This presentation provides tips for pitching to venture capitalists (VCs). It recommends structuring the pitch to stimulate interest without closing the deal, focusing on communicating enough information to get the next meeting. Key elements to cover include explaining the problem being solved, target market and segmentation, the solution, business model, go-to-market strategy, competition, financial projections, status/timeline, and a clear funding ask. The goal is to convince VCs that there is money to be made and that the founding team can make them money.

1. This presentation is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency
for International Development (USAID). The contents of this presentation are the sole responsibility of Rick
Rasmussen and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
Your Pitch
There is only one chance to
make a great first impression

2. Structure
• Purpose of the pitch to stimulate interest
– not to close the deal
• Get your next meeting
– Feed into their pipeline
– You want to communicate “enough” but not everything
Typical Meeting Process Time
Meet and setup 5 minutes
Presentation 20 minutes
Discussion 30 minutes
Exit and next steps 5 minutes

3. Art of Pitching
• Explain yourself in first minute
– Super cordial
– Side zero
– Elevator pitch
• Answer all questions
– Be confident
– It’s OK to delay some for later
• Always pause and let your messages sink in
• Enjoy the process

4. What do VCs hear?
• What you pitch
– Unmet need
– Market size
– Solution
– Go-to Market
– Team
– Competition
– Financial projections
– Ask
• What they hear
– Is there money to be
made?
– Are these the people
who will make me
money?
– How much money
can we make?

5. Tips on Slides
• Never read a slide
– Tell the story, your slide only
reinforces what you’re saying
• Unclutter and minimize
• Delete everything you can
• Use “builds” only with busy slides
• No more than two messages per slide

6. Company Name
Tag Line
Logo
Your Pitch Deck
Explain what you guys do:
“Slide Zero”
These 30 seconds will set the tone
A
Great
Graphic

7. Slide Zero
• Not a slide, this is how you start.
• Tell the story. Set the hook.
• Elevator pitch
– Why are you building this startup?
• History
• Your passion behind the scenes
• Why should we care?
• Captivate your audience

8. Slide Two: Team (or not)
• Second slide should be your most impressive asset – often it’s Team
• Who are you?
– Reinforce the message of passion
– Talk about the money you’ve made for others
• Introduce your team
– Only include advisors, consultants only if they make you look larger
& impressive
• OK to show up with a less than perfect team
– All teams have holes
– Important issue is that you know that there are holes that you are
willing to fill 8

9. Slide Three: The Pain Point. The Unmet Need
• What problem are you solving?
– Get everyone nodding their head in agreement
– Customer examples
– Use actual names from market research
• Tell a Story

10. Slide Four: Target Market & Segmentation
• What else is happening to solve
this unmet need?
• Market dynamics
– How large is the market?
– TAM, SAM, SOM
– Market type
– Incoming players

11. Slide Five: Your Solution
• How you alleviate customer pain
• Make sure that audience clearly understands
– What is your product or service
– No details: just a gist of “how”
• One slide
– Diagrams, schematics, mockup, demo
– We know you love your product. Please don’t bore us with details
• The classic mistake…
– Spending to much time on product
– Not enough time on the business proposition

12. Slide Six: Your Business Model
• How you make
money
– Who pays you?
– What channels?
– What suppliers?
– What gross margins?
12

13. Slide Seven: Go-to-Market & Sales Strategy
• How will you reach your first
10/100/1000 customers
• Marketing leverage points
• Partnerships
– Those in place
– Those that are needed
• Convince audience that you have
an effective go-to-market strategy

14. Slide Eight: Market Dynamics & Competition
• Complete view of competitive
landscape
• Define your field of play via the
axis used.
– You’re always up and to the right
• Never dismiss your competition
– Investors want to know why you
are better, and why competition
is not meeting needs
• Use familiar players to help position
yourself
14

15. Slide Nine: Financial Projections & Key
Metrics
• Five year income
statement
• Key assumptions
and metrics
– Customers
– Employees
– Major expenses
– …
• Be prepared to
answer detailed
questions
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Revenues - 750,000 3,600,000 8,450,000 29,250,000
Costs of sales 225,000 900,000 2,112,500 7,312,500 25%
Gross Margin - 525,000 2,700,000 6,337,500 21,937,500
Research and development 840,000 960,000 1,200,000 1,400,000 3,200,000 11%
Technology payment 300,000 - - - -
Sales and marketing - 920,000 1,760,000 2,878,000 8,688,000 30%
General and admin 620,000 660,000 1,100,000 1,600,000 2,300,000 8%
Total operating expenses 1,760,000 2,540,000 4,060,000 5,878,000 14,188,000
Net income (loss) from operations (1,760,000) (2,015,000) (1,360,000) 459,500 7,749,500
Other income (expense) 200,000 300,000 420,000 100,000 50,000
Net income (loss) before taxes (1,560,000) (1,715,000) (940,000) 559,500 7,799,500
Taxes - - 139,875 1,949,875
Net income (loss) (1,560,000) (1,715,000) (940,000) 699,375 9,749,375 33%

16. Slide Ten: Status & Timeline
• Current status
– Accomplishments to date (last ~6 months)
– Timeline (major milestones over next ~18
months)
– Use of proceeds / to date
• Can be used to show key metrics
– Employee growth
– Customer or geographies growth
– Profit point etc.

17. Timeline
Q2-’14Q4-’13 Q1-’14 2H-’151H-’15 1H’16
betas
10 reference
accounts
Or
Reach
profitability etc.
Alpha customer
acquisition
Series B $7M
Start
company
1st
Prototype
Milestone #5
2H’16
Series A $2M
Milestone
#3
Milestone
#2
Milestone
#4
e.g. 1st
alliance
signed
Seed $100K
Q3-’14 Q4-’14
Product
development
Prod Launch
Employee count 4 6 11 18 22 29 39 54

18. Calibrates everyone on expectations and
sets next steps
Slide Eleven: The Ask
• A pitch deck cannot crescendo without a clear
ask (a.k.a. what you are looking for):
- What size investment are you looking for?
- How long does it get you?
- How will you spend it?
- What are goals before raising the next round?
- How else can the investor(s) help?
- Connections
- Syndication

19. Optional business plan: A typical outline
• Business
· Company's business
· Mission statement
• Products
· Product description
· Development schedule
· Differentiation
· Price point
• Market
· Trends
· Historic and projected size in $’s
· Product match to market definition
• Distribution
· Sales channels
· Partnerships
· Customers
• · Use of proceeds
• Competition
· Competitors
· Competitive advantages
• Team
· Background of mgmt
· Board composition
• Financials
· Historic and projected P&L
(1st two years by qtr)
· Projected cash flow (1st 2 yrs by qtrs)
· Current balance sheet
· Proj headcount by function
(R&D, sales, marketing, G&A)
· Capitalization schedule
• Deal
· Amount raised
· Valuation asked
You don’t have to write all of this down, just think about it