Episode 1 – How to create a winning pitch with David Beckett

Speaker 1: Welcome to The US expansion series. The podcast where you can learn about successfully expanding to and scaling your business in The US market. My name

Speaker 2: is Fleur. My name is Flora. And in every episode, we dive into a different aspect of a successful market expansion. This podcast is brought to you by Tabs in order to support you on your expansion journey. Welcome,

Speaker 1: Flora, to this very first episode of the expansion series. How are you?

Speaker 2: Thanks. I'm good. I can't wait to share this first episode. We've worked very hard on this podcast, so I'm so excited that we're actually recording it now and that is going to

Speaker 1: be available on Spotify soon. So let's briefly explain to the listeners how this podcast came about and why we started this.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I'll try to keep it short. But at TEBS, we talk to so many different companies that are interested in expanding to The US market. And it always surprises me that many of the issues and obstacles that these companies are facing are actually quite similar to each other. And I think also in the past few years, talking to many founders, I've really learned that you can learn so much from each other's market expansions and from each other's mistakes.

So our goal with this podcast is to share as much knowledge as possible and hopefully help companies become very successful in The US market.

Speaker 1: Exactly. And The US can also be a very overwhelming market. And with this podcast, we are trying to create a platform where we can share tools to make this all a bit more manageable. And for this episode, you spoke to pitch coach David Beckett in Amsterdam.

Speaker 2: And David is a great storyteller. So he explains very clearly what a great pitch consists of, what the ideal length of a pitch is, but also the cultural differences that play a role when pitching in The US. Oh, David, thanks so much for joining our podcast. I'm so excited to sit down with you today. I've never worked with a pitch coach before, so this is totally new for me.

But I can totally see how yeah. It's so valuable for I think anyone to learn how to pitch yourself and your ideas, but especially also for the companies that we assist that expand to The US and eventually have to pitch in The US. So I'm very intrigued and excited about what you're going to teach us today. But, yeah, before we start, could you tell us a bit more about how you became a pitch coach and what it is that you do for companies?

Speaker 3: Sure. I'm delighted to be here. And over the years, I've I've coached more than 200 Dutch startups and startups in general from Europe to pitch in America. So it's a very relevant topic for me. And I started as a pitch coach nine years ago.

And actually, I got my first chance thanks to a guy called Patrick Dezeu and unfortunately, he just passed away last week and I just wanna say he really gave me my first chance. I started learning how to be a pitch coach at Startup Bootcamp, which he's a co founder of. And he saw me as somebody who was enthusiastic, didn't know so much about startups, but wanted to contribute, learn, and help them make great pitches. And so that was my starting point. Before that, I had a corporate career.

I worked for Canon, the camera company. And over those years, I I worked there for sixteen years and I did more than a thousand presentations, but most of them were typical kind of bullet point presentations. I was known as being kind of good at it. But when I left and I did a few other things, I wrote a book about Amsterdam, I did a few other things, but finally, you know, I have to pay some bills. And I thought, what am I passionate about?

I'm passionate about coaching. I'm also fascinated by what impact presentation has on people's careers, on their confidence. And then I saw this new way of presenting, pitching, telling the story in no time at all, getting straight to the point. And this combination of three things really captured me and I I got hooked on the whole idea of being a pitch coach.

Speaker 2: And then in the beginning, I'm super interested in how it started. So you followed your passion, you knew that you wanted to become a pitch coach. How did you find this first few clients?

Speaker 3: Well, I started as I say at startup boot camp and I on the first program that I worked on, that was in 2013 and 2014. So I started coaching teams just learning. You know, I I I couldn't charge any money because I didn't have any value to give. So I just spent hours trying to understand what is a startup pitch, watching a lot of startup pitch videos, and then how do I help these people to get there? So I worked out what are the elements that are required, then what is the way that I can help them do things that help them get to that that story?

So that when they stand up in front of the audience, they feel confident. And after the first demo day, one of the corporate sponsors, which was actually a company called My Order, part of Rabobank, the founder there, one of the head people, Michael Doyers, he came to me and said, hey, I want my people to pitch like that. I heard you coach them, so come and do the same thing for my people. And that's how it went actually. I started working with different accelerators, different programs, and I did a lot of networking, must say.

