I’ve been to five six seven demo days already this year in my travels for a>m ventures, and many more over the past 18 months. The following points are my observations on the good, bad, and nasty of startup accelerator demo days.

No one of these points will sink your demo day ship, but taken together, when done right, these elements will help to give your teams better odds of getting to that next step on and following the big day.

The idea is to reduce the variables involved in your event in order for you to craft a meaningful experience.

Caveats

These are my observations, not gospel.

If you’re YC or TechStars, these points apply less to you; these are for everyone else.

Yes, there are a lot of seemingly minute details here, but that’s the point.

We can all agree there’s no substitute for great companies, and none of these observations are meant as such a substitute.





In general, be mindful of your goals for demo day, and curate all experiences to achieve those goals. Some goals might include:





Connect investors to companies



Connect investors to investors



Strengthen your ecosystem’s network of founders, angels, VCs, services providers, and those on the periphery



Generate buzz at various levels by raising the visibility of early-stage activity in your region



There are plenty more; the point is that you should be aware of what the goals are, then align every facet of demo day to achieve each goal.

Your accelerator is a marathon, demo day is not 3 hours is pushing the upper limit of peoples’ attention span.

Limit team intros to something really short, like, 60 seconds or less.

Sorry sponsors, no one cares about you. At least not anyone in the audience.



Relatedly, more pitches, less bravado, fewer speeches

Yes, we all get it: your city is a great place for starting up. Being a mentor is an amazing experience, and you always need more. Okay. Now let’s get on with it.

Remember that running an accelerator isn’t an end to celebrate, but that it’s a means to an end that will produce celebration-worthy events.

Everyone’s got an accelerator these days, so let’s reduce the back-patting and celebrate the big wins.

That said, brief updates from alumni can be a great point of pride.

Also, no student “idea” pitches, please. Or anything else irrelevant to investors.



Pitch quality matters

Stage presence, pitch structure, and pitch content are all really important.

The companies shouldn’t be delivering bullet-point fact transfers, but rather telling a relatable, investable story.

Slides should be used as visual aids, not as core components of the presentation.

Long before demo day, require your teams to write a script for their pitch. They don't necessarily have to recount it verbatim onstage, but the process of formalizing their thoughts will prove invaluable.

Coach your teams and enlist mentors who know how to pitch, like successful founders, folks who have been onstage before, and advertising people, many of whom pitch for a living.

Strongly consider bringing in a speaking coach a couple of times: first at an early point and later, closer to demo day to track improvements.



Venue size matters

You want it to seem full, but you certainly don’t want it to feel uncomfortably crowded.

Or too hot/sweaty. The last thing you want is for all they hallway conversation to focus on how gross everyone feels.

Make sure people can move around the venue, find a seat, and get out easily when it’s time.



How you use it matters, too

The venue’s tone affects your brand’s perception.

Is your demo day in a hip event space, hotel ballroom, modern conference center, a performing arts space?

Try to avoid what’s easiest and pick a venue that works with the tone you want to set for the event itself and for your accelerators in general.



The little stuff is worth sweating

Free and quality espresso drinks are a nice touch; everyone has coffee, water, whatever.

Make sure lanyards include name and company name, and possibly role-specific coloring, e.g. investors get red, enterprise types get blue, etc.

Your programs should be worth keeping, and not just a place to print the agenda and sponsors.

Include helpful info on each team, like quick overviews of the problem they’re addressing and their solution.

This is really useful later when comparing notes with other attendees and you can’t quite remember that second pitch from 2 hours ago.

Free valet is always appreciated.



Community, i.e. the after party, is as important as what happens on stage

If budget’s a concern, consider fewer bells and whistles on the production side; sink that money into the after party.

Ahead of demo day, be sure to promote the after party as a must-attend event. creating an investors-only sense of exclusivity sometimes help, but do whatever will work best for your market.

People care about good food, good drink, and good community, and if your after party sucks, people will stay for about 17 minutes.

The real business happens informally at the party, so you want people to stick around as long as possible making those serendipitous connections that might not have otherwise happened.

Seriously, the pitches are important, but the casual atmosphere of the after party is where I’ve seen the most enduring connections made.

I’ve also seen parties that last all of 30 minutes. Not sure if that was a function of really crappy snacks, or a general lack of community spirit.

Bonus points for walking distance from the pitch venue or complimentary valet.



Coach your teams on after party interactions

Provide designated areas for each team, with printed takeaway info.

Vinyl standalone banners with team branding can be helpful.

Make sure someone from each team is actually there most of the time.

It sounds obvious, but be clear with the teams that they shouldn't over-imbibe (this is where an after after party can be handy).



Overall, remember that you and your team are the curators of the demo day experience, which is the culmination of much weeping, gnashing of teeth, and Red Bull. The excellence demonstrated over the course of the previous 90 days should shine through in your event.

Again, a well-produced demo day and after party won’t makeup for crappy teams and poor process, but when high quality teams are propped-up by a high quality event, you can be sure investors will make it a point to show up for your demo days as often as they happen.