snippets - #1 07.21
On respect, pitching, and diversity
Sometimes you have to eat the aphid
Years ago, I was leading a Saturday shift at the farm. Our task was straightforward, but daunting. We had a bug problem. A tiny little bug called an aphid had taken up residence on our plants. But it wasn’t just one bug. It was thousands. Probably tens of thousands.
This happens on occasion and the key is to catch it quickly and remediate. In this case, we had to remove all of the plants. But the plants were heavy. Really heavy. Imagine a block, maybe 5 square feet, of plant matter, roots soaked through. The blocks were just big enough to be awkward to carry. It’s about 40 or so pounds per block and we had well over 500 blocks to cover.
Our team was not excited, to say the least. And they certainly had no interest in listening to a 20-something woman who was making them come in on a Saturday to lift really heavy plants covered in bugs.
All morning, I heard the team talking about the bugs. They were daring each other to eat one. No one would.
After hours of wasted time, moving slowly, I stood up on a box and said “Bring me a leaf. I’ll eat it. If I do, we’ll get back to work and get the job done.” They laughed and laughed, and found a leaf with at least 50 bugs on it. I didn’t even look. I just grabbed the leaf and ate it.
The gasp was audible.
Everyone immediately got back to work. I went right back to work alongside them.
One of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned is that in order to lead, there has to be respect. If your team doesn’t respect or believe in you, there is no reason to listen to you. You have to do the work too.
Sometimes you have to eat the aphid.
Pitching Q&As
For anyone who isn’t in the startup world, pitching is our lifeblood. Whether you’re raising capital, hiring, selling your product, or talking to media, you need a good pitch. A good pitch tells a good story and it can make or break your business. Here are some questions I’ve gotten recently on pitching.
Did you learn anything from TechCrunch that you used in later pitches?
TechCrunch is about storytelling within a very structured box. If you watch some of the Disrupt pitches you’ll see the same format for all of the pitches.
Here’s a big problem. Here’s how you solve it. Meet so-and-so who has this problem. With our solution, so-and-so’s life is way better! There are so many other people like so-and-so out there. We’re the right people to scale this thing.
Founders want to break the mold. It’s the reason they’re starting a company in the first place. So it’s not a surprise that founders would want a unique pitch.
I once helped coach founders on their pitches for an accelerator’s demo day. One of the pitches still frustrates me. Why? Because the founder didn’t say anything meaningful. The reason there is a format for pitches is to ensure that you’re covering the right content. Uniqueness should come from the product, the market, or the team, not by trying to present in a way that is intangible for the audience.
This founder in particular was too focused on coming across as a thought leader in a new space and the general audience reaction was, “I’m not sure what they do, but sounded like the speaker knew something about something.” What you really want the audience to say is, “Wow. That is a massive problem. I can’t believe how innovative the team’s solution is. I’d like to talk to them.”
Imagine a resume. All resumes have a basic format. You include education, previous job experience, roles and responsibilities, etc. Imagine hiring for a role and receiving something completely different. Imagine something with no job experience listed whatsoever. Will you call the candidate or will you toss the resume aside?
That’s not to say creativity isn’t important. And it’s not to say all presentations have to be formulaic by any means. The key with pitches, specifically, is to meet the audience where they are, and to blow them away with how you’ve approached the problem.
Are there things you’ve seen other founders do before even getting into the room with investors for their pitch that shoots them in the foot/puts them in a negative position?
The key to good storytelling is a clear message. If I have to ask what you do, the message isn’t clear. The objective of a pitch is to get to the next step. Your pitch or email or tweet or whatever mechanism of reaching out should make me want to meet you. It should be enough information to get me thinking about the potential, but not too much where I can make a decision on the spot.
What I’m reading
It’s About Damn Time by Arlan Hamilton
I’m obsessed with how Arlan talks about diversity. It always amazes me that in financial markets, diversity is viewed as a necessity (diversify a portfolio), but when we talk about hiring or investing in startups, it has a negative connotation (charity, etc.). If you are not diversifying your team or your portfolio, you are at a disadvantage. Period.
Some great quotes from the book:
Instead of focusing on our “diversity,” we diversified, and as a result, we improved.
I want to give everyone a ticket; even if they don’t succeed, they deserve to see the view from the top of the mountain. They deserve a chance.