Sample Presentation Template

Feb 3, 2011
 AGENDA

O V E R V I E W A N D E L E VAT O R P I T C H
MARKET OPPORTUNITY
BUSINESS MODEL
OVERVIEW OF THE TECHNOLOGY
C O M M E R C I A L I Z AT I O N P L A N
COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE
MANAGEMENT TEAM
FINANCIALS
SUMMARY AND NEXT STEPS
APPENDIX
 OVERVIEW

•  Problem statement: Incandescent light bulbs

consume 75% more energy than modern LED
technology. Replacing bulbs interrupts businesses,
costing businesses over $150M annually

•  Opportunity overview: why should

investors care?
o  Example: rapidly growing energy efficiency market
 35% CAGR globally since 2007
 $1B Market for commercial lighting
 E L E VAT O R P I T C H

•  What are you selling?

o  What is the fundamental invention of the business?
 This should be a concise, high-level description of your product or service
 In some cases, with a particularly complex technology, you may want to use
an analogy
o  Example: Awesome LED Co. sells a proprietary modular LED
lighting system that is 70% more energy efficient and reduced
install cost by 20%
•  Whom are you selling it to?
o  What is their pain?
 Commercial real-estate companies spend over $150M annually to replace
dead light-bulbs
o  Why does your solution solve their pain?
 By using a modular lighting system, we save LED installers 30% of installation
costs related to bulb replacement.
 MARKET OPPORTUNITY

•  Total Addressable Market

o  Show that your product has a market of sufficient size, then
walk the audience through how you intend to get there
o  Market should be large and rapidly growing
•  Quantify your sub-segment of the market
o  Lighting is only a $1B market today, but it is the fastest
growing segment of the energy efficiency market.
o  Show 5-year projections when possible, and be prepared to
justify your calculations, e.g. the lighting market will grow to
$8B by 2016
o  Leverage others’ work: look for credible market research to
validate your claims
o  Bottom-up analysis when necessary
 If you don’t have access to trustworthy research, try a bottom-up
approach, starting with the major players
 Showing examples of similar companies will make your estimates
credible
 BUSINESS MODEL

•  Check: Before you move on into describing

the technology from making your basic Elevator
Pitch, make sure the presentation accurately
conveys the business model
o  What are you selling?
o  Who is the customer? If the industry or value-chain
structure is complicated, you may want a graphical
representation
o  How will you make money?
o  If you know the price, you can state it here.
 OVERVIEW OF THE TECHNOLOGY

•  What is your product, and how does it differ from the

competition?
o  Use visuals when possible
o  Where does the technology come from?
 E.g.: FutureTech Lighting Systems, developed by Thomas E. Disson, the
word’s leading LED lighting researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago,
is a new venture that leverages over $3M in DOE, ARPA-E, research grants.

•  Summary of IP and foundational research

o  How much funding went into the foundational research?
o  What is the company’s relationship with the patent owner?
 E.g. FutureTech Lighting systems has the worldwide exclusive license for a
modular LED lighting installation system.
o  Is your IP defensible?
 C O M M E R C I A L I Z AT I O N P L A N

•  Go-to-market-strategy: demonstrate focus

o  Know your customer
 Who will be the buyer of your product?
o  Looking for a small wedge in a very large market: Your go to
market strategy should get you customers, which will later give
you the opportunity to go after the larger market
o  E.g. 24-hour retailers must replace lighting 60% more often than
the rest of the market. 24-hour retailers spend over $150M
annually on new lighting fixtures.

•  Market Share: the market is large, and rapidly growing.

Where will you be in year 5?
o  E.g. by 2016, the commercial lighting segment is expected to
grow to $1B. If you claim to reach $300M in year 5, you are
assuming 30% market share. Your go to market strategy (GTMS)
must validate this claim
 C O M M E R C I A L I Z AT I O N P L A N

•  Timeline of product development: show at least 1-3

key milestones that complement your go-to-market
strategy
 Your development timeline should mitigate technology risk
 Make sure to address licensing or IP risks, s well
 Are there strategic partners that can help accelerate market
penetration?
•  Performance metrics: present evidence of progress
with product development
 Looking for data from proof of concept studies/pilot projects
 E.g. three national retailers agreed to install and have shown that our our
novel modular installation systems reduces operating costs by over 80%
over the life of the system by:
–  Increasing bulb life by 25%
–  Reducing installation time by 15%
–  Reducing replacement cost by 30%
 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

•  Choose 3-5 incumbents firms: explain their

strengths as well as their weaknesses
o  This is an important opportunity to define what you see
as important buying criteria for the customer, as well as
how you believe your firm will differentiate
•  Use visuals when possible: try showing the competitive
landscape as Harvey Balls, or on a 2x2 matrix where you
choose two criteria (e.g. price, quality) to demonstrate
where you stand relative to the competition
•  You do not have to be the best at everything!
o  Use this section to demonstrate why you have chosen to be strong in certain
areas, rather, only in those that matter most to your target customer
o  This should make sense with your GTMS: develop the minimum viable product to
penetrate the market, then worry about matching the competition later
10
 MANAGEMENT TEAM

•  What is your background, and why

is it relevant to this business?
•  Identify all key team members
o  Focus on all relevant skills, both professional and academic
o  Show advisors when possible
•  What are your primary staffing needs moving forward?
o  This should complement your GTMS
o  Identify any gaps in the management or advisory team
 FINANCIALS

•  Drivers: what are key inputs to your financial model? Are these
sensible? Consider using analogs to validate these inputs. Are there
industry trends or regulatory drivers impact these drivers?
•  Costs: overview of unit-economics – try to quantify your total costs
per unit produced and or sold
o  What are your current costs (e.g. including unit costs, customer
acquisition costs, and operating costs) that are unique to your
business and how will these change over time?
 If costs are unknown, your technology development plan
should mitigate cost-uncertainty
•  Pricing Strategy
o  Lifetime customer value: estimate the net-value of each customer
over the long term
o  How does your cost structure impact your pricing model?
o  How do you compare with competitors? Can you maintain this
position?
 FINANCIALS

•  Revenue projections are not necessary, but if you choose to include

them, focus only on those that complement your GTMS
•  If included should go out 5 years, with particular emphasis on Year 1
and Year 5
•  Financials should be cost driven: build your financing plan
on the needs of your business.
•  Clearly highlight all of your key assumptions
 FINANCIALS

•  What is your ask?

•  Highlight funding needs that
complement your GTMS.
o  Show how use of funds will mitigate technology risk
•  What funding sources have already tried? What have
investors told you?
•  How creative can be with your financing
strategy?
 SUMMARY AND NEXT STEPS

•  Use this as an opportunity to weave

together your key points
•  Make sure that the audience understood
what you just spent 10-12 minutes telling
them
•  Clearly state your plan going forward as
developed
 APPENDIX

•  May want to consider including an

Appendix to display data, sources, detailed
calculations or other pertinent information
that may assist during the Q&A process as
well as provide additional context to the
judging panel prior to the event