The people in the Demo Day hall write cheques. In Season 1, 16 startups raised on that day. Three minutes is not a short time if the story is built right.
Four parts
- Problem — for whom, how much it hurts, how it is solved today
- Solution — one sentence, one screen
- Number — what grew, by how much, in what time
- Ask — how much, for what, what happens in the next 12 months
What not to say
"The market is $5 billion"— nobody believes it"We have no competitors"— you do, you have not found themThe technology slide— an investor buys the result, not the product
It is told a hundred times before the stage. The hundredth must sound like the first.
How the rehearsal goes
Every day of week six is the stage. First in front of a mentor, then the whole cohort, then strangers.
A rough split of the time:
| Part | Seconds |
|---|---|
| Problem | 40 |
| Solution | 40 |
| Number and team | 60 |
| Ask | 30 |
| Reserve | 10 |
The ten-second reserve is for breathing.