Santa Cruz Tech Ecosystem
TechRaising or not, essential tips for a pitch
by Sara Isenberg
Publisher, Santa Cruz Tech Beat
As someone with a software engineering background, I came of age in my professional life working behind the scenes either as an engineer or project manager for medium to large software companies, or, more recently, working as a 
consultant with colleagues. I assumed somebody else would do the pitching. I was always the person next to the person who…
These days there is less differentiation between who stays in the back room to code or manage the troops, and who goes out into the public eye to sell or pitch. Santa Cruz Tech Beat has forced me into the public eye, sometimes kicking and screaming. I’ve focused on building credibility with relevant content, and pitching to sponsors remains the most challenging aspect of publishing for me.
So when I saw Lydia Snider’s recent TechRaising blog post on Essential Tips for Pitching Your Startup for TechRaising, learned at Adeo Ressi’s pitch practice session last year, I read with interest because these tips are good reminders for everybody, not just for those who are preparing to pitch at TechRaising.
My favorite of these tips include:
- The customer is who’s paying. It’s tricky but the customer isn’t always the one who’s consuming your product. For example, we may watch online movies or programming for free but if you’re the producer, the primary customer is the person paying for advertising, not the viewer.
- Don’t use adjective, especially superlatives. I typically avoid superlatives when authoring features for Tech Beat because I think over-touting some product or service that I’m not deeply familiar with could all too easily hurt my credibility.
- When you’re the winner, shut up. ‘Nuf said.
For more tips, read the TechRaising blog post here: http://techraising.com/2014/04/04/startup-pitch-tips/
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Sara Isenberg publishes Santa Cruz Tech Beat for the benefit of the extended business and technology community. When she is not volunteering her time for the tech scene, Sara makes her living by managing software projects, web strategy planning, and providing development team services (including account management, vendor management, strategic partner management, beta project management, referrals to qualified technical team members, and more). Please visit her website: Sara Isenberg Web Consulting & Project Management, or contact Sara by email if you have any project management, account management, or Development Team leadership or service needs.
Tagged TechRaising
