‘Lead with traction:’ Kyle Wild’s 7 tips for perfecting your Demo Day pitch

Photo courtesy of AccelerateBaltimore’s Facebook page.
When you’re pitching your startup, if you have traction, lead with traction.
Kyle Wild at Keen IO published a good blog post about writing an effective Demo Day pitch.
The advice is worth bearing in mind for startups in the Baltimore area, especially early-stage startups seeking funding, as well as this year’s class of AccelerateBaltimore startups that will be responsible for their own Demo Day pitches in three months’ time.

Wild’s most succinct point is to “lead with traction”:

On a recent Geeks on a Plane trip, I heard my friend Dave McClure give this advice on stage at least a half-dozen times: If you have traction, lead with traction.
I couldn’t agree more, and I think traction is the best of all credibility grabs. Traction inoculates your audience against disbelief. Regardless of how well they understand your business from a five minute pitch, investors know they can rely on evidence of traction as a proxy for such understanding. Often, traction alone is enough to get the first meeting!

Read Wild’s full post here.