Presenting a Project

List the essential elements of a project presentation (problem, solution, market, business model, team, and ask) and explain in one sentence what each should contain.

Order the blocks of this jumbled presentation — ask, problem, solution, market, team — and reason why the problem must go at the beginning and the ask at the end.

An entrepreneur begins their pitch by spending five minutes explaining the product's technology, without stating what problem it solves or for whom. Restructure their presentation by indicating the correct order of the blocks and explain why the problem should come first.

Storytelling applies narrative structures to presentations. Explain how you would use the structure 'initial situation → conflict → resolution' to present a ski equipment rental company, and why it is more engaging than a list of features.

The same project, a peer-tutoring app, is presented to a group of investors and to a parent-teacher association. Indicate what emphasis you would change in each case (profitability and market versus safety and educational benefit) and why tailoring the message is not manipulation.

When structuring a pitch, experts debate between opening with the market problem or with the credibility of the founding team. Consider these two cases:

• Case 1 ('BioTrack'): Two female researchers with PhDs in biochemistry, 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, and two prior patents develop software to reduce failures in clinical trials.

• Case 2 ('PisoJoven'): Three university students with no prior work experience have validated through 200 interviews that 85% of young people in their city cannot move out on their own due to fees and deposits charged by traditional agencies.

1. a) For each of the two cases, decide and justify which section (Team vs. Problem) they must necessarily open their pitch with in order to minimize the risk perceived by the investor (execution risk vs. market validation risk).
2. b) Write the exact opening sentence (the hook for the first 15 seconds) for each project, applying the strategy you selected.

You are going to present the market study of a chain of stores selling pet products and services. This is the current slide, with twelve bullet points:

Original slide: «The pet care market»

1. The pet care sector had a turnover of 2.400 million euros in 2023.

2. Over the last five years it has grown by an average of 6,5 % per year.

3. 40 % of Spanish households have at least one pet.

4. Dogs are the most common pet, followed by cats.

5. The average annual spend is 650 € per dog and 420 € per cat.

6. Online sales already account for 22 % of the sector's total.

7. «Premium» products are growing faster than basic ones.

8. The segment that spends the most is customers aged 25 to 40.

9. Our company was founded in 2015 by three veterinarian partners.

10. We have 35 stores spread across 8 provinces.

11. A customer told us that their dog, Toby, now has its own «birthday» with a special cake.

12. In 2022 we redesigned our logo, which now combines green and blue.

Topic challenge. Rewrite the slide following the golden rules: one idea per slide, little text and visual support.

1. a) Classify each of the twelve bullet points into one of these three categories: stays on screen, is said aloud or is removed. Justify each decision in one sentence.

1. b) Write the resulting slide: a title that expresses the main idea (a message, not just a topic), a maximum of three text elements or highlighted figures, and a proposal for visual support (for example, a type of chart and what data it would show).

1. c) Write in two or three sentences what you would say aloud while showing the slide, incorporating the bullet points you have decided to deliver orally.

You will be assessed on: whether the final slide conveys a single idea; whether the data that stay on screen are the most relevant to justify the appeal of the market; whether anecdotal or secondary content does not overload the screen; whether the visual support is consistent with the chosen data; and whether the justification of each decision is clear.

Analyze the following real transcript of the closing of a pitch before an investor panel:

“...and well, as you can see on this slide where we've put all the Excel spreadsheets with the 25 business indicators, the global pet market moves billions of euros. Our team is super hardworking and we are passionate about animals. We are open to any type of collaboration or money you want to contribute so we can see how we move forward.”

1. a) Identify the three serious strategic mistakes the team makes in this closing and explain their impact on the investor's perception of financial risk.
2. b) Completely rewrite this closing (maximum 70 words) to transform that vague farewell into a professional, quantitative call to action linked to a measurable operational milestone.

Anticipate three awkward questions a jury could ask an electric scooter rental project (accidents, municipal regulations, competition from the big platforms) and write how you would answer each one without getting defensive.

Many presentations end with an "and that's it" or a simple "thank you". Explain why a pitch must close with a specific ask (a meeting, an amount of investment, a pilot project) and rewrite the weak closing of a home composting company.

The startup 'SaludOffice' provides daily healthy subscription-based menus to employees in a technology park. After a 3-month pilot, they have 45 active users, charge €7,50 per menu with a unit production and delivery cost of €4,20, and have a monthly retention rate of 88 %, but they need €30.000 to purchase an insulated vehicle and expand into two nearby business parks.

1. a) Draft the outline script for a 60-second pitch structured in five parts (quantitative hook, B2B problem, validated solution, traction metrics, and call to action with valuation and a specific milestone).
2. b) Justify why, in this specific case, retention and unit margin metrics are more crucial to convince an investor than a detailed description of the ingredients or recipes.

The startup 'NutriCrunch' (healthy legume snacks) ends its presentation with this ask: “We are asking for €50.000 for 10% of our company for marketing and general improvements, and with this we expect to grow a lot next year.”

Their current financial data are: they burn €2.000/month in structural fixed costs (burn rate), their customer acquisition cost (CAC) is €4,00, and the average contribution margin per order is €12,00, with an average of 3 orders per year per customer.

1. a) Critically evaluate the ask by identifying three financial weaknesses that will lead the investor to reject the offer.
2. b) Redesign the funding proposal: if you allocate €30.000 to customer acquisition and €20.000 to an operating cushion, calculate how many months of survival (runway) that cushion guarantees, how many new customers they will acquire, and what additional annual gross margin they will generate. Write the final closing sentence based on these quantitative milestones.