How to Pitch a VC at a Party
Part of our thesis at Panache Ventures is that, as investors, we benefit from helping the Canadian startup ecosystem grow. A stronger startup ecosystem leads to more (and better) founders, which leads to more (and better) startups for us to invest in.
One of the ways we try to contribute to the ecosystem is by providing opportunities to build connections between founders, investors and others in Canada and the US.
That’s a fancy way of saying, “we like to throw parties”.
Who invited that guy?
When we host events, our team makes every effort to be accessible to everyone who attends. One of the side-effects of this is that we get pitched at parties. A lot. But pitching an investor at a party is very different from pitching in an office, a coffee shop or over Zoom.
Here are 6 tips for pitching a VC at a party:
1. Know Your Objective
When pitching a VC at a party, it’s important to know what your goal is: to get their contact information.
It’s not to convince them to invest. It’s not even to convince them to take a meeting (although that’s likely your ultimate goal). Rather, your objective is simply to get them to share their contact information.
Why? So that, when you send a follow-up message, it’s treated like a warm introduction rather than a cold email.
2. Be Concise
Parties are loud (at least, the good ones are). It’s hard to hear people and you frequently get interrupted. As such, it’s essential that you are concise when pitching a VC at a party.
Even if an investor is genuinely interested, they’re at best half-listening to your pitch. They’re likely scanning the room for other people they want to meet, reacting to bumps and interruptions from other attendees and asking you to repeat yourself over-and-over again.
Resist the urge to give them your full pitch in all its glory. Rather, keep things focused on your founder background and the key highlights of your company. In other words, the shortest possible version of your elevator pitch.
3. Make the Ask
In sales, one of the most important steps is “making the ask”. In this case, the ask is quite straightforward:
“Can I have your email address so that I can send you a follow-up email with our pitch deck?”
At a loud, busy party, the dynamics are such that you’re more likely to “close the sale” the earlier into the conversation you make the ask. Think about these two scenarios:
You ask for their email after pitching the investor for an extended period of time, ignoring the fact that they’re looking around and paying less-and-less attention to you as time goes on.
After giving your best, most concise elevator pitch, you tell the investor, “I know there are probably lots of people you want to talk to at this party. Can I get your email address and I can send you a follow-up with our pitch deck so we can talk further at a better time?“
By preempting your pitch with an early ask, you signal respect for the investor’s time and, in doing so, are more likely to get a ‘yes’ than if you gave them an extended pitch. At that point, the investor might happily give you their contact info or they might ask more questions (in which case, you can dig in deeper if you choose).
The other benefit: by making the ask early, you can be more efficient with your time. The faster you make the ask, the sooner you’ll close the “sale”. And the sooner you close the sale, the sooner you can move on to your next prospect.
4. Associates Are Your Friend
Most founders looking for VCs at a party focus exclusively on partners. Given all of the fundraising advice about only talking to partners, it makes total sense. But they’re also the most in-demand individuals at a party. Which makes associates and other junior members of the investment team a far better target at these events.
When you’re at a party with lots of other founders, there is often a line of people waiting to talk to each VC partner. It can be almost impossible to get time alone to pitch them (especially if they themselves are trying to connect with other attendees). Associates, on the other hand, often navigate parties solo, trying to connect with founders and other investors.
Because that’s their job.
One thing to understand is when it comes to parties and other community events, each person at a VC firm has their role. Partners are often tasked with talking to LPs, influential ecosystem players and partners at other firms, while associates are responsible for connecting with promising new founders. In other words, the KPI for most associates at a party is how many strong founders they identify.
Which means that if you make a good impression with an associate at a party, it’s very likely you’ll be fast-tracked to meet with a partner.
Another thing to note: if you’re speaking with a VC associate, don’t be as concise and quick to make the ask as you are with a partner. Their primary responsibility for the party is speaking with founders and identifying the top candidates, so take more time to share your story and your pitch. Not only do you need to get their contact information, but you need to sell them enough on your business for them to highlight you to the partners in their event debrief.
5. Follow Up Immediately
I can’t tell you how many founders I’ve given my contact information to over the years who never followed up. The conversation usually goes something like this:
[Founder] Can I have your email address / connect with you on LinkedIn?
[Me] Absolutely. Please be sure to include the fact that we met tonight, so that I have context and can follow-up.
That’s a pretty clear opt-in on my part, yet countless founders never act on it.
If you’re serious about fundraising, you should send the follow-up email or LinkedIn message immediately after the conversation ends. Not later that night. Not the next day. The minute you walk away from the investor.
The best way to do this is to pre-write a template for the follow-up email before you come to the party (if you use Superhuman, this is a great use case for snippets). Then, you can immediately hit send on an email with all of the pertinent details plus a sentence or two of personalization before you forget anything (use the “send later” feature if you want to pre-write the email to be sent the next morning).
Dude…this is VC. You definitely get more than one shot (but still…).
6. Don’t Act a Fool
Last, but not least, if you’re going to a party to meet potential investors, act like a professional.
Don’t get drunk. Don’t get high. Don’t act inappropriately towards anyone at the party.
These things should be obvious, but sadly they’re not. Moreover, with an increasing number of people choosing to stay sober at work-related parties, out-of-bounds behavior is more likely than ever to lead to negative ramifications.
(Founders: if you’re ever at an industry party and someone acts inappropriately towards you, don’t be afraid to let one of the hosts know. You deserve better, and the vast majority of investors want to create safe, inclusive environments for everyone.)