Being the CEO of astartup is a hard and complex job. You’re constantly running the numbers,spending at least 75% of your personal time on your pet project.

Only 1% of startupsattract funding. Figures that venture capitalists toss around do not look muchdifferent – starting up a company is a tough racket. Of 10 startups funded,only three or four fail completely. Another three or four return the originalinvestment, and one or two produce substantial returns. Obviously, knowing howto pitch (angel) investors and venture capital guys is key. According to theAngelList founders Naval Ravikant and Nabak Bivi, pitching works best, ifstartups have at least one of the following: Traction, showing growth in usersor customers, social proof through a known committed investors or advisors, abeautiful product and – last but not least – a killer team, with deep domainexperience, technical skills, startup experience or best of all, previousexits.

This lecture is allabout pitching your project to investors and business partners. Variousstructural approaches to pitch decks, its key success factors as well as thedos and don’ts of pitching to top investors will be discussed.

To win overhard-to-impress investors, you will finally realize that traction and executionis the main difference maker. It’s all about communicating momentum throughmetrics and examples. There is also no one-solution-fits-all for investorpitches. According to Dave McClure, entrepreneurs should think problems first,then solutions. That helps to establish emotional context with the personlistening. As a general rule of thumb, the more time you spend speaking, theless time they spend listening. This means organizing your information bypriority.

Innovation, like creativity, requires discipline andis based on a discrete set of skills; consequently, it can be learned. It isnot a personality or cultural trait. You might also realize that setting up astartup is a career and lifestyle option. Entrepreneurship does not hurt at all.

It's a verydynamic, practical, and hands-on type of course where you are given theopportunity to both practice what you've learnt throughout the lecture - andeven practice what you haven't yet learned. A great attitude, creativity, and asense of thinking different are required for personal success in this skillseminar.

Best (industry) practicesas well as the lecturer’s own pitch decks will be shared in order to fullyunderstand the importance of pitching the right message to the right investor.

This course utilizesa combination of interactive lectures, in-class discussions as well as casestudies. Working in small groups will be stressedthroughout the course, so you will be able to demonstrate effective problemsolving and creative-thinking skills in real start-up contexts.

There are no prerequisite requirements for thislecture. You can go through some optional readings before class if interested.

Alex Pinter is a WU home-grown. He was a formerstrategy consultant and is now CEO and co-founder of two startups, which heoriginally created with the goal of moving the sports performance industry to anew level. With his main project insposo.com(stands for Individual Sports Solutions), strength and conditioning coaches aswell as athletic trainers can easily design individualized sports specificconditioning programs for athletes at its best. The product is currently beingtested with selective top notch US pro teams, the global rollout is set for2013. Besides that, he is also a freelance hockey blogger at thefanblog.at that partners withDer Standard and Red Bull Media House.

You can directly reach out to him via email: alexander.pinter@insposo.com. In addition, if requested, he will be availableimmediately before or after regular class. TheCEMS Office (Kolpinghaus, Althanstrasse 51, 1090 Wien) providesadministrative support for this lecture.

Mag. Steffi Winterfeld (WU CEMS Program Manager),Tel: +43-1-31336-4311

E-mail: steffi.winterfeld@wu.ac.at

COURSEADMISSION

Only CEMS MIMstudents are eligible to enrol to this seminar. Minimum 10, maximum 20 students. First come, first serve. There will bealso a wait list (if needed). Fullparticipation required for course creditation.

All relevant course material will be distributed in class.