Matto Rochford is the guy responsible for communicating what Zeptonics does — not a simple task, considering the high-tech nature of the devices the company manufactures. Rochford describes himself as a tech-savvy ‘non-techy’, with a background in marketing tech products. We’d caught up briefly, just after Zeptonics was announced as the winners of the top prize at Tech23, a $40,000 cheque and the kudos that comes with the Tech23 competition. The company also won the ATP Innovation Explorer Award, which will see the co-founders spend a week in Silicon Valley, meeting with investors, potential customers and other entrepreneurs.

Zeptonics make network switching devices that operate much faster than other similar devices. Their main target market is the financial trading industry, where speed is critical. The company claims to have the fastest switching device in the world.

Rochford explained after the awards were announced, the way the company had prepared its ‘campaign’: the pitch, the company’s presence on the day, and how he refined its narrative. We’ve been meaning to chat for a while — I wanted to know the details.

Deciding who should pitch

First thing’s first; who should deliver the pitch? While he could have delivered it, Rochford says he decided to ask David Snowdon, Principal of Hardware for Zeptonics, to do the Tech23 pitch. Having the lead tech guy do the pitch would help demonstrate the company’s understanding of the market and the problem it was solving.

“We realised the judges look at the ability of the team to understand the market,” says Rochford, VP of Communications for the company. “We decided to have our subject matter expert pitch.”

Crafting the brand ‘story’

Zeptonics doesn’t just manufacture hardware devices; it also develops software and provides consulting services to large organisations. But, you wouldn’t have heard about any of this on the day — Rochford says he decided it would be a stronger pitch if the company focussed on one area, where it could demonstrate its domain knowledge and there was a clear path to scale. There were a couple decisions to make:

1. What part of the business? At first, Snowdon was only going to talk about one device, the Zepto Link, but in the end decided to talk about both of the Zeptonics network devices;
2. What angle? Snowdon spoke about the implications of the device for financial trading, focussing on this one market — it was a clear market and he has a background as a financial trader, so has the ‘expert’ factor.

Not a bad pitch — just good enough

Rochford says the pitch delivered on the day was good enough to demonstrate that Zeptonics has a good business, but definitely wasn’t the best pitch — that title went to hardware company Ninja Blocks, with its ‘internet of things’.

“We actually had never pitched before. We delivered a good enough pitch to demonstrate we have a good company.”

Having watched all the pitches at the briefing days, and again at Tech23, Rochford says you could tell who’d done it before: the best pitches only use the slide deck to reinforce what is being presented. Lots of bullet points — or lots of text — are a no-go. Creating a pitch deck should force you to think visually and conceptually, says Rochford.

“The strong ones are where there is one image per slide, and the presenter talks to that.”

Telling stories

The best way to explain a tech product is by telling stories — Rochford says one way to get your messaging right is to practice explaining things over the phone. It’s much harder to illustrate something clearly when you’re not face to face, and can be a good way to figure out what works.

Zeptonics deliver consumer devices for ‘custom cases’. Rochford uses a racecar analogy as an example of the way the company explains its devices.

“Instead of a sports car, we’ve designed a race car,” says Rochford. “It goes faster but doesn’t have all the mod cons; we took out the aircon, stripped the interior and the paint job.”

“Even in very technical companies it’s important to communicate clearly, using stories and analogies. We don’t make SUVs or all purpose vehicles, we make drag racers. They don’t even go in reverse; but don’t worry, they’re pretty fast.”

Rochford says Joshua Rose, Principal of Commercialisation for Zeptonics, has a way with words, especially on the phone. As someone with a background in financial trading, he is able to paint pictures of what the company does.

“He often says ‘We are former gold miners, but now we sell shovels’. It’s a very economical way to focus on why we are experts in low-latency trading devices.”

Making the most of pitch day

Zeptonics had four people representing the company on the day. They planned beforehand how they’d maximise the opportunity to network. The group all wore Zeptonics t-shirts, making them easy to identify.

The day before, Rochford also went through the list of judges, investors and entrepreneurs who were going to be there. He highlighted the people he wanted to speak with. Because he wasn’t pitching on the day, he was free to work the room.

“Throughout the day, I networked relentlessly. I managed to get to everyone I wanted to talk to.”

Use your medium wisely

Every company communicates through different channels. If you’re in a startup, you’re likely to have a website, Facebook and Twitter accounts, and product brochures.

“If you’re working on them around the same time, you’ll pick up things that you can use again,” says Rochford. “For example, if you do a two page brochure you might come up with a way to explain something that you can copy on your website.

“Or with twitter, you need to figure out how to say something in 140 characters, and you can use it in a media release.”

Test what messages work best and translate them across your other channels.