| I'm not convinced this is a problem specific to startups. People don't know how to do presentations. I saw it while in school. I had to take a technical writing class that required a presentation at the end. Most engineers suck at presenting. But I'm also not convinced it's limited to engineers. I've sat in countless presentations that have sucked and a few that have been amazing. Part of the problem is, presenters rarely ask "What would I want to hear if I was in the audience?" If you answer that question you'll be better than 80-90% of presenters, regardless of if your speech doesn't flow perfectly etc. For example, when I was 8 or 9 my sister made us chocolate pudding. When it had set, we started eating it. She said "I don't think this tastes right" and washed it out. I was happy to have pudding and ate my whole bowl. Next morning I woke up with 103 degree fever, couldn't stand up straight, etc. My mom takes me to the doctor who runs some tests. He comes back in the room, looks at me laying on the table and says "Looks like you've got food poisoning. I'll be back in a minute." He leaves and in my mind I picture bottles of bleach, skulls and cross bones, TV dramas where someone had been poisoned etc. My mom can easily detect this. She chases the doctor down and says "I think you need to go back there and explain what food poisoning is." Doctor comes back explains in simple terms that I'm not going to die, the milk had spoiled etc. I got some medicine and bed-rest for the next 2 days and was fine. Twenty-six years later and that account is still vivid in my mind, in part because my doctor didn't think "What would an 8 year-old need to hear about food poisoning?" It's not just about start-up pitches, it's about communication. And we, as an industry, suck at it. |