Know Your Presentation Cold

VentureBlog has a tip for entrepreneurs making presentations to venture capitalists: “After sitting in on a very good meeting today, I thought I’d share another presentation tip — know your presentation cold. From the perspective of someone sitting on the other side of the table, it is impressive when an entrepreneur is able to handle questions during a presentation without losing track of where he is in the presentation and without losing momentum in the process of answering the question. It is far more impressive when an entrepreneur is able not only to answer that question but has anticipated that the question will be asked, has a slide that speaks to question, and is able to quickly jump to that slide, answer the questions and jump back to where he was in the presentation. Obviously the answer to any question has to be compelling, whether accompanied by a slide or not, but I always find it telling when an entrepreneur knows his business and his presentation so well that he can answer any question with the aid of an appropriate slide and get right back to where he was without skipping a beat.”