1.
Less is more:
How to present your startup
financials in just 3 slides
By Omry Ben David,
Partner @ Carmel Ventures

2.
Less is more:
How to present your startup financials in just 3 slides
In one of my recent blog posts on 5 tips for building your startup's financial plan, I talked
about why NOT having a sound financial plan – even at an early stage – is a risky business.
Not so much because you’ll need one once you’re ready to raise funds, but because
financial preparedness serves the long-term interests of your startup way more than it
serves any VC meeting.
And now, as a follow-up to that post, here are 3 simple slide examples* you could use in
an initial investor meeting – when it's absolutely key to nail the financial overview.
* Please note that all of the numbers used in the slides
are “dummy numbers” (inserted as a demo only)

3.
Addressing a Sizable and Growing Market
Source: [Insert your source here]
$[X] bn Market is Expected to Grow at ~50%
X1 customers
X2 customers
X3 customers

4.
Tips for your “TAM” (Total Addressable Market) slide
• On the left-hand side of the slide, show the bottoms-up of your TAM or revenue
potential under each bucket (=Price x Quantity); larger buckets represent TAM
expansions, i.e. either entering new markets or geographies (the Q side of the equation)
or a robust tech roadmap allowing upselling which expands the P side of the equation
• On the right-hand side of the slide, show the tops-down approach to TAM,
i.e. the absolute size and growth profile; try to note segment growth too
as this could tell a different story
• Source: It’s important to use and footnote a credible source so you can adequately
defend your numbers

5.
Financial Overview
($M) 2017E 2018E 2019E Comments
KPI1 (e.g. customers) X1 Y1 Z1 [Insert comment]
KPI2 (e.g. channels, locations) X2 Y2 Z2
Revenues $X $Y $Z
Gross Margins A% B% C%
R&D $(R1) $(R2) $(R3) [Insert comment]
S&M $(S1) $(S2) $(S3)
G&A $(G1) $(G2) $(G3)
Operating Expenses $(OE1) $(OE2) $(OE3)
Net Cash Burn $(C1) $(C2) $(C3) [Insert comment]
# of Employees A B C [Insert comment]

6.
Tips for your “Financial Plan” slide
• The financial overview slide needs to be at a high level, clean, rounded to one decimal place (max) and
showing in $mm (or $000 as appropriate); it can be annual or quarterly – depending on the fundraising
horizon
• Choose 2-3 KPIs that you run YOUR business by and show them at the top; make sure you answer the
questions “what am I monitoring daily” & “how is success defined” if you’re not sure which ones to include
• Revenue: You can break this into segments if it helps to tell a story, e.g. recurring revenue vs. professional
services/maintenance or different product lines etc.
• Opex: Break down the opex into R&D, S&M, G&A and use the “comments” column to add qualitative
rationale or considerations
• Net cash burn: Answers the question “what is the pace of burn and how long would the investment last”
• # of employees: This is typically the largest cost bucket, it needs to drive the opex above and be realistic in
terms of hiring pace
• At the bottom, you might want to consider adding other key stats. Examples I have seen include % revenue
breakdown by geography, product mix, target customers (b2b, b2c), etc.
• Have a detailed Excel backup that can be used for follow up meeting(s) or offline review;
it should also include a monthly breakdown

7.
Unit Economics – Simple CLV/CAC Calculation
Term Definition Example
Average Selling Price
(ASP)
 Annual average revenue per customer
 Can be monthly as well as long as consistent across
$100
Gross Profit
 Profit after the cost to deliver product or service
 Gross margins x ASP
$80
Customer Lifetime
Useful Life
 1 / annual churn rate
 If annual churn is 20%  1/20% = 5 years
5 Years
Customer Lifetime
Value (CLV)
 $80 Gross Profit x 5 years = $400
Customer Acquisition
Cost (CAC)
 Annual sales and marketing expenses / gross customer adds $120
CLV / CAC  >3x is considered healthy, sustainable scaling ~3.3x

8.
Tips for your “Unit Economics” slide
• This is a simple slide that shows you are building a sustainable
business that can scale effectively
• The slide essentially takes the lifetime gross profit from a
customer and divides it by the cost it takes to find and onboard
a new customer; if the ratio is 3x+, you are on the right track
• Definitions relating to this slide can vary, e.g. some versions
might take into account discounting or time value of money. The
calculation above, however, should provide a solid foundation
for unit economics discussion
• If each customer requires capex investment (e.g. a rack in a data
center), you would typically add it to the denominator together
with the CAC

9.
About Omry Ben David
Omry is a Partner at Carmel Ventures (part of the Viola Group). He has over 15 years
of technology-focused experience in investment banking, sales and marketing
operations, and both institutional and private venture investments.
Prior to joining Carmel, Omry was a senior vice president and east coast software
sector captain at Goldman Sachs in the tech, media and telecom (TMT) investment
banking group since 2008. During his tenure, he sourced, led and executed 30+
transactions totalling $120bn+ across M&A, equity, debt and institutional technology
investments.
His investment focus at Carmel includes Enterprise / SME Software, FinTech, SaaS,
Cloud Infrastructure and related fields.
Read more blog posts by Omry