You can’t fake a product, and a good pitch deck is just the beginning of a demo day. However, many startup teams don’t consider the space in which the event is held. It sounds subtle, but a well-chosen event venue can communicate more about your company than any number of slides and product demonstrations can.

First Impression Matters to Investors

Investors look for operational excellence in startups. This means having plans for logistics and being prepared to execute under pressure. The experience of attending a demo day, including such factors as a clean space, an organized flow, and smooth technology, communicates the team’s readiness.

Behavioral researchers have found that an event’s success, in and of itself, impacts the way that its presenters are perceived. When investors feel something positive or negative in one area, they can end up over-applying that feeling to related areas (halo effect). A slick event says that a company is ready.

The Venue Itself Represents Your Company

The venue is part of your startup brand during your demo day. Whether you’re booking out the conference rooms for a local San Jose tech event or searching for a ballroom rental in Charlottesville, a proper event space says that you take your company and your investor interactions seriously.

It should enhance your presentation, not detract from it. While we’re not talking about going for the absolute most opulent or expensive space possible (which could potentially lead investors to believe that the startup is focused more on outward appearance than underlying value), the venue should communicate professionalism.

Features Investors Notice

What can affect investor confidence besides your company and a good presentation? It often comes down to a few key details about the physical space itself. The perfect investor event venue will offer:

• Strong, reliable audio and visual capabilities
• Strong internet to allow for live product demos.
• Comfortable seating with clear lines of sight
• Sufficient lighting that enables the speakers to be seen
• Good acoustics without frustrating echoes or dead spots that will make understanding the speaker more challenging
• Space to network and have follow-up conversations after the event.

When technology fails and a live demo freezes, or when speakers can’t be heard over the echo, the investor may begin to wonder if the company is ready to tackle more complex challenges. 

Plan for Follow-up Conversations

Investors don’t just invest after seeing your deck; many more of their decisions will happen when they speak to founders in a less formal setting. Most of the decisions about a deal end up being made post-meeting, in one-on-one conversations.

Demo days provide opportunities to have informal interactions, to dig into the business details, talk through their thoughts, share concerns, and get answers, all of which is incredibly valuable for their assessment.

The venue should facilitate this. A room that’s too small or chaotic, a lack of sufficient seating for follow-up chats, or an abrupt end to the formal portion of the event can make these critical follow-up interactions more difficult.

Endnote

The venue you use for your startup demo days does more than just host investors. It shapes their perception of your business’s excellence and ability to tackle challenges. When you choose the right one, you have a higher chance of getting investors to invest, especially when your product demonstration was excellent.