Pitch Like a Revolutionary

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My name is Jeff Eccles , I'm a senior advisor and also the head of our mastermind and incubator programs here at KP Ready Company and , as always , I am joined by our CEO and founder , kp Ready . Kp . Welcome , glad you're here this morning .

But I'm looking through the window behind you and it looks pretty nice there in Atlanta today .

Because if you're not following KP on LinkedIn , you should be . Just go to KP . The two letters ready R-E-D-D-Y , follow him on LinkedIn and and he posts usually a couple of times a day at least , and all of his posts are reflective . They're all about conversations that he's had as he's talked to founders .

Some of them stir the pot , but they're all looking at what's going on and what the future is for the AEC world , for the built environment , innovation in the built environment . And so , kp , as I was scrolling through , I found this post and I'm just going to read it to you . You know what it says , but our listeners don't .

I'm going to read it really quickly and then we can start to unpack it . So it says founders , try this when pitching an investor start with your problem that you're solving . Then pause and ask are you interested in solving this problem ? This will likely tell you whether you need to keep going or not . As a founder , you are a rebellion leader .

You don't have time to convince people of your mission . You need to use that time to find the believers . I love that . I love that last part of that because I think that's 100% true . The first part of that that obviously is right on . I mean , that's exactly when we think about startups , when we think about business models , et cetera .

This is where the focus has to start . But why did this come to mind ? Why this now , as you're posting that on LinkedIn ?

One , you start getting towards the end of the year , you start to be a little bit more reflective and if you're not , you should be , by the way , but you generally get a little bit more reflective and one of the things with founders is they do this thing where someone says they're , they go pitch a VC or an angel investor , whoever strategic investor , and they

get so enamored with their own technology they focus on all the things that they're coached to do . What's your TAM ? What's your this ? What problem are you solving ? Here's your elegance , here's the team . But it's a total waste of time . Just because a VC gives you an hour does not mean you should use the hour .

You're there to pre-qualify and the idea that you are going to convince someone who has lots of options , I mean , I see you know 10 , 15 pitches a week , you know , and I'm rank , stacking the opportunities right , and so when you're pitching me , I already have a list of 50 that I'm working through .

So I'm either going to insert you at the top of the pile or at the bottom of the pile . Now , if you think about it , it's a people game , right ? So if someone is not interested in your mission and there is not mission alignment , there are not enough words that will get them excited .

In fact , a lot of founders think like , oh , because I have early traction . That you know . Early traction does not mean anything to an investor . What it means is you've built early rebellion , rebel forces that have aligned with you because they're you know , oh , yeah , we have 20 000 a month in revenue . It's like who cares ?

That was my credit card bill last month , like that . It doesn't mean anything . Right , it means nothing .

But what traction tells you is you know , if you think about , uh , you know if you're a star , whatever , if you think about the rebellion , right , there wasn't a lot of convincing , it was just like this absolute and blind faith in , yes , this needs to happen .

And so I think , as a founder , if you focus on that mission alignment , VCs , customers , all the people you're trying to pitch , have lots and lots of latitude and judgment . It's not purely about the numbers . If a customer is super excited and aligned with your mission and they're like , oh , my God , that is such a huge problem , it keeps me up at night .

They don't care about price , they don't care about where you are , they might tell you hey , I work for a $100 billion company . I can't work with a two-person startup . But I'll tell you what I want to spend time with you and help you not be a startup . And that's how people get engaged . They want to go on that journey with you .

They want to go on that journey with you . They want to go on that mission with you .

And too many founders deal with either trying to convince people that are not mission aligned , that don't believe already , or people that are kind of mediocre , like oh , sounds good , sounds good is not a positive indication , right , it's like no , no , no , let's go , let's go do this .

What was it the last executive briefing ? I said hey , you're part of the largest and most impactful industry in the world and we have to do things differently . Are you with me ? And if you're not , there's the door . I was very clear Do not come back if you differently . Are you with me , and if you're not , there's the door .

I was very clear Do not come back if you are not on mission with me .

You know we've got startup founders in our incubator . Is we provide pitch training ? Right , we'll have people that will work with them and , you know , help them work on their deck , help them work on the actual pitch itself , et cetera . I think one of the questions you know you brought it up right , you've got an hour blocked out with a VC .

Should you actually spend that hour ? Right ? That's a really great question . Should it be an hour ? Should be five ?

But one of the things that came to mind as you were saying that was I don't know what he's doing these days I haven't heard from him lately and I'm sure he's doing something similar but Guy Kawasaki , it's that guy's that's been out there for decades now and I think the first time I ran across Guy Kawasaki , um , he called himself an evangelist for whoever it

was that he was with at the time . It was Apple , or he's been with Canva . You know there's been a number of people I assume he's investing , but he's the evangelist , right . And so when you say that , how did it go ?

