Below you will find additional resources and tools—from academic articles to tactical checklists to design templates—that are used with great effectiveness in pitching situations.
Supplemental Documents
Deepen and enhance your understanding and application of the Method.
NEW! Velocity Deck Template – a Velocity pitch deck project file populated with real copy and infographics for you to model. Requires InDesign and Illustrator.
NEW! Velocity Deck Template Walk-Thru – a blank 15-page+ deck template package with helpful instructions for each page of the Velocity pitch deck structure. Requires InDesign and Illustrator.
NEW! Velocity Deck Template (in PowerPoint) – a Velocity pitch deck project file populated with real copy and infographics for you to model. Requires Microsoft PowerPoint.
NEW! Radargram Infographic – use the provided vector file to create your own radar gram. You can watch the tutorial given during this LIVE event (starts at 49:00) on how to make your edits. (PDF version)
Art of Failure – why some people choke and others panic.
Cognitive Biases – a real-world look at human perception, judgment, and decision-making.
Decisions and Desires – how the primitive, emotional parts of our brains have a powerful influence on the choices we make.
Emotional Memories – an in-depth article from Psychiatric Times that explores the link between emotion and recall.
Good Leaders Bad Decisions – neuroscience reveals what distorts a leader’s judgment.
How to Pitch a Brilliant Idea – know how your pitch target will make a snap judgment about you so you can play to, and control, the other guys expectations.
Managing with the Brain in Mind – how the human brain has been shaped by millions of years of social interaction.
Science of First Impressions – find out how humans make trait inferences based on the facial appearance of others.
Thinking and Feeling – how affective judgments (those made with our complex neocortex) can be independent of, and precede in time, the sorts of perceptual and cognitive operations assumed to be the basis of them.
Pitch Anything Chapter 1 – dealing with the croc brain and other foundations of the method.
Pitch Anything Chapter 2 – frame control boiled down into easy to understand terms.
Pitch Anything Chapter 3 Excerpt – see a practical application of frame control and status in action.
Helpful Checklists
Essential guidance as you prepare, deliver, and debrief.
Pre-Meeting Checklist – a 6-page basic preparation and preflight tool for any pitch.
NEW! Big Idea Checklist – an important quality control step in developing your Big Idea.
NEW! STRONG Model Checklist – a 6-page checklist to ensure you hit the critical steps of each module.
Useful Links
A few places around the web relevant to your pitch development.
Pitch Anything – the digital home of all things Pitch.
Harvard Business Review – the source for very insightful science and management and operational studies and case studies.
Mergers and Inquisitions – and informative and compelling blog on investment banking.
Psychology Today, Neuroscience – the collection of articles at Psychology Today relating to neuroscience.
Robb Report – required reading for any alpha.
Lynda.com – a revolutionary educational site that gives you start to finish, completely comprehensive instruction on using InDesign and Illustrator, which we use to build pitch decks.
InDesign Secrets – the online home of one of the world’s biggest InDesign experts, David Blatner.
Pitch Anything on Amazon – if you have not yet ordered the book, do yourself a favor and get up to speed on what started it all.
Why a VC Will Get More than Their Fair Share of Your Company – from the Pitch Anything blog: If you have ever seen the show “Pros vs. Joes” on ESPN, then you’ve had a glimpse of how well you will raise venture capital (you’re the Joe – not the Pro.)…
Frame Control: A Primer – from the Pitch Anything blog: A frame is the instrument you use to package your power, authority, strength, information, and status. The moment your frame makes contact with the frame of another business person, they clash…
Important Software
Software tools critical to your workflow.
InDesign – desktop publishing that gives you pixel-perfect control over design and typography. Every Velocity pitch deck is built with InDesign.
Illustrator – vector-based graphic and illustrating software. All the Velocity infographics are designed and developed with Illustrator.
Adobe Creative Cloud – the latest offering from Adobe: A digital hub that lets you download and install every Adobe Creative Suite 6 application.
Keynote – we would not recommend this, but if you are working under a tight budget and tight timeline, Keynote could work.
Excel – critical for financial modeling.
Dropbox – an extremely easy tool for sharing large files with your team or with freelancers.
1Password – a useful and completely secure browser extension for your passwords so you never have to memorize another password or type in the same password over and over.
Skitch – the simplest, fastest, easiest screen capture software out there. We use this to capture compelling infographics to later model.