At “Are You Serious?,” hosted by The Hatchery, four start-ups give a five-minute pitch to a panel of four VCs. The pitch is followed by five minutes of blunt Q&A from the panel, then some even more blunt closing thoughts from each panelist. The event is extremely entertaining and, if you’re interested in practicing or observing what it’s like to pitch VCs, you should jump on the next one. Here’s a link to October’s session.

Based on what I saw last night, I threw together this list of do’s and don’t’s to guide you when pitching VCs. Please keep in mind that I’ve never pitched a VC myself. Rather, this is simply a list of things that, as someone who has given and attended a lot of presentations, stood out during the event.

DO answer the question that was asked. This is true in any setting. It doesn’t matter if you’re pitching VCs, interviewing for a job, or talking to your mom. One presenter was asked: “What niche are you focusing on in order to get a foothold?” The response mentioned one niche, then another niche, then another niche, then the entire population. This effectively left the original question unanswered, which you never want to do.

DO make sure your answers are credible. When asked how he intended to market to a particular customer segment, one presenter replied, “Well, we have a blog. We’re on the internet, which means we’re on Google.” True, but that’s not a marketing plan. A few months ago, I was looking for a job. I was on Google. Yet, despite that, the job offers didn’t start pouring in. Weird.

DO be ready to articulate your “barrier to entry.” This came up a few times. Do you have an easily replicable product? If so, be ready to talk about why you’re going to out-market, out-sell, or out-build all of your competitors. If your product is not easily replicable, trumpet that fact. VCs want to know that you’re realistic about your competition, and that you understand your market.

DO state, in very simple terms, exactly what you’re doing. This one goes in the obvious pile. Nevertheless, one presenter was told “I feel like I just watched Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001.’ I don’t really know what you do.” Use the formula “it’s like a [LinkedIn] for [baristas]” if you have to. Just make it painfully clear. Try your pitch on an 8-year old.

DO use metrics if you have them. Metrics are always compelling. One company in a particularly crowded market stated offhand that “Our competitors’ customers are coming to us.” That caught my attention. If true, make it more than an offhand comment. If you can confidently say something like “We have a customer retention rate of Y and we’re seeing X new customers per month who have left competitors,” you just might get a check on the spot.

DO acknowledge shortcomings and obstacles, but DON’T lose investors’ confidence. One presenter, whom I actually found pretty compelling, was very quick to say things like “You’re right — we are targeting the mid/low-market” and “Yes, there is a lot of competition out there.” While you need to acknowledge reality, you should also strive to overcome shortcomings to give investors confidence in your team. This same presenter later said, “You may be right and we may be wrong, but that’s how we’re doing it.” Now that’s a little stronger.

DON’T put too much text on one slide. You’re in a room full of 100 people. Even the youngest among us cannot read size 12 font in bullet 3(A)(iii) from the back row.

DON’T cut off panelists. This one is pretty obvious, too. I heard one guy behind me mutter “Let him finish!” under his breath. Just don’t do it.

DON’T talk over your co-founders. You should have enough confidence in your co-founder to trust him or her to opine on just about anything. Don’t make us think otherwise.

DON’T save “wow” features until the end. Just as the Q&A session ended for one company, they tried to trot out two or three pretty impressive features. More specifically, the company — which provides a physical check-in service for local business — also offered participating stores the ability to monitor foot traffic even if a customer doesn’t actively check in. That, to me, was pretty neat. Get it in earlier.

Like I said, take this list with a grain of salt. This is the internet, after all.