As a founder , you're a rebellion leader , you don't have time to convince people of your mission I think about Guy Kawasaki and even though he calls himself an event , an evangelist , he's out there and he's sort of a firebrand , right ?

Not not in the sort of negative sense that we think of politically maybe these days and things like that , but he's out there speaking using certain language . That's , that's extreme , it's exciting , it's , it's these types of things .

But what he's doing is he's looking for the two people in the room that hear him say that and go yes , I'm with you , I believe in that . I believe in those same things . I want to come along with you , not the whole room , just those two people that say , yes , that's me right , that's the they're .

You know the people that join the rebellion as you say , um , you know he's .

And , by the way , it's okay for them not to get it , like , oh , I didn't know that problem existed , but I want to learn . Okay , you got them right . That curiosity is a early indicator of okay , they might be on mission , right , they might be on mission with me .

But if you cut down all those one-hour meetings and you have five a week to 15 minutes , you're getting a half a day back . Right , and as a founder , you need every moment of your day to be highly optimized . But what's interesting is , when it comes to customers and investors , founders do a very bad job optimizing their time .

It's kind of like oh , the prospect talked to me , so now I'm going to spend an hour with them . I've been known . It's kind of funny . Sometimes it comes off as rude , but I'll be at a conference and somebody that I know is not mission aligned with me wants to talk to me and I'm like , hey , I gotta go , like I'll just interrupt them a few minutes in .

I don't , I don't have the time . I'm at a conference . I need to optimize . If there there's 100 people there , I need to optimize to the 5 or 10 people that I don't have to explain any of it to . They already kind of get it right , and so I think founders just have to optimize better to that . And so I've never done it as a founder .

Actually , that's not true . I just did it a couple weeks ago for a stealth company I'm starting , and I did talk to a larger investor and I'm like hey , this is what I care about . And they're like interesting , tell me more . And when I told them more , they're like yeah . I get it , let's go , let's go . I didn't have a pitch deck .

I was in his living room just BS and drink a glass of wine . I'm like , hey , here's what I really want to do with my life , and I'm doing things that are pieces and parts of it . But if I had infinite money , here's what I would do .

So I think it's super interesting and I really , as we , you know , coach the folks in our incubator . I want them to realize like , hey , there's different ways to approach this and there's different ways to stand out .

So we've we've moved this month's virtual demo day to december 13th , and I do this with my students as well . Right , I can see this in the founder's eyes , or my students' eyes , if it's in that context , because I do , basically , a demo day for them .

But when I tell them that they have five minutes to pitch and five minutes for Q&A , the looks on their faces , right , it's like what do you mean ? I only have five minutes . I think this is a great example , right , the whole premise behind Demo Day would be to start a rebellion . Show up , you get five minutes to light a fire in .

You know , I think last Demo Day we had about 80-some people registered in the audience . You have five minutes to light a fire and find the two or three or whatever people that are in the audience out of that 80 or so , whatever it is that are going to join your rebellion . That's what our virtual demo days are about .

That's different than pitching a VC , certainly , but I think it's a good example . And then , when I'm advising professional services firms , one of the things I tell them is this is marketing , business development 101 , basically , but you are not the right firm for every client and every client's not the right client for you , and that's okay .

Right , and it's more than okay . That's good , right . We have to get to the , the few that we . We do have that mission alignment with that , that , um , that rebellious alignment with . I love the . I'm kind of stuck on the rebellion idea , but we can't be everything to everyone but that , but that's the whole thing .

And if you look at , like most of the storylines around sci-fi , there there is always a Star Wars moment . There are a certain people , a certain species , whatever . There's always something like that . And , by the way , I think this concept applies not just to investors , but also customers and also your employees .

Like you know , I don't have time for it , right ? Partly I'm ADHD , partly I'm getting old and grumpy and partly I might be on spectrum TBD . You know , but I just I have zero patience for much of anything and I think you guys figured that out pretty quickly . Our former employees and former colleagues figured it out and they're no longer here , right , right .

And if you look at my LPs and my investors , they know they have there's a certain amount of KP that they have to like deal with , but they're in , they're in . You know my delivery may be difficult sometimes , but they get it , they're in on the mission very um , um , very functional sort of conversation .

If and there's , there's someone that I know that's a VP of sales at a large logistics organization .

We've talked a lot about how they come up with their metrics and you know all the all the ways that they conduct their business and manage their , their sales force , et cetera , as a salesperson , if you're not optimizing your time right , if you're just , hey , I'm giving the same pitch over and over and over and over and over and over and over to all of these

people when you could change up your language , you could change up your approach . You could be out there looking , you know , being that grassroots rebel leader in the salesperson suit or whatever salespeople wear now as they're dialing . You could be that rebel leader and just completely change and completely optimize your approach .

And there are , we know , a lot of salespeople that are out there that need that right . They need to . It's a qualification process , essentially . Yeah .

