Finding the Perfect Pitch

But privately, Franklin expresses doubt that Shoba can transform herself in time for the big day. He calls her presentation "a disaster." Which is exactly how Shoba characterizes her performance.

She leaves the walk-through distraught. As for her business partner, he is livid. "If I had a gun right now, I would shoot you," he tells her. She fires back: "If you had a gun right now, I'd shoot myself."

Recalling the painful event, Shoba decides she deserved every bit of the criticism heaped upon her. "Three minutes into my presentation I realized it was a disaster. The emotion I felt was intense anger at myself. I felt I had blown a tremendous opportunity,... because people talk." Privately, she says, she also feels hampered by her upbringing "in a traditional Indian family" that taught her to avoid self-promotion, which makes it hard for her to respond to the more personal remarks.

Were some of Franklin's comments out of order? "He's an old investment banker and entrepreneur," says Springboard Enterprises' Millman. "His advice to us is 'Give them a couple days to get their act together or don't do it. Don't allow them to put their company in jeopardy.'" In the first six Springboard forums, only three women were asked not to present.

Shoba's walk-through feels like a crushing defeat, but A.G.'s is a slam dunk. She's hitting nothing but net. She convinces her listeners that PrivaSource is well positioned to take advantage of the "$3-billion health-care-data market." Her judges are so smitten that A.G. practically has to beg them for something negative. They even admire her lavender sweater. Typical is Lorin Scott of Deloitte & Touche, who says, "I love the whole thing." But finally someone breaks up the fan club. "This wasn't great for me," says Diane Franklin of New Venture Network. "What exactly does the company do, and how? What is the technology, and how is it used?"

Funny how so much of the discussion comes back to business basics -- what do you do and how do you make money? Still, the consensus is that A.G. has a great story for investors. And yet privately, she's scared. What will happen if she doesn't get a deal soon? As she sees it, she has a narrow window to sell customers before those companies come up with their own solution to the privacy problem. How long can her 10-person company go without a major cash infusion?

"An hour of McKinsey time? I tend to be pretty cynical about these things, but I loved the process."

Lucy is wondering the same thing. Still, she's feeling good. Of all the presenters, she is one of the few brave enough to use props. She holds up a balloon and straw as a metaphor for how difficult it is to send large files, like music, down low-speed networks. The props are a hit. But the judges warn her that some of her slides are cluttered and threaten to obscure the Chaoticom story. Just because Chaoticom's technology is based on chaos theory doesn't mean the slides have to be, too. Stever Robbins of Venture Coach suggests she drop her first slide -- a cartoon. But everyone else in the room loves the cartoon. So Robbins relents and even suggests a way to bring the cartoon slide back in at the end of the presentation, a suggestion she takes.

One more piece of advice from the judges: "Don't forget to breathe."

Scene II: Technical dress rehearsal, Harvard Business School, November 8, 2001. One day to the VC forum.

Shoba and her business partner Anthony aren't speaking to each other when they arrive at Harvard's imposing Spangler Center. They're not fighting; she's just in her own world. "The momentum is building, and you feel like you're in a different place," she says.

In the two weeks since her disastrous walk-through, Shoba has poured every last ounce of her being into improving her 10-minute pitch. "I thought nothing else was important but those 10 minutes," she says. "I told my employees, 'Don't call me unless someone is dying.' " She spent entire days holed up in her Manhattan apartment. Some Springboard coaches counseled her to be conservative about her company's mission. " 'Don't be too ambitious,' they said. But that was counter to what I believed I should do as I got more confident," says Shoba.

There are less than 24 hours until the VC forum, and the debate still rages in her heart. "How gung-ho should I be?" she asks herself.

Act III: Stand and Deliver

Scene: Springboard: New England 2001 Venture Capital Forum, Harvard Business School, November 9, 2001.

In the small room off the stage Lucy waits. She is the first presenter of the day. She doesn't feel nervous, but with a few minutes to go, she suddenly bolts from the room. She wants to be alone. She quickly practices again how she will hold her props and the slide clicker. "Don't talk when you walk," she reminds herself. And then it's time.

Lucy walks across the stage holding her balloon and straw and launches into an almost dreamlike performance. She's hitting all her points and having fun. Lucy concludes with words every VC likes to hear. "If you want to invest in a company that has near-term market potential, defensible new technology, long-term growth potential, and a great team, come see me," she says.

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