Y Combinator Demo Day Tips
Y Combinator Winter 2016 Demo Day is fast approaching. Taplytics was accepted into our Y Combinator batch back in November of 2014 and the opportunity was incredible.
YC is very much a large family, we were and are excited to have been a part of it.
We found our time at YC to be so valuable because we were surrounded by the smartest and most motivated startup founders in the world. The energy, drive and determination of that group of people was nothing less than infectious! The real power of YC comes in the Tuesday night dinners when you get to sit and chat with other founders and gain inspiration to work harder and move faster than you did the previous week.
The knowledge we gained from our time there and from the preparation that led up to our demo day was invaluable. In an effort to pass along some of our hard-earned knowledge, we’ve put together a few tips to help all of you who will be pitching this week.
The Pitch
- Speak slooooowly
- Speak clearly
- Don’t be nervous
- Be truthful
- Be excited to share your vision of the future with the world!
The Days Themselves
- Know who you want to talk to, and have a plan.
- Don’t wear camouflage! You want investors to be able to find you!
- Get all of the business cards!
- Make a game of it, compete to see which founder can get the most business cards.
- Before you go to sleep after each of the two demo days, make sure you follow up personally on each business card that you receive.
- Split up and be social, don’t congregate with your co-founders or other batch-mates. You’re there to meet investors, and they are there to meet you.
- Ignore any press, rankings or other distractions. It’s your day!
Finally, do your best to not worry about the outcome. Optimize your day to have fun. Enjoy where you are and how far you’ve come. This is the day you’ve been working so hard for the last three months and it’s a unique experience that people outside of YC don’t get to be a part of. Take some time to look around and be in the moment.
Good Luck to this year’s presenters!
Taplytics is a fully integrated mobile A/B testing, push notification, and analytics platform providing the tools you need to optimize your mobile app.