What do you want/ not want to see out of a presentation for VC?
I am pitching a startup to venture capitalists in December. As a venture capitalist, what do you want to see in a presentation? What do you not want to see?
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I remember reading an article somewhere about the so-called 10/20/30 rule for when presenting to VCs. This rule is probably not exclusive to presentations to VC firms, but I think it has been popularized in tech circles.
10 refers to the maximum number of slides in your presentation. Each slide should focus on one major point.
e.g.
Slide 1 - Intro (an introduction of you and team, what you guys do, etc.) Slide 2 - Problem (the problem that your company hopes to solve) Slide 3 - Opportunity (the market opportunity, growth potential, potential customers, etc.) Slide 4 - Strategy (how you will tackle sales, distribution, etc.) Slide 5 - Competitive Advantage (barriers to entry, proprietary technology that you have, patents, etc.)
etc.
I'm sure this can vary from presentation to presentation, but in addition to the above, you will definitely need one slide on financials (projected revenue, profit, etc.) and one slide on funding (how much money you are trying to raise, what you intend to use it for, how much funding you already have, etc.) and a slide on exit strategy (IPO, strategic sale, etc., at the end of the day VCs care about how they are going to get paid)
20 means keep your presentation under 20 minutes in length. In an ideal world, that means 20 minutes of you talking, and 40 minutes left for discussion.
30 is the minimum font size of the presentation itself. The argument is that the bigger font forces you to be concise and only include the most meaningful, high-impact information that is most relevant to your audience.
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Listen to the podcast call "Start Up", really cool take on the subject
http://hearstartup.com/episodes/1-how-not-to-pitch-a-billionaire
Great stuff above. I'd add/stress a couple of things. Concise is good. No one wants to look at a 50 page powerpoint filled with every detail about the idea, the company and the space. But at the same time you need to say what the company does in a short and concise way, and upfront. I've been pitched a ton of times and I think founders of companies, especially tech related stuff, often are so into what they're doing that they forget that everyone else in the world has no idea what they're doing. They tend to skip over the basics of what the thing is and does and jump right into the technical parts of it.
You also need to spell out how you will generate revenue, especially if this is an entirely new concept or technology (i.e. you're not making a better widget, you invented the sprocket). Why will someone pay you for this thing or service? Have you spoken to someone in the industry you're targeting your sales to who would be a first customer?
Good luck.
10 Mins to Pitch to Angel Investors and VC firms (Originally Posted: 11/17/2015)
10 - 15 minutes pitching: - Demo/Presentation - Executive summary/Company Background
Is that all? Please advise.
Thanks. - J
Don't try to do a demo if you only have 10 minutes to pitch in front of a group. Also, don't do videos. Inevitably, something goes wrong with the connection, projector, etc. if you are trying to demo in an uncontrolled environment. Any interested investors can later come to you to see the product.
Make sure your pitch is a story that flows. You're not just covering a bunch of different topics thrown together in a disjointed order.
Start with a compelling reason that your company exists. how you came up with the idea (personalize it as much as possible to engage the audience), talk about the problem you are solving and the macro drivers behind the problem, explain how you are solving it (what the product is), what traction you have, why your team is the right one to execute on this solution, then jump into financials, unit economics, path to market, pipeline, exit potential and finally your ask (how much you need and for what).
That is the basic road map to success with angel pitches. I've raised over $2.5 million in angel money for my startup, and we were just named top startup in the venture forum at a major industry conference so it definitely works.
I use the exact structure above for pitches in the 7-10 minute range. For pitches under 5 minutes, I drop everything after financials and go straight to the ask.
Also, I'd suggest that you write a script that develops the story I mentioned above, while covering the relevant topics. You can then tailor your sides to fit the script. I find it easier to start with a script and then do the slides than vice versa.
Two questions about pitching a VC (Originally Posted: 12/19/2014)
Hey.
I'm pitching my mobile app. Current status - two guys did the working prototype (alpha/beta version), I did 30 sildes deck (with everything - exec summary, business overview, market, risks, competition, team, financials, appendicies, etc, as well as application graphic mockups).
Now the tough thing - I don't have any/very little connections to VC world. I've shortlisted 100+ investors with direct e-mails to Partners and I'm about to cold send what I have.
Two questions:
I need around 100k. I have some seed funds which say 'we typically invest from 200k' - what to do then? Expand my budget for another year and add another 100k or just don't care and still ask for 100k?
I know 30 slides is quite long (well, about 10 of them are intros, endings, etc) but I feel like this PDF is f*cking great. Plus, it has 2 pages summary at the beginning. I put a lot of effort and I feel it's good on both quality and design side. Do you think I can send it?
Thanks.
Bump.
If you want to PM me your deck I will take a look. Most VCs will make a decision within the first 5-7 slides. You may be better off crowd-sourcing and checking out AngelList given the small capital amount. You are wasting your time (and theirs) if you are reaching out to traditional VCs for $100k.
Any suggestions on how to approach the angel groups? Just cold email/call? Any better strategies? Thanks
connect with other founders who have received funding, that way, you can "warm email" partners --> I was speaking with X founder at Y company...
Pitch events --> even if you don't win, its a great way to get in front of people who write checks. if you aren't a good fit for the pitch competition, that doesn't mean no one was listening..
you're other problem ("we typically invest X") is not a problem. I know funds that "typically invest $5-20m" but for the right company will invest a token $100k to get them to the next stage.
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