Linda's Blog: "Life's a Pitch and Then You Thrive!"

When you think of a great speaker, do you think of someone who is entertaining to watch? Someone who uses the whole stage, makes people laugh, is unconventional?

That kind of speaker may be memorable, but would you feel comfortable give him a big chunk of your money to invest in something risky? Or would you prefer to trust your money with someone who exudes focus, confidence and competence about a product in which she clearly believes?

Talk to Individuals, Don't Play to the Crowd

Investors are the same way: you are asking them to put a lot of faith in your ability to deliver on something that is by no means guaranteed. They want to feel reassured that you are a serious person who will do serious work.

Stand still, focus on their eyes and interact with the person to whom you are speaking. Your body language should imply that he or she is the most important person in the room and that you are talking about something that is of great mutual interest.

... Even If It's a Big Crowd

What if you're on stage in a big venue instead of a board room?  The same advice still applies: focus on the eyes of different individuals around the room, keep your body language calm, and exude confidence in your value proposition through smooth delivery accented by enthusiasm and excitement in your voice. You want them to remember you as an expert, not you as a clown or used car salesperson.

Tip for Staying Focused

If you have trouble keeping still when you are speaking in front of a crowd, take advantage of the podium: hold onto it with both hands to keep from gesticulating and keep your mouth at a consistent distance from the mic so that the volume doesn't fluctuate (although do turn your head to look at people in different parts of the audience). That combination will do wonders for helping to calm your body language even in very stressful situations.

OK, Sometimes Play to the Crowd

If you've got a great demo or something else that highlights your value proposition in a way that is surprising or otherwise memorable, then by all means use it. But treat such elements as the spice in your pitch, not the main course. It will be that much more effective as the highlight of your talk than as one of many highlights.

What do you think? Do you have any favorite tips for delivering a great investor pitch? Please comment below!

I recently learned that a former client of mine who I'll call George had finally, after years of struggling, gotten term sheets from reputable investors for investment in his startup. By now, he should have the money in hand and be going gangbusters, executing on his strategy.

Unfortunately, it all fell apart. Why? He wanted to be remain CEO. The investors wanted his partner to take the job. George said thanks, but no thanks.

I don't know all the details of this situation, but the outcome breaks my heart. George deserved to be successful, to grow the company with the benefit of significant resources. He'd worked hard, believed in the company when others did not, and brought it to the point that investors wanted in.

Who Is Right and Who Is Wrong?

The dilemma usually arises from the following perspectives:

• Investor: I like this technology and its potential for success, but the founding CEO does not have the skill/ personality/ whatever it takes to give the company the best chance for success. No way am I investing my money in a company that's run by someone who is unlikely to achieve success.
• Founder: I lke these investors, but there is no way that they really understand what needs to be done to achieve the vision for this company. If they install someone else as CEO, this company is unlikely to become the success it deserves to be. Besides, it's my company, I deserve to run it! What if they decide to fire me from the company altogether??

Answer: It Depends.

As in most real world situations, neither side is likely to be 100% right. You are in the position of needing them more than they need you so unfortunately you have less leverage. Depending on how close you are to your cash cliff, you need to consider whether remaining in charge is worth killing the company. Remember that investors talk to each other early and often, so if one group walks from a deal it will be that much harder to get another.

That said, remaining in control might be the right thing to do. In the next post, I'll give you some questions to consider when trying to make this tough decision.

Have you ever had to consider this option? How did it resolve? What would you do differently? (Please don't use real names in any of your posts as this is a public forum.)

I am a perfectionist. When I get a vision for something, I want to achieve that vision in all its glory, whether I'm creating a garden, a dinner or a company.

The result is that I ignore my garden when it gets too weedy, put off having people over for dinner, and drag my feet on launching my business, respectively. By insisting on perfection, I not only don't achieve perfection, I don't achieve any part of my goals.

You would think I would know better by now! After all, I have coached hundreds of entrepreneurs on this very issue: I tell them "Get your early revenue with a simple product. Don't wait until it's perfect because it never will be." And "It's (much) more important to get customer feedback quickly so that you can tweak the next generation product in the right direction than to try to guess exactly what your customer wants before shipping the first unit."

When it comes to spending money on new products, the customer is always right; your opinion really doesn't matter. So why waste time trying to make everything just right?

How Do You (I) Stop Being a Perfectionist?

If you're an entrepreneur who is motivated more by bringing something exciting to the marketplace and less by the opportunity to get rich, I think it's really difficult to avoid falling into this trap. You want people to have the same vision you do, to want the same new capabilities. And you don't want to diminish your vision by selling something that doesn't live up to those expectations.

The question is: What Do You Want? Do you want a viable, growing company or do you want to hold onto that perfect vision? If the answer is "Both!", then I hope you have very deep pockets or very patient investors, because it's probably going to take so long to get to market that you miss your window of opportunity.

Still struggling? Do what I did and get a coach (or two), make a schedule and stick to it!

