Yale's Ma and Hu used machine learning to analyze 1,139 videos that entrepreneurs submitted to a business accelerator and found that entrepreneurs, who conveyed enthusiasm, positivity, and warmth, had a better chance to receive funding. Their passionate pitches didn't go that far though; they underperformed those that showed fewer positive features in their videos.
Whether it's a lecture, a pitch, or a research talk, we strive for a perfect presentation. Nonetheless, a pressure to make it flawless sometimes deprive the presentation of human qualities: smiles, natural gestures, and emotions. Ma and Hu's work indicates that delivering enthusiasm is as important as (if not more important than) the content itself. Presentations are a form of human interaction after all.
A phrase I encountered often as I started to learn more about venture capital (VC) was that VCs should invest in people, not in ideas. Reading Ma and Hu's paper, would experienced investors think differently about this phrase? Or would they stick to their anecdotal records? I wonder how investors would react to this paper.
p.s. One of the takeaways from this paper was the extent to which the gender stereotype affected the investment decision. Ma and Hu also wrote, "investment decisions on woman-only startups are more than seven times more sensitive to the performance in the pitch... Investors reward women who fit their stereotypes--that is, they are seen as warmer and more positive--and aggressively avoid investing in women entrepreneurs who do not fit this profile." A reminder to be more conscious and aware of own implicit biases.