I spoke to a lot of people. I had conversation with a lot of investors. What do you wanna see in a pitch? So that when I would have conversation with potential customers, sort of had some points of of anchor. But you know, it took a while and after a few years, I sort of established myself.

But the first years were tough, know. A lot of chasing, networking, learning like crazy.

Speaker 2: What was the most difficult part in those first few years?

Speaker 3: Well, naturally, one of the kind of contradictions of being a pitch coach is that the number one place for a pitch is startups, and startups don't have money. That's a natural thing. They're in a situation where it's uncertain, trying to build a business, they're hunting for funding. But of course, organizations around them had had budgets. So I started going for accelerators that say had 10 teams in their program and they would fund the coaching.

But definitely the the the hardest thing was first, yeah, just finding customers and finding customers who would trust you because you didn't have a track record. And secondly, of course, learning how to do it. You know, I'd never given workshops before. I've been to many in Canada or into many many trainings. And one of my starting points was, okay, don't do the things that you didn't like in those trainings when you were in Canon.

What were all the things you didn't like? Like, sitting in a quiet space writing something down for five minutes dead silence. I I thought I'm not gonna do that. So I always play music while people are thinking. I thought about, do I just want boring, dull explanation or do I want somebody who gives a bit of entertainment that has a sense of humor that makes some jokes along the way?

So I tried to inject that in my workshop. So finding customers, but also trying to refine what was the model, what would be the way that I would help people follow a path to be able to tell that story confidently and certainly.

Speaker 2: In the beginning, in those early days, did you also write sort of a business plan or did you write down a strategy of how you were going to grow your business or did it all go very organically?

Speaker 3: Yeah. I came from a corporate background making biz midterm plans, business plans.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker 3: Yeah. But I then quickly got face to face with StartUpWorld where people were saying, you know what? Business model Canvas is about the maximum that you should have for a business plan. So I did the same thing. I just ditched the business plan and just started trying to connect with as many people as possible.

Once I had sort of a business up and running, I started going back one step, brainstorming, okay, where do I wanna go? What kind of customers do I wanna work with and so on? Try and make a bit of a plan. But to start off with, it was just networking and learning, and then doing workshops and trying to learn what worked, what didn't, and then adapting.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So the most important thing is to test it out and then really learn for your experiences and then improve it.

Speaker 3: Yeah. And I think, you know, as a coach, trainers have basically two point two starting points, I think. Lots of different starting points, but basically it falls into two camps. You're either the kind of trainer or coach that says, okay, let's find out what's going wrong here, break you down, and then try and tell you how to do it. But I I never responded to that personally.

Some people do, but I I just never did. So I think the second way is to go and find, okay, what's working here and then how can we help people to do it even better? And that's always my starting point. I have to find out what will be guaranteed to help them succeed. And then what do I need to do to make it better?

So give them a good basis, get the basics in place, and then learn what those basics would be. And then find out, okay, how can I get them to help them to go one level up? So always starting from a positive starting point, whether that's in training or coaching. Not nobody cares about your idea, your pitch is rubbish, you know, I'm gonna tell you how to do it. But more like, okay, this is an opportunity.

I'm here to help you find a voice for your idea. That I think that's a different starting point and that suited me.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Think it's very admirable. It's such a perfect example of how you followed your passion, followed your dreams. And well, today, we're of course going to focus on pitching in The US. Yes.

But I think, yeah, it would be good to start with pitching in general. So what does a great pitch consist of? Could you tell us a bit more about that? And do you also maybe have any examples of pitches that are really good?

Speaker 3: Sure. So I packaged after a bit of time the the the key messaging of of what what are the building blocks of a great pitch into the pitch canvas. So I I created that in 2014. I've been refining it. It's downloaded 20 something times every day by entrepreneurs around the world actually.

And there, what I did was I dissected what works in a pitch. Now that comes down to things like what's the pain? What's the problem that you're solving? The temptations to talk about the technology. But we don't know if it's good to use blockchain or we don't know if this is the right application of artificial intelligence or, you know, connecting with open APIs.

