Expensive SaaStr: How Do You Overcome “Stage Fright” as a First Time CEO?
Don’t fear about stage fright. It’s actual. I used to have it. And … you’ll recover from it.
I keep in mind the very first time I needed to current to a Fancy Board Assembly. I wasn’t a founder but, however I used to be advised I needed to rise up in entrance of a half dozen very well-known, very distinguished Enterprise Capitalists.
10 minutes in, I frozen. And walked out.
It was horrible.
Quick ahead to the primary time I needed to get on stage in entrance of two,000+ in a Vegas kick off. I’d performed it so many instances, I refused to even present as much as the prep session.
You’ll get higher with observe. It’s OK.
The key is repetition. You’ll begin to get superb at your pitch, the imaginative and prescient, the worth proposition, when you’ve performed it just a few instances.
So just a few ideas:
- Converse any time you get an opportunity. Even at a tiny, tiny occasion. I keep in mind as soon as talking at a startup occasion when solely 7 individuals got here to the session. It’s OK. All of it helps. And one of many 7 individuals was a VC who gave me a time period sheet, it turned out.
- Apply earlier than you do your first necessary VC pitch. Apply. Discover a CEO, one other founder, even a VC that isn’t a superb match. Apply first.
- Stand, in case you are talking in individual. Most of us current higher once we’re standing.
- Make your presentation shorter & tighter. Attempt to distill any presentation 5–7 slides, or perhaps even 1. Take out 90% of the textual content. Attempt to get it right down to its naked essence. You’ll nearly robotically carry out higher.
- Pitch what you’d purchase your self. So, so many people get this flawed. There isn’t a magic to a buyer or VC or SKO pitch. Would you purchase what you’re pitching? You may have ardour round what you’re constructing. One of the simplest ways to make that shine by way of is to ensure the pitch is not only an info switch, however actually makes you wish to purchase from your self. Lower something or rework something that doesn’t do this.
- Focus in your passion. If nothing else, pitch and discuss your ardour. No matter you’re most enthusiastic about. Even when meaning preserving different issues out of the presentation. That is the place you’ll shine.
Each founder will get fairly good at this. Particularly when you’ve performed the pitch 10, 20, 100, 200, 1000 instances 😉
