VMS Demo Day FAQ for
Presenters
R. Lubynsky/S. Willis 18 March 2019
This purpose of this document is to provide some answers
and guidance on commonly asked questions concerning preparation for Demo
Day.
1. Key Dates
Ventures submit 1st pitch
draft
|
Friday, March 22, 2019 5pm
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Tuesday, March 26 AND Thursday 28 6-9pm
Monday, April 1, 2019 5pm |
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Wednesday, April 10 – 2:30-7:00pm
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2. The Pitch
– You will have a 5 minute slot to present your venture on Demo Day. There will be no Q+A during the presentations.
Each venture will present one after the other.
After all pitches have been delivered, there will be a separate area for
tabletop demos where you will be able to meet investors.
3. Pitch Outline
– We recommend you begin preparing the pitch by filling in the blocks as per
the VMS Pitch Deck Outline (attached).
This will capture the information that will be required in your 5-minute
pitch as well as helping you be ready for a full investor pitch.
At Demo Day you will present a subset of the full pitch
that highlights key areas and does not get into many deep details – for
example, in most cases you will skip the financial projections (no hockey stick
chart). You should decide what is the best sequence and content that best
communicates your story in a compelling way.
Listening to 20 presentations in a row is a different environment and it
requires a focused approach to be effective. This content was carefully designed
in collaboration with VC investors and was used very successfully previously.
4. Working with
your mentors – you are encouraged to reach out and use your VMS mentors to
help you prepare for Demo Day. This
might be in the form of practicing your pitch with them or having them provide
comments on an emailed copy of your deck. Building out a full traditional
investor presentation will prove to be useful in addressing questions during
the tabletop demos and in any investor meetings you schedule as a result of
Demo Day. Just communicate with the VMS
office (or your lead mentor) to request assistance.
5. Mandatory Pitch
Scrubs – We will be holding mandatory pitch scrub sessions on the evenings
of Tuesday March 26 and Thursday March 28.
A special group of VMS mentors will be assembled. Three ventures will be
assigned to a mentor team and work in a classroom. You will present your 5-minute pitch and get
intensive feedback. You will then be expected to incorporate this feedback
while the other ventures present and get scrubbed. You will then present again and get fresh
feedback.
After the sessions on Tuesday you will get a one-day
break to allow you to make any more substantive edits that have been
identified. On Thursday the same process
will be repeated. These pitch scrubs
were very popular with the entrepreneurs presenting in past years and they
found the scrub sessions were extremely valuable in iterating rapidly to greatly
improve their presentations.
6. Tabletop Demo
– On Demo Day you will be meeting investors to show your stuff and answer
questions immediately after all the ventures have presented their pitches. You should take some time to think about and
prepare an effective and exciting demo of your product or service. You should consult with your regular VMS
mentor team on this and we will also be speaking with you about this in the
weeks before and during the pitch scrubs. The Demo Day leadership team will
need to approve all demo plans. If you have something that entails special
requirements (e.g. unusually large or extra power), please advise the VMS
office.
7. Other items –
Additional information on a number of other items that will be coming up
concerning Demo Day. You will be
receiving additional communications with full details as needed, but this
should provide a heads up on what to expect.
Communications – Please be attentive
to communications concerning Demo Day. Additional details for the event and
activities leading to it will be sent to you.
For example, the room locations of the pitch scrub sessions.
Venue – the 5-minute pitch
presentations will be held on the 6th floor of the Media Lab E-14 in
the multi-purpose room where we expect 200 people seated. The tabletop exhibit demo
area will also be on the 6th floor in the Silverman Room / Winter Garden.
Snacks and refreshments will be served.
Timing – Currently, we expect to
start the pitch presentations at 2:00 pm on April 10. Because we had a large number of deserving
ventures, the program includes a greater number than originally
anticipated. We will be tweaking the
program timeline, but we expect that by 5:15 we will be starting the demo
portion of the program. The demo area
will be secured and not open to guests before that time, although you will be
given access to set up your demo.
Details on this will be provided closer to event day.
Videos – We plan to do a video
recording of the Demo Day presentations. They will not be posted or released
publicly. The primary purpose is to provide you with a recording of your own
presentation to learn from. VMS might
use brief segments for internal purposes. Last year these video recordings
proved very popular with the entrepreneurs.
Program Booklet – We will publish a
program booklet for attendees. It will not be distributed in advance. The booklet will contain a brief description
of each venture. You will be asked to provide a one paragraph summary.
If you have any questions about these items, please feel
free to contact us or the VMS Office (vms@mit.edu).
Thanks,
Kathleen
Huber and Steve Willis
MIT
VMS Demo Day Ventures
|
Ernie
Sabine
MIT
VMS Demo Day Exhibits
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