We we don't know if that's a good solution. What we do know is if somebody's wasting twenty minutes every day finding a parking space and that's driving them crazy, they're missing out on time with their family, we wanna know how you fix that. But if you tell us, yeah, we made a parking app, it's it's all in the blockchain and we're using Internet of Things and so yeah. We're lost because we don't know why you're creating it. So for me, the starting point of any great pitch is the problem you're solving.

That's the why of the pitch. You know, classic start with why, start with the problem. Once you establish the problem, it becomes much easier for people to follow. They understand why. Then you're walking through, k, what is it?

What's the product? But not over talking about the product, what's unique about it, showing them something of how it works. Just ten, fifteen seconds can sometimes be enough. Proof of your track record, if you've got track record, if you're early stage in validation, and so on, and building through to things like the team, your your personal motivation, why you, of course, the investment. So these are all packaged up in the the pitch canvas, and there's about 11 blocks of content I recommend people to just think about.

You wouldn't put them in every single pitch, depends on the length and the audience, but these are the the key elements of the pitch.

Speaker 2: What's the ideal length of a good pitch?

Speaker 3: Well, my company's called best three minutes. So I would probably say three minutes. Yeah. But between three and five minutes and it you're in different situations. You have the situation where it's already predefined.

There's a competition. It's a three minute pitch. And normally they mean three minutes, not three minutes five. They they really have a hard stop. And sometimes it's defined as five minutes.

Now if people don't define it and you're asked to make a short pitch, my recommendation is really not to look at the whole time and say, hey, let's let's fill up the time with the pitch because we got thirty minutes. Let's got a thirty minute meeting. Let's talk for thirty minutes or twenty minutes then take some questions. My recommendation is always to have a short pitch. And for example, if you had a thirty minute meeting, do a short three to five minute pitch.

Tell them you're gonna do that. And then say, then we'd like to answer your questions. And after the three to five minute pitch, you can ask the golden question, what's on your mind? What would you like to know more about? Because the best pitches, I hear it all the time.

Best pitch is a conversation. So give them the framework for the conversation, the three to five minute pitch, and then open it up. What would you like to know more about the product, the market, or what we've done so far, our team? And they'll tell you what they want to know.

Speaker 2: Yeah. That is really a conversation starter that invites the other person to ask questions.

Speaker 3: Exactly that.

Speaker 2: And once you've prepared a great three to five minute pitch, does it always need pictures or visuals or is it only distracting from the story?

Speaker 3: So my view is that if you take a step back, why do we show slides? And I think this has been a bit lost over the years with, you know, PowerPoint, corporate presentations where it tends to be a combination of document and presentation. Which that's why we end up with bullet points and lots of text and so on. But if you take a step back and think, well, why do why would we show slides? It's basically to engage two senses instead of one.

And when you engage more senses, things are more sticky. But when you overload one of those senses, then things stop being sticky. So that that's the challenge with visuals is to get the balance right. So when you're presenting, I believe that if you tell somebody we've just reached a milestone of 10,000 users, if that's lost in bullet point five in a full sentence, they'll miss it. And if they don't, the the it's easy for someone to just be distracted at the moment you announce something important.

But if they miss it and then they see it on the screen, then you've got a combination of, okay, they'll get the 10,000. They'll hear you say it. They'll see the 10,000. That will land. So looking out for what are the key messages, what are the big things that really count, and what visuals can I use rather than which text am I gonna write?

Because people can't read and listen at the same time. It's impossible. So the answer to your question is I think there's a time, for example, a one minute pitch, probably doing just a straight explanation is enough. Maybe with one slide if there's that's the situation. But often for very short pitches, you're not in a situation where visuals are possible.

But if you have a three minute pitch, a few well crafted slides with minimal text, some icons, visuals, key messages that support your story, I think that can really add. And it adds polish if it's professionally designed.

Speaker 2: So if we're going to look at pitching in The US specifically, the companies that we work with often have to pitch in The US to either partners, customers, investors. I can imagine, I mean, The US is a completely different market from The Netherlands or Europe that pitching is also quite different. Yeah. Could you tell us a bit more about if there are any differences and what founders should be aware of when they're going to pitch in The US?

