2. Agenda The Golden Age for Today’s Entrepreneur The Key Investor Questions I’m Asking Building the Perfect Pitch Deck Handling Logistics & Q&A Additional Resources Wrap-Up & Q&A
3. It’s a Golden Age for Entrepreneurs…. Cheaper than ever to start a company. Better resources (YC, FI, SD, 500Startups, StartupCompanyLawyer, TC, etc.). Technology is easier to learn, access, &c.
4. … And Investors Understand This. I’m seeing lots of great companies that are: Very capital efficient to date. Extremely fast in coding and releasing. With working products, often in market. Have clear insight on what works. Have battle-tested founding teams. Have a concrete ask on what $$$ they need.
5. Implication While we’re in a Golden Age for Entrepreneurs, it is raising the bar for most very early stage companies… You need to prove more on very little money, because so many other start-ups are already doing so.
7. Key Investor Questions Is this a big market opportunity? What is the problem you aim to solve? Does your solution evince credibility? What’s actually built in code? Aka. Could I imagine wanting to use this? How will you get distribution? No, seriously… What’s the deal with the team? How is this different from competition? How will this make money / get mass adoption? Are you a “meat-eater” on execution?
8. Perfect Pitch Topics Market Opportunity Problem Solution Distribution (& Marketing) Team Competition Execution Demo Business Model I don’t really care on what order you use. Whichever story works best for you….
9. Market Opportunity:What most people tell you…. Top Down Analyst reports Comparables in the market Thought leaders Bottoms up X people pay Y amount today to ABC Co Tomorrow, we will get X’ to pay Y’, etc…. My view: I find this analysis important to evaluate the brain power and credibility of the founders. What’s their mental model for the business? How do they think about and assess the market opportunity? Are they good at math? Do they really know the market or did they just read something on the internet?
10. Instead, compare your ambitions with those of your future peers… World’s largest store Redefine social Organize & access information Payments ???? Your Company
16. Solution Your Product solves big pain for specific customers…. Describe. Simple bullet list More detailed than Problem, but still simple Simple diagram also works
17. Demo Have a good one, accept no substitutes Rehearse it until you do in your sleep Have at least 2 backup routes available Backup PC, Iphone or whatever Video YouTube demo If no demo, then at a minimum get a mockup Your passion for demo should be obvious
19. Distribution This is by far the weakest slide in your deck And, it is also one of the most important…
20. Team Who are you & what have you done? Briefly, i.e. 90 seconds / founder or less Ideally super strong & >1 Key tech folks onboard
21. Competition Everyone has competition or will What’s different and why does that matter? Show this on a 2x2 grid or checkbox BE NOT AFRAID
22. Business Model Figure it out later / Ads Market maker Freemium & Subscription Virtual goods Price for product or service Others My recommendation: Choose one for now, and get back to work… But have someone who has a passion for figuring out a business affiliated with your company.
23. ExecutionAn approach, not a slide “Since we last spoke…” Key hires onboarded Product revs Customer traction Etc, etc, etc
25. Logistics : Pre-Meeting Arrive 15 minutes early every time Have back-ups (2nd PC, Dongles, USBs) Treat everyone you meet politely Setup & preflight ppt & demo before meeting starts Bring ideally 2-3 people Remember: You are SELLING
26. Logistics: During Meeting Give everyone who attends a role Script which person handles which slide(s) Assign a scribe, every time
27. Logistics: Post Meeting Scribe: Write down all new QA for FAQ Follow-up in email that dayw/ thanks, etc. Do what you need to handle rejection Keep positive & keep in touch
28. Q&A Often badly managed, and very important Answer questions directly Script answers on the obvious questions How much are you raising? How long does this last? What beachhead markets do you think are most promising? What holes exist in your team? Why won’t Google, Facebook, Twitter, or someone else eat your lunch? What makes you the right team to do this?
29. Additional Resources Tons of samples decks on Slideshare StartupCompanyLawyer VentureHacks Founders Institute, YC, Women 2.0, etc Guy Kawasaki’s Books & Blog on pitching Friends & network