Just one word right , because one word on a t-shirt , on a hat , that's the deal on a water bottle , on reading glasses , like whatever that word right , because one word on a t-shirt , on a hat , that's the deal On a water bottle , on reading glasses , like whatever that word is right .

And about Eight years ago , I launched this thing called Disruptors Only , and it was a bunch of happy hours and stuff like that , and it was wild because I would host it like at AI National , but off campus , so to speak . Sure , and I had 50 people show up , right . I'm like , hey , we got to do something .

This industry , this planet , this society , we have too big of a role and we're not doing it right . We got to do it differently . And then I had people say like , oh , disruptor , it sounds so harsh , right . And then we kind of shifted that to catalyst .

And I think what's interesting about the term catalyst which I think is what I'm going to go with , just so you know , as we're workshopping here in front of out in the open the reason I started thinking about catalyst it's kind of nerdy , right , it's a chemistry word , it's a um , it's a nerdy word .

But also this industry is so fragmented , both size and you know , it's just a super fragmented industry and I don't think there's a single point it's it's not a central , like , oh , if I go do this and put down the big hammer , and that it has this rippling effect throughout the industry .

I think it is literally a lot of different little sparks from different people , different startups that are all creating catalysts to point to the point where we hit a tipping point and the entire industry can change . To point to the point where we hit a tipping point and the entire industry can change . But I don't think there's like this one .

There's not one hammer and one nail to hammer , so to speak . It's a bunch of little things that have to happen , and so when I think about a catalyst , I think about these founders . Right , I need a rebel force over here that's focused on disrupting how we do quantity takeoffs using AI .

I need another one over here that's using AI to better optimize energy and data centers , like our recent investment in fluid .

So it's not a single source , it's more this network effect , and it's like a catalyst . Much like you heat up a pot , right , all the little atoms bounce around , right . It's that kind of collision effect , I think . And so , but no , I think you have to wake up every .

I just feel like I'll wake up every morning and , dude , I'm like ready to swing and punch somebody . That is how I wake up . I'm just like I'm out to take on the day and take on whatever's in front of me , like let's roll , let's go and I think , as a founder , I think that's that founder edge I've always had .

It's just I want to , I get up and I want to like my wife always says she's like you wake up and you like act , like you're here to go , like fight somebody , like , yeah , me and the world , I'm out there swinging punches , right , and so I think that founder edge a lot of founders get stuck in the industrial startup world and they forget about that .

They're focused on the font on their deck and they're focused on all these other things . Oh , it can only be seven slides , because Jeffff told me it'll be great , jeff , if one of them showed up with eight slides or six or six and told you to like off yes yeah , they should .

I mean , we've given you , I've given you the , that guideline well .

It's because they really didn't have conviction , they didn't really . They weren't on mission Right , and I think I want people to argue with me . I want them to tell me I'm wrong , because then I know they're trying , because then I know they're trying yeah , yeah , exactly , I mean it's .

And you know , we see this all the time , especially through our incubator , of course , and you see it as you hear pitches from different startup founders that may go through our incubator or may not , right , they may be at a different point in their development , but we also know that a very small percentage of those founders are going to be the founder of that

organization , so to speak , that startup , a year from now , because it's not going to exist , it's not going to survive . But it's .

It's the ones that are out there that are beating the drum , that are carrying the flag , that are leading the rebellion right , those are the ones that have the best chance , those are the ones that that , as you know , as you pointed , they're the ones that are going to get the investment when they find the people that are showing up to answer their call , right

, In the figurative rebel leader sort of sense . There there's no room , right ? If you don't have that conviction , if you're not willing to plant that flag , carry it up the mountain and plant it . I'm trying to string together as many cliches as possible in one sentence , but if you're not leading the rebellion , why ? What are you doing ?

But it goes like this Founders , try this when pitching an investor start with your problem that you are solving . Then pause and ask are you interested in solving this problem ? This will likely tell you whether you need to keep going or not . As a founder , you are a rebellion leader . You don't have time to convince people of your mission .

You need to use that time to find the believers . If you're not following KP Ready on LinkedIn , you should be . It's just KP Ready , r-e-d-d-y . Follow him . He posts usually a couple times a day , sometimes more , every once in a while a little bit less , but he talks about conversations that he's having , experiences that he has .

You know hearing pitches working in our incubator Today . We're recording this now and we're going to roll straight into several mastermind meetings later today .

He's basically relaying the information and processing the information , maybe out loud as he goes , and the posts are always insightful , often pot stirring , but I think they're important in the context of the AEC industry . So follow KP Ready and thanks for listening in as we unpack one of his posts . So , kp , thanks for unpacking this one with me .

Absolutely look forward to doing it again next week all right , sounds good all right . Thanks for listening everybody . We'll be back again next week with another kp unpacked .