Speaker 3: Sure. So to take a step back, the way that I tried to identify what's the differences is to talk to people that have a pitched in America. So Dutch startups that are pitching in in America. B people in America listening to pitches from Europeans. And those things have led me to a couple of things.

I also did some research on the culture. So the first thing about culture is the American culture is basically more optimistic even after recent history. And European culture is basically a bit more pessimistic. So what does that result in? Pessimism tends to focus on process.

What have you done to get here? How how have we got a good basis for what you're telling me? Optimism tends to be more interested in what happens next? How far could this thing go? How big could this thing go?

Now what Europeans tend to do, and I I hear it also from from Dutch startups that I've coached more than 200 for this task, and they tend to undersell. It's part of the culture. It's being humble. It's one of the the reasons I love living in The Netherlands is the culture is flat. It's Yeah.

It's not about me, me, me. Yeah. But when it comes to pitching, that can be a handbrake. And you know, one of the key things about making a great pitch, didn't mention earlier on, is who's the audience and what do they care about? And we always need to tune into what's on their mind.

What do they want to know? So if they're more interested in how big can this thing go, giving them a timeline from 2015 when your company was started, they're not so interested. They wanna know what what have you achieved? Who's behind this? What's the opportunity?

What do you need to make this thing go amazingly big? So what startups tend to do, for example, is that they will under describe their achievements. So if I just give you a concrete example, I was coaching one team that was gonna gonna pitch in America. And I said, well, tell me a bit about the business. But we had this classic.

Yeah. We started in 2015 and then in 2017, my my founders led. And after about five minutes, we'd reached 2019. And I said, I'm sorry. Said, just tell me what is it you're fixing?

What's the problem you solve? And he said, oh, well, the problem we solve, we make contracts 90% faster. Really? And well, I guess that makes it cheaper. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a third of the price of normal contracts. Okay. And who are you doing that for? He said, well, Red Bull and AXA.

Okay. Well, that's a pretty big company. So and and but like, what is it that's using it in the company? Well, what departments? Oh, all departments.

But I I don't I I can't understand all depart I don't know what all departments are. So I said, well, what are the top three departments in Red Bull that are using it? He said, well, sales, HR, and legal. Okay. So then you've got a different pitch.

What you've got is a pitch where we make contracts 90% faster. We're doing this with companies like Red Bull and AXA. Let me tell you how departments like the HR, legal, and and sales teams are saving so much time and money with their contracts. Let me walk you through it. So immediately, you've got the best stuff right up front.

Your achievements, the value you're bringing. So sometimes Dutch startups are more interested in saying who they are and and a little bit about what they do in a very sort of humble way. But sometimes we need to put the best stuff right up front. The best achievement, the value, the the a measure of the value, the best value you could bring. So this is probably the number one difficulty for Dutch startups.

Speaker 2: But I feel like for Americans, it's so natural to talk about their talents and their capabilities and their ambitions, and it just I feel like they're taught how to do it from such a young age that they don't get scared of presenting themselves. And I wrote about this it's actually quite funny. So in my thesis, I wrote about how in The Netherlands, you have the saying,

Speaker 3: Absolutely.

Speaker 2: Act normal. That's already crazy enough. And I feel like that's such a, yeah, difference in entrepreneurial mindset that in The US, it's much more supported if you become crazy successful, if you're explaining how amazing you are, how amazing your talents are. And, yeah, I feel like what exactly what you're saying. Europe or in The Netherlands, people are more modest.

So that feels weird to them to talk about how amazing an idea of a startup is.

Speaker 3: I think there's a couple of things that come from that. One is about a success mindset, you know, and and appreciating success. So a classic thing in England that people would say was if you yeah. I I don't think the comparison with cars is really relevant, but let's just take it as an easy one. If you see somebody with a fancy car, an English person will say, lucky so and so.

Whereas an American will say, oh, wow. Great car. I'd love to have one of those. So so, you know, cars a bad experience, but it it shows or example, but it shows the the mindset. Instead of doing something down because it's successful, it's it's beefing it up.

