10 Tips to Improve Your Pitch

Keep this question in mind: what is the one main idea I want people to remember? Build the presentation and the content from that idea.

A simple technique to keep that idea — or the summary of the talk — clear is to express the argument in 15 words.

Pitching to investors, founders, a general audience, or scientific experts is not the same thing. Knowing who you're presenting to matters a lot. Once you've identified the audience, build the presentation for them: use the right language, simple ideas, analogies, and so on.

In a short amount of time, you can't transmit a lot of information. But you can transmit a few key ideas — or the feeling that the audience now knows more.

Startup competitions usually have a defined structure: problem, solution, value proposition, market, competition, team, traction, roadmap, ask, and call to action.

Outside those competitions, my view is that structure should make the message clear and coherent — the famous "storytelling." For startups, I would emphasize the problem and the value proposition, explaining the "secret sauce" and the impact that solution could have.

We're in the attention era. You need a hook at the start to spark curiosity and capture — or keep — people's attention. In my experience, what helps most is telling a simple, agile story so the audience can grasp the problem or the idea you're trying to convey.

Connection helps the audience stay focused on the presentation. Some of the best practices: keep eye contact, show vulnerability, make people laugh a little, and be careful with technical language.

A protagonist with concrete goals stumbles into an unexpected obstacle and a crisis follows. The protagonist tries to overcome the obstacle, which leads to a climax and finally a resolution.

Something that surprised me when I read it: TED speakers are advised to write a script for the talk and memorize it. The key is that the script should sound spoken — and in many of the talks I've seen, it never feels memorized.

I find this idea very useful when it comes to making the most of your time.

This is where I think the biggest mistake happens: trying to include every possible piece of information.

I've also seen presentations designed by someone other than the speaker, making it obvious that the presenter isn't familiar with the slides or doesn't flow with them.

You have to spend time on the slides too. Keep in mind that every element you add captures — or absorbs — people's attention. Too many elements and too much content distract the audience.

No images is always better than bad images.

I could write another article on this, but in short, a few important things to keep in mind:

• Image quality and quantity
• Typography
• Font size
• Readability
• Amount of text and information
• Charts
• Contrast
• Effects
• Don't use bullet lists
• Give people time to read
• Color

One last thought on this point: for me, the presentation should delight the audience.

Personally, it tells me a lot when a speaker finishes in the agreed time. It shows they prepared and managed the pace of the presentation.

What's also essential — and not done often enough — is handling pauses and rhythm. Pauses help emphasize ideas and give the audience time to absorb them.

Both pace and time control can be practiced by writing a good script and following many of the previous recommendations.

Always look for a call to action at the end of the presentation — and also look to expand what the audience can do next. What fascinates me is when a speaker, with a good script and storytelling, achieves narrative symmetry.

The most important thing of all: practice.

When you practice, you can rehearse the script, correct it, iterate, time yourself, and refine every previous point.

You can practice with notes, without notes, with recordings, with an audience, without an audience. Feedback from people similar to your actual audience helps you know what landed, what didn't, and whether the idea is worth it.

Practice, practice, and practice.