PITCH PERFECT
How to properly pitch your start-up

ABOUT PLAY VENTURES
• Premium early stage VC fund investing in gaming and gaming services start-ups
• Invest globally in Europe, Asia and the North Americas
• Invest early into the most promising pre-seed and seed stage mobile & PC free-
to-play game studios and games services start-ups
OUR PORTFOLIO COMPANIES

Pitch Checklist for Seed PitchWHAT DO INVESTORS
WANT TO KNOW?
Investors want answers to questions:
q Is the team right?
q Is the product right?
q Is the market opportunity valuable?
q Is there traction?
q Is there urgency?

Pitch Checklist
for Seed Pitch
CHECKLIST FOR YOUR
SEED PITCH DECK
q Your Story and Team
q Company Mission
q Market Opportunity
q Product
q Investment Opportunity
q Appendix
q Reading list (before you start pitching)

Your Story & Team

TELL YOUR STORY
• Investors want to know you
• Use a slide to introduce your team
but remember that your story is
more than a slide
• Tell them how you met your co-
founders, why you have this idea
• Make it memorable

Henrik Karlström
Lead programmer
Juha Paananen
CEO
Teemu Ikonen
CTO
Henric Suuronen
President
*Acquired by Groupon
Experienced Founding Team

Company Mission

COMPANY MISSION
• Important because you’re selling your company, not just a game
• Your company mission should tell investors:
• What you want to achieve with the company
• What types of games you’ll build
• What your ambition level is
• How you’re different from what’s out there

To be the “Blizzard of Mobile”
creating games you play for years
and not just days and weeks.
Vision

Market
Opportunity

MARKET OPPORTUNITY
• Tell investors why they should care:
• How big is the market?
• How much is it growing?
• Is there an unmet demand?
• Is there an un-solved problem?

The 21st Century is the Century of Games
The games business has experienced explosive growth and is now
2x bigger than Hollywood and Music combined.
* Source: Ubisoft estimates based on NPD, GfK, App Annie, McKinsey, PwC, Goldman Sachs
** Source: Newzoo, Q4 2017 Update, Global Games Market Report
Recorded Music SVOD/VOD
video
Physical home
video
Live Music Cinema Consumer books Video games
$100B
$116B**
**Mobile
Games was
US$ 50.4B in
2017 , with
+23.3% YoY
growth
Worldwide Revenue*

Opportunity: The biggest Messenger Games Co.

Product

A common mistake first
time game founders make
is focusing their seed
funding pitch deck on
their product

Remember:
you’re not selling a
product, but a company

PRODUCT
• Product is not the focus of your deck, but should still be included
• Use a couple of slides to tell investors about:
• What type of game you’re building
• How your game works
• Get them excited – show them why it’s fun or different, and likely to succeed

• First mobile & tablet game with
MMO level of immersion
• Real time Battles
• Tailor-made for touch
“World of Warcraft for mobile”
January 2014
April 2014

Investment
Opportunity

INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY
• Your chance to ‘ask’ for what you want
• Tell investors:
• How much you’re raising (your round size)
• What you’ll use it for
• How long it’ll last (your burn rate and
runway)

Appendix

APPENDIX
• Prepare a list of anticipated questions and place prepped slides
and answers in the Appendix
• Have slide numbers ready, skip directly to the relevant slide
• Update your Appendix slides as you encounter new questions

Singapore is a Great Location
to combine the best of West & East
Unique access to game talent from
Japan, China, Korea and Europe
Great Quality / Cost ratio
Stable, supportive government
with grants and tax incentives

Reading List

MUST READ BEFORE PITCHING
Venture Deals by Brad
Feld, Jason Mendelson
Hot Seat The Start-up
CEO Guidebook by Dan
Shapiro
Pitch Deck Collection
From VC Funded Start-
ups

ADDITIONAL READING MATERIALS
The Presentation
Secrets of Steve Jobs
by Carmine Gallo
The Venture Hacks
Bible
Video yourself and see
how you can improve

OTHER TIPS
• Time pitching to 2-3 weeks
• Pitch on an iPad
• Take notes when VC talks
• Send a ‘Thank You’ email after
meeting
• Prepare two versions of your deck -
one for presenting, one to email
• Don’t try and raise over Christmas or
the summer holidays
• Don’t try and raise too little
• Raising more or at a higher valuation
is not always better