Even Coaches Need Coaches

Plano & Simple is my third startup in the traditional sense of the word (I always try to take an entrepreneurial approach no matter how large an organization I've joined). It's the first one I've ever done as a solo entrepreneur. That means that if I don't deliver product, I don't get paid. Period. There's no one else to blame. This fact of life is, shall we say, motivating.

Even so, what finally got me to launch my marketing efforts was getting a coach for me. Someone who holds me accountable and pushes me to get the job done well enough but not (usually) as well as I want. I have one paid coach (thank you Judi at Infusionsoft) and several great friends who push me (EE, SS and JS, thank you!). The result is that I am now marketing my website and other services while building more content. Extremely not perfect, but so far, no one has died and I've gotten some great feedback, positive and negative. All in all, a small step for Plano & Simple and a giant leap for Linda Plano.

It's not easy for someone who coaches to admit she needs a coach or two of her own. However, the fact is that almost all successful people, entrepreneur or not, have mentors and coaches who insist on a plan, push for action and critique the results. And it's great to know that what I do for others also works for me!

What do you think? Are you a perfectionist and do you think it helps or hurts? Do you have a coach or mentor who helps you stay on track? Who would make a great coach for you?

Concrete contributes fully 5% of annual carbon dioxide emissions globally when one of its primary constituents, cement, is produced. It's a problem that won't go away any time soon: cement and concrete are affordable, strong and practical building materials. The good news is that they represent a great opportunity for reducing CO₂ emissions through innovation.

Sequestering Carbon Dioxide and Making Better Concrete

What do they mean by "better"?

• Better use of feedstock: ~10% less cement
• Better use of energy: ~30% less energy to process
• Better productivity: ~20% fewer defects

And at the same time:

• Better quality product: ~15% stronger than standard blocks

"But wait, there's more!" Not only is it a better process that produces a better block, it's a process that sequesters carbon dioxide resulting in a net 17% reduction in the production of CO₂. And the precast concrete producer that adopts the technology will get to breakeven in just one year.

It certainly doesn't hurt that they have been able to attract high profile partners. CarbonCure is doing a pilot project this year with the Shaw Group, a company that has been producing concrete for over 150 years. Furthermore, Air Liquide provides their CO₂ delivery system. This 100-year old gas products company is well-respected for its focus on sustainability and efficiency.

To me, the most surprising aspect of this company is that it arose from parent company CarbonSense Solutions. Not that there's anything particularly unusual about a spin out, but CarbonSense is a "specialized carbon management firm... offer[ing] a range of technical and advisory services... measuring and managing your carbon inventory..." - not the kind of company that I would have necessarily expected to be starting a high tech subsidiary. Clearly, they've paid close attention to their customers' problems and addressed them using their own areas of expertise to foster the development of an exciting new technology. This is a cleantech technology with a real market pull.

If you'd like to learn more, I encourage you to attend their pitch by registering for TechConnect World Expo and attending the Consulate General of Canada Boston's all day Canada Innovates clean energy conference, including pitches by 14 Canadian companies with a broad range of technologies.

Conover + Company Communications is presenting this information to you on behalf of the Government of Canada. Additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.

Almost no aspect of energy use is untouched by the issue of energy storage. We're most accustomed to dealing with it in our daily lives: at what inconvenient moment is our cell phone or laptop battery going to fail us? But far more important from a clean energy perspective is grid scale storage. Wind and solar farms need cost effective storage to smooth out the inherent ups and downs of energy production from the weather. Utilities can put off building new power plants longer if low cost, convenient storage is available to allow them to manage supply and demand more effectively.

The diagram to the right (from the Electric Power Research Institute; click to enlarge) illustrates an important gap in storage solutions: the ability to store energy to be delivered over a period of hours to days at hundreds of kilowatts to hundreds of megawatts, the kind of energy supply that can keep substantial communities powered over time when the generated supply isn't adequate.

Novel Approach to Compressed Air Energy Storage

Hydrostor, a Canadian startup, will be pitching their solution for that gap at the Canada Pavilion at  the TechConnect World Expo Boston on June 15.  Hydrostor has an intriguing twist on Compressed Air Energy Storage (CAES) and I really like the way they think: they've taken the very practical approach of applying existing technology in a novel way. The air is stored in very large surplus military bags under water. These bags have been used in marine environments for decades without significant environmental impact and they're inexpensive.

But wait, you may be thinking, how many people live close enough to water deep enough to use these bags for it to be worthwhile? I asked the same question when I was coaching CEO Curt VanWalleghem and was surprised to learn that close to 50% of the world's population actually lives in a geography that is well-suited to Hydrostor's technology. In fact, they're building their pilot project with Toronto Hydro. They've further tuned their business model to target off-grid, remote populations such as island nations.

If you'd like to learn more, I encourage you to attend their pitch by registering for TechConnect World Expo and attending the Consulate General of Canada Boston's all day Canada Innovates clean energy conference, including pitches by 14 Canadian companies with a broad range of technologies.

Conover + Company Communications is presenting this information to you on behalf of the Government of Canada. Additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, District of Columbia.