Pitching Deck Review
Huh. I came to realize that I did not reviews my “Pitch Deck” in a while.
I did to one to a person. He had a great product, but he didn’t a great pitch. Well, it was horrible. I got the pitch down, but I couldn’t understand of way he said it. It was confusing.
(My stroke did help! It was impossible to the words out <Frustrating!>, but he tended to like it. It helped him slow down a bit! I know, I know, he was doing for me, but I’ll will take it. Hah.)
So, I decided to write a thing about “Pitching” review.
Startup Funding Explained
7 QUICK TIPS FOR MAKING COMPELLING PITCH
THE ELEVATOR PITCH / Keys (Starting!)
1. Keep it simple (I mean it!)
Pretend you are talking to a stranger. Think big. Start small. Limit the steps to revenue.
2. Pursue ONE revenue stream (and one market too).
You don’t like to hear about all the revenue streams if its not believable.
3. Know YOUR customer.
Be very clear about who the person is: demographics, markets (specific), buyer (type of person).
4. Articulate what you are making
What is it? A website? An app? Hardware? Please tell me what it is!!
5. Avoid small markets.
Are you afraid of success?
6. Have a “SECRET SAUCE”
Innovate or fast-follow, but better. Always be better!
7. It must be new or better
…or new and better. Ha!
SAY THIS:
(You can screw it up later, but have this DOWN pack and then you can have fun with it.)
“My company (company name),
is developing (a defined offering)
[so ANYONE can understand. ie: the “Stranger Test”. Basically, a stranger can understand it, your good to go.]
to help (a target audience)
(SOLVE A PROBLEM)
with a “Secret Sauce” (your competitive advantage!)
Korean, just in case:
“저희 회사는 (회사 이름)
(_____)을 개발하고 있습니다 – 아무나 이해할 수 있게끔 표현해주세요 (예: 부모님도 이해할 수 있게 설명)
(타겟 대상/시장)을 돕기 위해서
(문제를 해결한다)
(특별한 무언가)”
LISTEN, DON’T ARGUE to investors.
Key to making money back to your investors. Remember that.
(It’s not your money you are playing with. It’s other people’s VC money you are playing with. And VCs are playing other people other LP money (Limited Partner), so VCs are like “middle men”.)
What is your “SECRET SAUCE”? For example, why should open yours instead of loads of other one (apps)?
Making the PITCH DECK (10ish pages)
Tons of people cover this Pitch Deck topics too many time, and you can find it on the web, but one more time couldn’t hurt. 🙂
You do NOT have to be in this order (page order). Whatever works best for you.
Make no mistake, you are SELLING.
As Guy (Kawasaki) said it:
Ten slides. Ten is the optimal number of slides in a [PowerPoint/Google Slides] presentation because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting—and venture capitalists are very normal. (The only difference between you and venture capitalist is that he is getting paid to gamble with someone else’s money). If you must use more than ten slides to explain your business, you probably don’t have a business
1) Problem
Should be your simplest most coherent slide – maybe ONE sentence.
People should nod in agreement.
2) Solution
“Our solution is …”
Simple bullet list, more detailed than problem, simple diagram with some words. That’s it.
3) Demo
Have one!
If I were to do pitch or do a product demo… I would do a product demo.
Rehearse it till you can do it in your sleep.
4) The Roadmap
What’s happening next? (Next actions).
Things that will move your business forward.
5) Distribution or “Go to Market Strategy”
Usually weakest slide, and also most important. It’s hard and it’s not exact (be as accurate as possible, but people know it’s not always possible).
No where does is “We are a targeted a $56 Billion market” and that is it. All that is it say you is that we have down your market segmentation. The facts of the market is the sub segment of that market that are you’re targeting. “Niche market” and grow from there.
Have as much of this to support business model as possible, but boil it down to hooks (eg: deals on 5 months). Include a social media strategy… must include Facebook and Instagram (plus Naver blog for Korea).
It’s more about evaluating: Does your brain work? Are you good at evaluating / math / bottom’s up / what is the size of your ambition? (Google? Facebook? Coupang (Korea)?)
Ask how do I get more customers distribution? Everyday make it a discipline for more distribution (move the bar to the right, and progress).
Build it and they will come… not as easy anymore, but you have too.
Show you can make progress, then you look good as an entrepreneur.
6) Competition
Everyone has them. Everyone!
“We have a different approach, it is….(what is your secret sauce?)”
Show it in a simple 2×2 grid or check box (or whatever).
Don’t be afraid of competition.
It’s all about positioning – uncola? piggy back? Reposition them (ie: they are great for events… if they ever actually did one).
7) Team
Who are you? What have you done?
(Put it at the BEGINNING of the deck if you do have a idea or proven concept, but you don’t have a business. In other words, you don’t have a product or customers yet. You have to sell it on your Team.)
8) Business Model
What are the pros and cons?
Freemium vs subscription?
Virtual goods?
Ecommerce sales?
Price for product or services?
Etc.
Dunno, but you have pick just choose one for now!
9) Execution
Most investors are looking for validation of your solution.
TRACTION gets action! Get more traction with your customers or actually convert to sales!
Project revenues.
Let people feel… I’m here to kick ass.
Build relationships with investors, it’s not always one time only.
“Since we last spoke, I’ve ___________ and we’ve gained [this] much traction” (“No” today could be “Yes” tomorrow.)
10) Financials and Cap Table
Often some doods flip to end and some doods don’t care. You can do anything about that. But that’s where your strength should shine through.
If your an idea or seed investment, don’t be worried about it. Make up numbers and show your competent, and you know your math sharp and your are going up (in graph form).
Everybody missed their projection. The points of projections is not to be accurate and precise is tell the story of your startup and it could be.
We want to understand behind the projection and no VC expects to hit your projection. They understand your an entrepreneur.
For example,
- We are spending the first 250k on hiring one back-end developer, one UX designer and one customer success person. This team will help us get to problem-solution fit and further validate our acquisition channels.
- We are asking for $600,000 at $3,000,000 pre-money valuation to fund our customer acquisition strategies and product roadmap. This will give us 18 months of runaway to repeat and scale our business model.
- This is our historical financials in terms of revenue, cost and margins. This is our forecasted based on our % of growth per month. We anticipate to hit this much ARR and MRR in the next 3–5 years.
See? Sequoia Capital has a similar one! And Sequoia is one of big VC guys.
11) Appendix (optional)
Pitch is 10 pages (1 – 5 maximized). That is the pitch deck.
This is material that you don’t want in your pitch. IMPORTANT STUFF, but extra stuff. Not that necessary for your pitch.
You can run this forever (1 – 50+ pages).
Your Turn!
I have been over these decks a thousands of times and this was most consistent. Yes, you can change it up a bit. There are so many amazing pitch decks out there with valuable lessons they can teach. You get it going and then you find it easier.
Figuring out what methods of creation work for you can be difficult, but this will get you started.
Fightinnnngggg!!! 🙂
