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Ask HN: Is using humor in your pitch deck a good idea?

lmframework.com

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Re: Ask HN: Is using humor in your pitch deck a good idea?

#11

Post by minalecs »

jolie wrote: post #4

I think there's a hierarchy in pitch priorities: 1. Clarity. 2. Brevity. 3. Uniqueness of product. 4. Uniqueness of pitch. ...and so on. If you can make your pitch more unique with humor in a way that doesn't cross any boundaries of taste (and if what you intend to be funny is ACTUALLY funny), then go for it! For example, I saw a pitch to a room of startups, VC, and press that involved singing, dancing, weird accents…

I think in this case some might find your humor offensive "commie b*stard", or an overweight man in a ill fitting costume. The list jolie provides is correct. To me it looks like you searched reddit, more than doing a proper analysis of your startup. Also as others have pointed out you have no insight to even what your product is or how it works. Talk is cheap.

Re: Ask HN: Is using humor in your pitch deck a good idea?

#12

Post by hymanroth »

thejake wrote: post #9
skennedy wrote: post #2

Did you catch the superbowl commercials last night? Done well, humor can be a key component of a marketing strategy.

And poorly done humor is just uncomfortable. If first impressions are of any value, you better be sure your material is top notch.

Very diplomatically put..

Re: Ask HN: Is using humor in your pitch deck a good idea?

#13

Post by hymanroth »

minalecs wrote: post #11
jolie wrote: post #4

I think there's a hierarchy in pitch priorities: 1. Clarity. 2. Brevity. 3. Uniqueness of product. 4. Uniqueness of pitch. ...and so on. If you can make your pitch more unique with humor in a way that doesn't cross any boundaries of taste (and if what you intend to be funny is ACTUALLY funny), then go for it! For example, I saw a pitch to a room of startups, VC, and press that involved singing, dancing, weird accents…

I think in this case some might find your humor offensive "commie b*stard", or an overweight man in a ill fitting costume. The list jolie provides is correct. To me it looks like you searched reddit, more than doing a proper analysis of your startup. Also as others have pointed out you have no insight to even what your product is or how it works. Talk is cheap.

Yes, some might find it offensive.

Re: Ask HN: Is using humor in your pitch deck a good idea?

#14

Post by hymanroth »

coffeemug wrote: post #7

I'd say in a pitch, unless you're really good (judging from your question you're not quite there yet, and few people ever are) situational humor is OK, while all other humor should probably be cut completely. If something funny happens during the pitch, it's ok to joke about it. Planned humor usually doesn't go over well. We had a phrase or two in our pitch (not the slides, but verbal communication) that were a bit h…

Thank you
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