That's aspirational as opposed to something to be maybe a bit jealous of or to think, who do they think they are? So I think that there's times when that culture is a good thing. It keeps people grounded. But there's times when that culture doesn't help and and pitching is one of them. So I think that's one thing.

The other thing is we're not taught in Europe public speaking at an early age. So I I talked to hundreds of people. When was the first time that you got public speaking help? And most people have said more than 90% have either said at university, but then they had to do it a lot. They didn't really get taught how to do it, or in their first job, or or second job.

So very few people when they're eight, nine, 10, or in their teens are getting advice on public speaking. In America, that is happening. And then when you couple that with this, you know, the culture is more I, and in in Netherlands, it's more we. Again, times when that's really positive. But with pitching, they wanna know about the individual.

Why are you? Why are you motivated? Americans very ready to tell their personal motivation, constantly talking about their personal motivation. In Europe, we we don't do that so publicly. So again, that's a handbrake.

So always the basis is who's the audience and what do they care about? It doesn't mean pitch like an American, but it means tune into that American audience and take those kind of hand breaks off and and give yourself a chance to tell the best stuff that you've got and focus on your value.

Speaker 2: Yeah. And is there a major difference between pitching to customers in The US or pitching to investors in The US?

Speaker 3: Not a big difference. I think anyway pitching to investors and customers is a different beast. In the end, what a customer wants, they they don't care about size of market or, you know, they what they're really interested in is, can you solve my problem? Have you got a track record to do that? Have you got the capability to do it?

And and how much value will you be able to give me? How much will it reduce my cost, my time, my complexity? And investors are more interested in big opportunity. So I think fundamentally, the difference between customers and investors is about investors wanna see a big problem solved. Customers want their problem solved right now as quickly as possible.

So and and then ideally by somebody who's done it many times before. So proving track record value of product, that's the thing. I think again though, a success mindset, a positive mindset, Here's the great things we can do for you. I mean, there's one thing that's built into the Dutch language, which is the the diminutives, making things smaller. Gonna try a bit.

We've had a bit of success. So that is built into the language, and we need to make things present. We do. We are. We are successful.

We will build. Not trying to build or hoping, but we do. We will. And that is a concrete thing that people can change in their language. So that's the same for investors, customers.

People interpret in America, I think they interpret those kind of hope and trying to as doubt. And doubt is really the enemy when pitching in America, I believe.

Speaker 2: Yeah. It's so funny because we had a call before today to talk about the content of this episode, and you explained this difference in language, that Americans are more direct in their language.

Speaker 3: Yes.

Speaker 2: And I all of a sudden, I noticed after a call, like, oh, I think I'm doing that as well. I think I'm also using those words to Yeah. No. I'm not direct enough when I'm typing or talking in English. It's funny.

Yeah. Don't really think about it.

Speaker 3: No. We add the maybe Yeah. And hopefully and trying to again, this comes from a basic cultural difference. Yeah. And this might sound a bit odd, but it's about what does truth mean?

Now truth is is a a we think it's black and white, but actually it's not always. If you think, supposing you're building something which is quite technical and you've built a platform to version one point zero, It basically works, but it doesn't work to the level that you would ideally like. You know it could be in two years' time, but it does work. Now an American startup would say, we have built. But a Dutch startup would say, we're trying to build.

Now those two things are both true. They're absolutely true. The American has built it and they're on the path to building a bigger one. That is that is the dissected version. The Dutch version is we've built it to this level, but it's not as good as we want it.

So we're hoping to build or trying to build the level that we do want. So the you know, saying we have built is not untruthful, but there's just a different flavor of truth. Now, the last thing I recommend is make stuff up. Absolutely not. And sometimes, you know, I I've spoken to some investor.

They talk about how American startups overstate things. And I've shared that with some Dutch startups. And they say, well, should we make stuff up? Absolutely not. But I think it's about shining the best light on your best stuff rather than reducing the light and choosing stuff that's not your best stuff, which might happen in a European pitch or for a Dutch startup.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Douglas, you've already touched upon this a little bit. But, yeah, in your career, you've assisted so many startups. So you've seen probably seen it all. What are some of the common mistakes that startups make when they're pitching in The US or maybe also in general?

