Kiwi expatriate Andy Lark was back in town for the Morgo entrepreneurs’ conference in the Bay of Islands last week.

Of New Zealanders on the global tech scene, only Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell has enjoyed such a successful career trajectory as Mr Lark, currently Dell’s vice president for global marketing and communications, the principal at Lark Ventures, and a director at New Zealand’s highest-profile venture capital company, No. 8 Ventures. Wearing his Lark Ventures mar-comms hat, Mr Lark is also involved with tech start-up LogLogic, backed by the tech world’s biggest VC name, bar-none Sequoia Capital - which funded Apple, Cisco, Google, Oracle and YouTube, among others.

At Morgo, Mr Lark spoke about the art of pitch - of which he’s heard hundreds.

There are a bunch of guides online for how to trim down and power up your presentation to a potential investor (read one I wrote for a New Zealand Trade & Enterprise publication here, especially if you hold any faith in PowerPoint).

And if you read that link, bear in mind what another US-based VC, Garage Technology Ventures’ Bill Reichert told the Morgo audience: if you manage to get in front of a high-powered VC panel, you’ll probably only have 20 seconds to sell your idea, and yourself, before eyes start straying to BlackBerries.

As Mr Lark emphasises, your idea might be the most important thing in your life, but he begins with no interest whatsoever.

Anyhow, Mr Lark spent most of his time on two elements that may surprise you. Both are instrumental in helping him to decide if a budding technology company is worth of promoting to his colleagues at Dell, or a contender for possible No. 8 Ventures backing.

1) The quality of your network
“The quality of your network is the best indicator of your success,” Mr Lark told the Morgo audience.

“When you call me, I don’t wait for you to describe yourself. The first thing I do is open a browser window and Google you, or search for you on [global business networking site] LinkedIn.

“The best way to pick a winner is to look at the quality of a person’s network. I find out about you from your friends. What’s your social capital?”

Mr Lark said he also puts stock in LinkedIn recommendations posted by other LinkedIn users. People can be selective in who they ask to post a recommendation, or delete a bad one. Nevertheless, “your recommendations are a measure of the strength of your relationships, and the authority of your network.”

2) Showing up
While Mr Lark gets many, many phone calls, the budding companies he’s most likely to back are those who, well, stalk him.

He related to Morgo goers how on one trip back to New Zealand, a rep from a touch technology company managed to reach him on the phone, and intrigue him within a few seconds. The guy’s killer line: “I’m down in the hotel lobby”. It would only take 30 seconds. Mr Lark did venture down, and was met with a well-drilled, hyper-rehearsed four-minute presentation, including a prop that showed exactly what the technology did. As a result, the company now has a major relationship with Dell.

But bear in mind there are rules of engagement. People who try to make contact with Mr Lark on a Monday are deemed gormless. “Look for times when the shields are down,” says the Dell VP.