Your Investment Pitch is NOT Your CV

True story -- at a major investment fair, I saw an entrepreneur (waste) a number of their 8 scarce "pitching" minutes outlining the development of the core idea behind their business from Grad school onward.

Now, raise your hands all the Investors in the audience who give a sh*t about when you first thought there might be something to your idea.

Okay, how many of you want to know: "Is the idea is scalable, lucrative and competitive in a viable marketplace?" "Is it a good match with my objectives?""Do I think this team can do it?"

Point is, too much pitching tries too hard to show how good the idea is instead of how good the investment is.

Other point is, what were you thinking? If you MUST use milestones and timelines to show your business has traction and value (HINT: there are much better ways) please AT LEAST put the most IMPORTANT at the TOP of the list, NOT the bottom.

No investor cares how brilliant you were in Grad school, unless your mom's a VC.

Did they use a PowerPoint to present their findings?

Hurrah -- scientific evidence that reading your slides makes the audience less likely to understand you. They'll remember you, perhaps, but not in the way you want them too! More on Professor John Sweller's work to come...

Why We Hate "Book Reports"

Presenters, PLEASE remember, you're not in 4th grade anymore, trying to use your book report to prove to the teacher that you read the entire book (you know you didn't) by including every possible fact.

In every presentation, even project and performance reviews or status checks, you need to work to accomplish a well-defined business objective.

(HINT: Not "tell them every piece of data possible about the project")

All joking aside, even when the presentation/objective requires significant detail, deliver it in comprehensible ways. Handouts, supporting documents, heck even white papers = good, presentation visual aids = bad, fillibuster-style speaking = bad. Your presentation guides the audience through the material, as opposed to shoveling it onto their heads until they're smothered.