Presenting to Band of Angels

Last night I had the pleasure of presenting Cryptine Networks to the Band of Angels. The presentation was done over dinner at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club and included two other startups. I was really impressed by the knowledge and experience of the all the Band members that I met. Also, the other startups, pb wiki and picaboo did a great job and both had really compelling stories to tell.

Pitching to a room full of people eating dinner was definitely a different dynamic that sitting across the table from an investor. Two key things really stuck out to me. First, while everyone in the room was highly intelligent and highly successful they were not necessarily familiar with the security software industry. Second, while there was time for questions after the pitch it was not nearly as interactive as presenting one-on-one, which has generally been more of a conversation than a one-way dialogue. If I were to do it over again, I would spend more time hammering home my key points and less time on my secondary points. In the 10 minutes that Band of Angels gives its presenters nobody is every going to answer every question, but if the audience doesn't at least walk away comprehending your key points your unlikely to get to the next stage.

All in all, presenting to Band of Angels was a very good experience. I met a number of intersting people, I learned something and who knows, maybe even set the wheels in motion to raise some capital.