of how that business vision should be expressed.
Life Back West is an occasional set of writings focused on ways people, teams and organizations can be both more effective (doing the right thing) and more efficient (doing the right thing well). More about executive, new role, career and team / leadership coaching services can be found at the “About J. Mike Smith and Back West, Inc.” sidebar or the “Hire Me” tab above. You can also read an online interview with me at WhoHub, as well as participate in my learning community courtesy of KnowledgeCrush.