dsbatten on Nostr: In 2019, FoundryLabs' board approached me about getting their founder some pitch ...

In 2019, FoundryLabs' board approached me about getting their founder some pitch coaching for an upcoming event in front of ~900 investors.

* this story is shared with David's permission.

His board were a bit nervous, because the pitch was a long way from where it needed to be, and David, an engineer with very limited pitching experience, was not feeling particularly confident.

I agreed to have a chat to David and heard his pitch. 2 things were apparent:

1. David's pitch was indeed a very long way from where it needed to be
2. More importantly, David was aware of that and willing to learn.

I knew from my own experience as a founder that when the will to learn is there, then a turnaround is possible.

I'd once pitch at USDC and been told directly my pitch was really bad, one of the worst they'd seen (yep, they didn't hold back). But then I went to work on the pitch (and myself) and raised investment.

The only problem. The process took 9 months.

David and I had 9 days!

I went back to David and said "I can work with you, but this is only possible if you turn around any feedback I give straight away. How much time do you have to work on the pitch?"

"It's all I'm doing" was his answer

It was the right answer.

"I'll never ask you to say anything that you can't stake your credibility on, but I will be asking you to communicate in a way that is much more bold than you have in the past, including how you deliver. Are you up for it?" I asked.

"Yes, I know it'll be uncomfortable ... but not nearly as uncomfortable as giving a bad pitch to"

So while we had very little time, and a long way to go, but we did have 2 important things
1. his 100% focus and
2. his 100% openness

In that 9 days, we overhauled everything.
We cut out most of the technical detail and jargon, simplified the remaining language until anyone could understand it, removed most of his ums and ahs and replaced them with long pauses.

Then we worked on his gestures and props, then we spent several days chasing down permission to use a 3rd party endorsement from Telsa.

Then we overhauled the message. I said "David, you only have one question to answer, "What's the high impact problem that only you can solve" - this is the nucleus of the pitch. Until that nuclear strong, the other material doesn't matter." We eventually found the boldest true statement he could make about the product.

Then, since people remember the first and last 30 secs much more, we worked on openings and closing a lot.

In total we went through more than 16 iterations.

Finally is was time for the presentation.

Here's his exact assessment of how it went.

"It went ok, not my best presentation. The slides had a delay so I was talking from slides they couldn't see. When I realized it kind if threw me a bit. I don't think it was a train wreck but it definitely wasn't a confident delivery. Oh well.....And a couple say that I looked really nervous!"

From my experience of people assessing themselves (particularly kiwi engineers) - it tends not to be very accurate and highly self-depricating, so I waited until we had the data.

2 days later, I got a very different message from him.

"We have broken the record for the most interest ever! 306 individuals.
Unreal! So from being concerned that I hadn’t done the pitch justice to being the new record holders!"

Here's the thing. David was nervous. He still had his same mild-mannered voice. He still umed and ahed a bit. He certainly wasn't a polished presenter.

And that's the whole point.

We never tried to make him into something he wasn't, or make him polished. We just worked together on the parts of the pitch that actually mattered.

This story is not about pitching. It's not even about how inaccurately we perceive ourselves.

This story is about what is possible when we let go and surrender 100%, putting our ego to one side.

Most people I meet tell me that they are "not meeting the right people" and that's why they haven't raised capital. Or "it's a tough market right now".

No doubt.

But these reasons don't help us improve. They only help the ego avoid a bruise.

David took the (initially) harder path of acknowledging that HE was the reason the pitch was not where it needed to be and he was open to doing what it took to turn that around.

If you want to grow, there is no avoiding the pain of the ego being bruised.

Pain is essential in life...
But suffering is optional.

And I say this based solely on the data: you are capable of much more than you probably imagine you are. And it is almost always our ego, not our ability, that is the barrier to us seeing this.

PS: I asked him after the pitch "Why aren't you the CEO of the company?" That led to a new discussion where I was able to debunk a few myths about what the CEO role really way.

2 weeks later out of the blue he say "Your question was interestingly timed – My CEO just mutually and amicably parted ways with the company last week." He became the CEO, and has been to this day.

PPS: Like a lot of the work I do, this work was under the radar, and the pitch (and the story) was embargoed for 7 years. But I now have permission to share, so here it is.

PPPS: yes I'm still coaching, so if your desire to grow is large and you're ready to go out of your comfort zone with your Bitcoin project - reach out.