Speaker 3: Well, I think especially in The US, it's it's really doing a couple of things that we mentioned. Having that that doubt in there, maybe being a bit too humble, not putting your best achievements in a clear light. So those I think are the the common things. In general for pitching, so a lot of people tend to do the same pitch regardless of who the audience is. And my recommendation is always to take time and think who's the audience?

What do they care about? Ultimately, you never have enough time to tell everything. But you'll get three minutes, five minutes. So you could tell five hours actually. So how do you make decisions about what to tell and what not to tell?

And the only way to do that is who's the audience and what do they care about? And then to together with that, what's the objective? What do I want these people to do as a result of the pitch? So the first part is tuning into their interests. What's on their minds?

You know, if they're not really process oriented, we don't need to give them lots of process. If they're interested in big opportunities, we better tell them one thing about how big this market is and how big it's growing, how fast it's growing. It doesn't need to be detailed in a three minute pitch, but one sentence about this. So I think one of the first things is is not tuning to the audience. As I say, objective is the other thing.

What do we want these people to do as a result of the pitch? The worst case is people hear your pitch and they say, great pitch. And then they go and come out of the meeting, come to 28 emails, and your story is out of their head. But ideally, there's a first next step. So if you have a meeting with an investor, what is the first next step?

Be clear and ask. Probably they will talk that bit. You wanna be crystal clear. What's the first next step and have that as a plan? You know, my goal would be we got thirty minute meeting.

My goal is a one and a half hour meeting to go into further detail, or if they say no, find out why. So the these would be my two objectives from that pitch. Either they go ahead or they don't, but I still wanna get something out of them by the end of that meeting. So I think these are common things. The other thing is not having a plan.

So, you know, sometimes people think, oh, I'll just wing it. You know, I I basically know my story. So we'll we'll just, you know, I'll just get started. It'll be fine. And, I've seen what spontaneous looks like and it doesn't look great unless you really know your story.

If you're somebody like Gary Vaynerchuk or somebody that tells the same things again and again and again, you can stand up there with no slides and no preparation, but most of us are not Gary Vaynerchuk. We need a plan. We need a structure. And, you know, often the opening of the pitch is the most is most critical because you wanna get off to a good start. You wanna give a message to them.

This is professional. You're gonna get some value out of this pitch. So we need to have a plan from the first thirty seconds. You hear a lot of startups, you know, start with this kind of, well, I'm really happy to be here and thanks so much for the opportunity and blah blah blah. Get them straight into the story.

So not tuning to the audience, not having a plan, thinking we'll wing it, these are some common things that that can go wrong.

Speaker 2: Yeah. And so you need to open with a good sense. What would be a good opening for a pitch?

Speaker 3: Well, there's various ways you can do it. One is to raise a question. And, you know, where what you tend to find is these these what I'm gonna suggest tend to be sort of cliche style openings. But the thing is those cliches work. So for example, if if you say, can you imagine it takes on average twenty minutes to find a parking space in cities like Amsterdam?

Can you believe it's gonna take you one year of your life to look for a parking space? You immediately have people's attention because as soon as we hear a question, we wanna know the answer. It's problem solution. And our brains are hardwired to look for the answers to questions. So that's one way.

Another way is simply to get them into the story. This is who we are. This is what we do. We're dealing with the massive problem of x. Let me walk you through how we've solved that for these kind of companies.

So that's a that's a twenty second, very quick, get them straight into the story. You know, and there's a another way is is to get them as quickly as possible into a bit of traction. You know, this is who we are. This is what we do. I'm here to tell you why these companies love working with us.

This company called Sendcloud that one of the biggest scale ups now, I worked with them in 2014 at Startup Bootcamp. That's exactly how we started the pitch because they already had good traction. Nobody knew who they were. But in the first twenty seconds, you establish this is worth listening to because we're succeeding already. So these are different ways.

