Finding the Perfect Pitch

Clearly, A.G. needs help shoring up her revenue model. Is it based on service fees or hardware or both? Mulder and her McKinsey colleagues advise her to separate revenue streams and detail the assumptions behind the sales numbers. She has never done any of that before.

After 60 minutes, A.G. emerges from McKinsey triumphant, with her own personal punch list: "work on sales projections, be clear about target customer, include exit strategy, and talk more about my background." She is elated, even if what she got was just a glimpse into the McKinsey mind. "An hour of McKinsey time? I tend to be pretty cynical about these things, but I loved the process," she says later.

Lucy, of Chaoticom, delights in her McKinsey moment, even though she gets trounced for discounting one of her largest competitors: Microsoft. Hey, selling the company may be more valuable than an IPO, the McKinsey folks point out. Lucy nods in agreement, soaking up every word. If she comes off as cocky, perhaps it's the salesperson in her coming out. "What I learned from McKinsey is, Don't talk bad about the competition," she says afterward. "Microsoft could be an acquirer down the road. They're not the total evil enemy -- it's good to have a rival."

Shoba gets her McKinsey coaching in New York. But she makes weekly trips to Boston to convene with other advisers. A coach at Ernst & Young has even arranged for her to practice before half a dozen venture capitalists and angel investors. She hears conflicting advice. The biggest debates revolve around how much funding she should ask for -- $2 million? $3 million? $5 million? -- and how to begin her presentation. As she hustles to incorporate one suggestion after another into her presentation, her message becomes more convoluted. She scarcely recognizes her own pitch.

Shoba isn't the only one making last-minute revisions. Recounting how many times she's changed her pitch, Lucy says, "I'm coming back around to where I started out."

Act II: The Dress Rehearsal

Scene I: Walk-through day, Boston law firm Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault, October 24, 2001. Two weeks to the VC forum.

"We're not your coaches," Bob Franklin, an executive recruiter, says to Shoba. "You've got to get focused!"

The words hit Shoba like a tidal wave. She and the other presenters have reported to a Boston law firm to individually "defend" their presentations before a panel of 6 to 10 Springboard observers, including VCs, executive coaches, consultants, and lawyers. The observers have received a few last-minute special instructions. "Help them not sound too girlish. Better to sound like an ice queen," says one Springboard manager.

Franklin has a reputation as Mr. Tough Love, but he's right. He and his colleagues aren't there to coach so much as to judge. Collectively, they could "vote" to pull Shoba from the program.

What has she done to bring down the judges' wrath? For one thing, her pitch is way over the 10-minute limit. Franklin demands in a booming voice, "Are you serious about Springboard?"

"Yes," she answers. But she doesn't look very sure of herself. Dark hair hanging limp, Shoba wears the haunted look of exhaustion. Half-finished sentences punctuate the latest version of her pitch, completed only the night before. She is trying to operate on less than four hours of sleep.

Sitting quietly in the background is her longtime business partner, Anthony Hayward. He remains silent while Shoba endures a searing critique, right down to her physical appearance.

"Personal grooming is important," says Franklin. "And get comfortable with the stage." But what really bugs him is this: "I have no sense of who Shoba is and why I should invest," he says.

The room grows uncomfortably quiet. Shoba makes a feeble attempt to get a chuckle from the crowd. No go. Unfortunately, her own laugh sounds like a protracted gasp. At times her gasping is the only sound in the room.

"People are pretty quick to say, 'Should I listen or tune her out?' It's going to be a lazy audience," predicts Jonathan Hunnicutt, a young VC at Weston Presidio.

"The question is, Is this business run by experienced people and is it sustainable?" says Tony Fiore of Rosse Enterprises, a venture firm. "I'm going to ask, 'Does she have good business sense?' I would try to build trust up in you."

When Shoba explains that her biggest market is the 20,000 newsrooms in the world and that she needs just 2,000 of them in order to be wildly successful, the judges love the concrete detail and urge her to include it. Even Mr. Tough Love tries to lift her spirits after dashing them so. "I like your margins," Franklin volunteers. But it's not so consoling when he tells her that "being a mess is a normal part of the process." He says he's always amazed when the final presentations bear little resemblance to the practice runs.

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