I recently had a Twitter exchange with Shaa Wasmund (founder of smarta) about the pitch that startup companies seem required to do in order to try and get attention or get funding.

My argument is that this isn’t a fair forum or medium for all startup companies. What if the company is run by a brilliant but shy entrepreneur? What if presenting really isn’t their thing, and never will be? Does this mean that the potential of the startup will never be realised? Or, is it simply essential for them to hire somebody who can understand the product or service the startup is offering and is good at presentations? Should investors be able to see through this? Is there an alternative forum for these types of startup?

Shaa agreed:

But what is the alternative? There’s no doubt that investors like this format. This is probably because they are good in this scenario and feel that anybody entrepreneurial should be able to deliver a pitch for the product that they are knowledgeable and passionate about. This isn’t absolutely unreasonable but there will be situations where no matter how knowledgeable or passionate somebody is they simply may not be comfortable with the current pitch format.

Shaa suggested:

This is good to know, but would the next step be to pitch the idea using the standard pitch presentation format. It’s clearly very important that a standup company will need to have excellent communications skills in order to get their ideas across and continue to keep investors informed of progress but isn’t it suitable to do this in a more relaxed format?

I’m not saying that I completely disagree with this format and that if I had an idea that required venture capital that I wouldn’t do the pitch. I’d just like to know that there was an alternative and that startups without natural flair for pitch-presentations won’t always be overlooked.

So, what are the alternatives? Does anybody know of a startup that has gained investment though some other format?