Think what's most important you know, sometimes you just need to make a bold statement. One company called Saddle, they they had a a last mile delivery service. So they say, anything, any place, any time, why wait? You know, and that's that's a bold statement. Now, actually, I use that example in in my workshops and sometimes people react really badly to this out.

It sounds too too much of a promise. But what you find is people wanna know, even if it's a bold statement, they don't believe it, then they wanna know how it's gonna fail, how it won't succeed or Yeah. What what's behind all this. And then it's job done. You know, a bold statement can draw people in.

And sometimes just really quantifying what that problem is. You know, 24 sessions, for example, they've they've a couple of years ago, they sold to MessageBird a a pretty big exit. They have a video chat system for banks and insurance companies. And they said, did you know that over 90% of people want advice delivered online and yet only 1% is delivered online? So that's what you call the gap pitch.

Here's what people want. Here's what's delivered. Here's how we fill that gap. So these are some different ways to do it. Most of all, have a plan from the first word, from the first sentence.

Decide for yourself what you're gonna say in advance.

Speaker 2: And then maybe one last question. Mhmm. I've heard you say before, I think it was in a different podcast, but that investors find enthusiasm also very important for founders. They wanna see that someone is very dedicated, motivated about their startup. But I can imagine that it's also very nerve wracking if you have to pitch, especially if you have to pitch in The US.

Yeah. Especially also if you don't do it often. So how do you control that? If you notice that you have to pitch and you're getting very nervous, how do you manage those nerves?

Speaker 3: Yeah. So there's a couple of things that people can do with managing their nerves. Actually, three main things that I recommend. First, get the first sixty seconds rock solid. So what that means is saying it out loud.

You know, if you've only think about what you're gonna say when you start speaking, it will sound different to how you thought it would in your head. It's it's what I call pitch karaoke. You know, if anybody's done karaoke, you know that there is a gap between how great it sounds in your head and how it actually sounds in real life. I've had that experience. I used to work in a Japanese company.

So that's that's the first thing. Verbalize the pitch and get that first minute rock solid. Yeah. And the second thing is actually, it sounds a bit nuts, but there's a TEDx talk by Amy Cuddy. It's about power poses and standing with your arms above your head.

Well, that one can make you look a bit nuts, but just standing with your hands on your hips for a couple of minutes or more, this really it it gives you this improvement of testosterone decrease of cortisol, the chemical stuff. But the outcome is you just feel more powerful. I've tried this one and it really, really works. So standing with your hands on your hips two to three minutes, need at least two minutes. That that really works.

And the third thing is just breathe. Get some air in your lungs. So while you're waiting, you concentrate on your first minute on your body posture. And if you have to sit down, sit big, nothing crossed, shoulders back, head up, and breathe. Get some air in your lungs because that also reduces cortisol.

Cortisol's the stress drug. And by getting air in your lungs, you you get oxygen to your body that reduces your stress. Your body temperature comes down. And then, you know, after that first thirty, forty five seconds, your brain engages and gets into the flow. So if you had success in the first thirty to forty five seconds, it will be a platform for a great pitch.

If it goes wrong in the first thirty seconds, it's mega stress. You your body temperature goes up, so sweaty. It's horrible. I've had that myself and, you know, don't want anyone to have that experience. These three things, first sixty seconds, body posture, and breathe, they can really help.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thanks so much, David.

Speaker 3: Thank you.

Speaker 1: Well, that was pitch coach David Beckett. Flora, I could listen to David for hours. He really found what he's best at and most compassionate about and turned that into his profession.

Speaker 2: I know. So inspiring. And I have to say, he has a great voice. I think what really stood out to me from our conversation is the fact that many companies underdescribe or undersell what they do when pitching in The US. But Americans in general aren't afraid to talk about or show their achievements.

So it is important to realize that there is a cultural difference here.

Speaker 1: And where can listeners learn more about David's work or get in touch with him?

Speaker 2: You can find David on best3minutes.com, and I would definitely recommend downloading his pitch canvas from his website.

Speaker 1: Well, this is it for today. Thank you for joining us and taking the time to listen. Please subscribe, like and share. You can find The US expansion series on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.