Eminem was the top selling artist last decade and is able to cross genres and demographics as well as anyone. Whether you love him (I do) or hate him, you have to respect him for his ability to perform and gain an audience. So, what does this have to do with pitching? Well, whether you’re pitching a product or service for sale, or pitching to investors, I think you can learn quite a bit from Eminem’s final performance in 8-mile.

In the final rap against Papa Doc, Eminem anticipates the negative that Papa Doc might rap about and lays it all out during his own rap, or pitch. He pulls away all Docs’ material by covering it during his own performance. This allows Eminem to control the flow. The result? Papa Doc freezes because he doesn’t have anything else to say and Eminem wins the competition.

I’ve directly sold or run teams that have sold $100m or so in software and services and I’ve raised money and helped others do the same, and I’ve invested in 20 companies. I always try to anticipate what the potential buyer, or investor (also a buyer), will want to know or ask. Rather than wait for them to ask, I always cut to the chase and present the information that I know is reasonable for them to want to know.

This accomplishes a few things – it allows you to control the flow of information, it shows the buyer that you respect their time, that you understand your own offering, and that you understand their needs and potential concerns. I’m not saying that you spend a bunch of time on the negative, simply that you address potential competitive overlap and potential gaps head-on, and that you deliver the solution or answers to address potential concerns. This will also save you a ton of time because the information will come out eventually. It’s better to surface the information, on your terms, and move on if it’s not a fit.

So many who pitch, whether for a sale or financing, often hate to hear “no” and withhold information. In my view, if you’re going to hear “no”, get to it as fast as possible. It’s the same as hiring slowly and firing fast. Get the information out there so you know where you stand. Life’s too short to waste time.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers.

I love cities – San Francisco, in particular. Having grown up outside of Boston, I’ve lived in LA, Chicago and have been in San Francisco for 12 years now. I love exploring cities – not just the food and nightlife scene but hidden treasures like music, art, unique stores, old factories, hikes, interesting architecture, great city walks, wine stores, events and more. I love meeting interesting people and characters that define a city, from old to new. I find it fascinating that a single neighborhood can include such diversity as top internet companies including Zynga, one of America’s first microbreweries, a metal fabrication facility, excellent music venues, a chocolate factory, Spanish and Mandarin immersion school programs, a bean-sprout company and top restaurants. For the last couple years I’ve wanted to launch a site that exposes hidden gems in the city, but I haven’t had the time to launch something on my own nor have a wanted to do it on my own.

For me, this would be a project to do for fun, love and passion rather than one with revenue generation and profitability as the primary purpose. This allows me focus driven on things I think others will love, rather than those that optimize for revenue and profit. On April 10th I was hanging out by the pool at Summit at Sea (a must do – the best event I’ve ever experienced) and started talking with summiteer Nikolaos Iosif Kakavoulis. We spoke mostly about Athens, Mykonos, my visit to the Pink Palace in Corfu (oh, the stories I can tell about that visit) and the thrill of travel. Thirty or so minutes into our casual conversation we talked a bit about stuff that we did for passion and pay. Nikos told me that he was running something called Daily Secret in Athens. He described it with great enthusiasm and I became excited by the idea. Even though I don’t often visit, I wanted to subscribe to the Athens, Lima and Istanbul daily secrets so I could glean the inside scoop for the purposes of general knowledge and feeling like I could understand the local culture better.  Within a few minutes I told Nikos that San Francisco needed such a service – he agreed.

We spoke the following week with his business partner Pheadra Chrousos and the excitement grew. Immediately, I knew that Phaedra and Nikos would make great business partners and that they love what they’re doing with Daily Secret. Coincidentally, we also share MBAs from Columbia Business School, which is kind of cool.

It’s with great enthusiasm (hi-fives) and passion that I am announcing the launch of Daily Secret, San Francisco – your daily dose of inside scoop secret stuff happening in the awesome city of San Francisco. The plan was to launch in early June but I need to do it now so that I can share a secret event that happens on May 26th – you won’t want to miss out so act fast because the venue is really small (40 people total). The format of the Daily Secret is simple – beginning today, we will launch our first secret and then deliver one secret to your email box every day of the week. It will vary in content but will cover everything happening in the city and will have broad appeal. It will take 60 seconds to consume the information and will be easy to share. You will also be able to access our site to learn of secrets previously mentioned, as well as to suggest your own secrets.

We will give you the inside scoop on something happening that week or something that’s been around for 100 years that most locals don’t know about. Your friends will be impressed with your knowledge and they’ll want you to share secrets with them. You will have the inside scoop. We also want you to be involved. If you have a secret, we want to know about it. It could be an event with an expiration date or something that’s been around forever that many locals still don’t know about, or a secret inside tip about an old venue. We’ll be looking for Scouts and Insiders. We’ll reward you with awesome VIP parties and other cool stuff. Whether you are a San Francisco local or want the local scoop as a visitor, you should consider joining. Though we are not a daily deal site, there will also be deals offered to loyal readers.  You can have a sneak peak and sign up here.

That’s it – that’s my secret for today – I hope you decide to join us! Please let us know what you think and feel free to share our enthusiasm!

Cheers!

mike