When I was a kid, my parents and I lived with my grandmother until I was 10. For the holidays, she whipped up batches of cookies. She made kolachkis, crescent moons, and my favorite, Spritz cookies.
Spritz cookies are simple, but delicious. The ingredients – butter, sugar, egg, extract, flour, baking powder, salt. That’s it. She always saved a ball of cookie dough for me in the refrigerator.
When I was in college, my grandmother moved in with my parents. My junior year, I came home for the holidays. I asked my grandmother to teach me how to make her Spritz cookies because I wanted to continue the tradition and she had cancer and was in home hospice care.
I whipped together the ingredients and brought her the bowl of cookie dough. She looked at it from her hospital bed and said, “Add more flour.”
I went back to the kitchen. I added more flour and returned with the bowl of cookie dough. She looked at it and said, “Add a little more flour. You want the dough to look like a marble – a smooth, shiny ball.”
I went back to the kitchen, added more flour, and brought it back a third time. She said, “Perfect.”
There are three investor pitch tips entrepreneurs can take away from my grandma’s Spritz cookies.
The first is to start with the recipe. There are specific ingredients investors are looking for in your pitch. Only make tweaks to the recipe after you have the initial ingredients in place.
The second is to get an outside perspective. Even though you followed the recipe, something may not be quite right. Sometimes you need someone to tell you to go back to the kitchen to make adjustments before it’s perfect.
The third is to tell an emotionally engaging story. Investors are human too and want to be moved. Why did you start your company? What’s your purpose? What do you believe?
Three investor pitch tips from my grandma’s spritz cookies
Do you have a favorite holiday cookie or dessert? What is it? Drop me a note in the comments below and let me know.
Have a safe, enjoyable and relaxing holiday season. We’ll see you in 2020.
Be brilliant!