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what are investors looking for?
•Founders w/ unique vision and passion
•Startup / industry experience
•Ability to recruit others: employees, angels, advisors
Special Team
•How big? $20M, $100M, $1B? Depends on size of investor
•Big today or tomorrow? Market timing matters!
•IPO potential and/or large number of potential acquirers
Large Opportunity
•Unique value proposition and market positioning
•Advantage that improves over time [virtuous-cycle]
Clear Advantage
•Evidence of product/market fit
•Data points supporting business model assumptions
Market Traction
your fundraising toolbox
Executive Summary1-2 page doc
Slide Deck10 slides + detailed appendix
Product DemoLive or video
Financial ModelSimple spreadsheet w/ clear assumptions
CONCISE &
CONSISTENT
get it down to less than 15 slidesSlide 0Title + intros + back storySlide 110,000 foot viewSlide 2problem definitionSlide 3how you uniquely solve the problemSlide 4product demo / case studySlide 5market analysis + sizingSlide 6competition + sustainable advantageSlide 7
market traction + GTM planSlide 8team biosSlide 9unit economics + financial projectionsSlide 10company status + funding needs/usesSlide 11exit potentialSlide 12summary + next stepsAppendixlots of back-up slides
0: title + intros + back story
Build credibility and rapport in the first five minutes by providing context and finding common ground:
– Do homework on the investor (past investments, common contacts, past employers, familiarity with space)
– Start with a reminder on how you met or why/how you were introduced
– Provide quick bios of your founding team; focus on experiences that are relevant to your startup
– The “founding story” is often a good segue into the slide presentation
1: the 10,000 foot view
• “Tweet” pitch: summary of your summary
• Problem you solve and for whom
• Market positioning / advantage / opportunity
• Top 1-2 accomplishments to date
• Initial strategy as part of a long-term vision
• How much you are raising
2: the problem definition
• What problem do you solve? And for whom?
• How do you know it’s a real problem?
• How are customers handling problem today?
• Do you speak your customer’s language?
• Is there adoption friction?– Aware of the problem? – Urgency? Feeling pain? Medicine or Vitamin?– Willingness to pay? Existing or new budget?
3: how you uniquely solve the problem
• How does your offering solve the problem?
• Offering = product + go-to-market strategy
• What’s your secret sauce?
• How much better/unique/different?
• What evidence do you have?
4: product demo / case study
• Demo is NOT a features and functions walk through
• Illustrate the customer problem and your unique solution to that problem
o Build your demo around a “case study”
o Provide context before starting
o Focus on 1-2 core “use cases” that create value and differentiate your product
• PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
• Consider a video if you are not good at demos
5: market analysis + sizing
• Big picture description of market dynamicso Why now? Why a startup?o Graphics are useful
• Define and segment your marketo Identify low-hanging fruito Short-term vs. long-term
• Market size estimateso SAM vs. TAMo Bottoms-up vs. tops-downo Consider changes over timeo “sanity check”
6: competition + sustainable advantage
• No competition = no market
• “doing nothing” / “good enough” substitutes
• What is the basis of competition?
• How does your advantage grow over time?o Economies of scaleo Network effectso Data scaleo Brando Distributiono Virtuous cycles
• Patents are nice to have but not enough
7: market traction + GTM plan
• Evidence of “product/market fit”
o B2B: adopters, customers, partners, press/analyst
o B2C: users, virality, engagement, monetization
• Go-to-market plan
o Product Definition + Positioning
o Marketing + Distribution + Sales Plan
o Business Model + Pricing
8: team bios
• Why are you the best team to capture this big opportunity?
• Focus on relevant experiences
• Don’t exaggerate or be too verbose
• Be open and honest about your gaps and weaknesses; have a plan to address them
• Avoid title inflation; think of the future
• Recruit advisors to build credibility
9: unit economics + financial projections• Demonstrate unit economics of business model
– Pricing, acquisition costs, churn, lifetime value– Data points supporting your assumptions
• 3-5 year financial forecast– bookings, revenues, gross margin, key operating expenses, cash needs
• Overlay with key stages, milestones, metrics– # customers, product releases, new channels, cash-flow break even,
financing rounds, etc
• Nobody will believe your numbers!– Mechanics and key assumptions are what matters– Clearly identify key assumptions and why you feel confident in them– What drive revenues, margin, and expenses?– Is it consistent w/ market sizing and GTM plan– If you’re taking a SWAG be up-front about it and explain how you will
learn more over time
10: company status + funding needs/uses
• Think of financing as a series of experiments where you learn more at each stage reduces risk + increases value of your company
• Each stage should have clear value-creating milestones
• How are you going to use the funding in this stage? In future stages?
• How much money do you need to get to cash-flow breakeven?
• Do you have enough buffer if things don’t go according to plan?
11: exit potential
• Where is sustainable value being created? • Customer base / traffic / engagement• Partner / distribution network• Data / content / “real estate”• Unique technology / capability• Revenues / EBITDA
• Who are the likely acquirers and why?
• Are there analogs from the past?
12: summary + next steps
• Similar to “10,000 foot view” slide but more focus on momentum, potential, & fundraising schedule
• Do not leave meeting without defining some clear “next steps” :– Setting up next meeting (i.e. visit to your offices to meet other team
members, meeting with other members of the firm, more in-depth product demo, meet after key milestone completed, etc)
– Sending due diligence materials– If “too early”, then define what investor would need to see to consider
investing in the future– Understand the VC firm’s “process” and make sure you’re talking to the
right person in the firm
• Add investor to “status update” emails to “friends of the company” (no more than one per quarter)
Appendix
• Don’t be afraid to include several more slides with lots of detail
• Group and label Appendix slides based on topic areas (product, market, financials, etc)
• Use these slides to answer questions that come up during/after the presentation
• Create a second version without appendix (or with subset of appendix) for “emailing” and “printing”
CONCISE &
CONSISTENT
Q&A
