with a flexible data model for documents and graphs. It is designed as a “general purpose database”, offering all the features you typically need for modern web applications
“WHAT PROBLEM ARE YOU SOLVING & WHAT SOLUTION DO YOU OFFER?” You must be able to tell this in one or two short sentences AT ALL TIMES - even in your sleep
an incentive to let you keep talking 2. An elevator pitch convinces investors to ask for and read your deck 3. A deck sells investors on taking a meeting 4. A meeting will lead to a funding decision
meeting if the introduction and elevator pitch are good Without an introduction, an elevator pitch is critical to a successful cold e-mail or getting that meeting
to getting a meeting And the pitch deck is what you send investors and what you present in that meeting The deck is NOT a Business Plan - SERIOUSLY NEVER send an investor a business plan - EVER
it Also: What you will NOT do The thing you are striving to accomplish but have yet to complete Optionally: Fill white space with logos of customers and testimonials What will also guide decision making for you e.g. ”Acme Gadgets will create and dominate a new network service category that defends web applications from distributed-denial-of- service attacks."
your team has been successful before, investors may believe it will be successful again (although a logical fallacy) Do NOT include positions you intend to fill (save that for the Milestones slide) Tell a story about how your career has led to the discovery of the… Put yourself last in team if you must: it seems humble
the nature of the problem you address Emphasise the pain level and the inability of incumbents, the current established players, to satisfy the customer need
address and fit the market problem you just described like hand in glove) SHOW DON’T TELL: Include a demo such as a screencast, a link to working software, or pictures. ONE SLIDE ONLY: This is not your product manual
and all eventualities if you are demoing product - Videos will stop working, Internet will disappear, and so on ALWAYS have the following prepared in your deck: 1. Live Demo (link out - skip to next slide if not working) 2. Video of pre-recorded Live Demo (skip to next slide if not working) 3. Screenshot sequence of key features in pre-recorded demo (always works) Start with 1 and skip ahead towards 3 if everything fails, LIVE in same presentation Practice the SAME user journey story through your solution for 1, 2 & 3 DO NOT EVER MENTION SOMETHING NOT WORKING - just move on to next option and NO ONE will ever notice that the live demo or video did not work.
to enable your unique approach Open Source? Licensed? DIY? Are there hidden costs and liabilities? Is the IP yours or someone else’s? Maintaining your own software is going to be how costly vs using something else? If appropriate, mention patent status
If you haven’t launched, discuss your plan to acquire users or customers, show the expected cost of customer acquisition If you have launched, include CAC vs CLTV & growth rate and activation rates, if appropriate
and prospective customers, use a Business Model Canvas (BMC) to explain it all in one single slide IGNORE the cost of customer acquisition UNLESS you have some insight into the issue IF you have sales, show off early customer or distribution progress: show numbers, logos, testimonials
dollars does it leave behind in the whole lifespan you have them as a customer? CAC = Customer Acquisition Cost LTV = Customer Lifetime Value A CAC : LTV ratio of 1 : 3 or better = Good CAC VS LTV
is the % of all your registered users that will use the service or app Monthly / Daily / Concurrent (At Any Given Time)? 30/10/1 or better is good ENGAGEMENT RATE
customer mass with problem today SAM - Serviceable Available Market Theoretical total market size or customer mass that are able to use / purchase a solution like yours right now SOM - Serviceable Obtainable Market Your target market cap or customer base within the next 2-3 years, your credible ambition TAM SAM SOM DEFINING MARKET SIZE
of the competition’s product Describe any competitive advantages that remain after the competition decides to copy you exactly, your UNFAIR ADVANTAGES Competitive landscape. Be sure to anticipate competitive responses (before the VC does and puts you in an embarrassing spot) Never deny that you have competitors, no matter how unique you think you are. It is OK to compete. Even against giants. Are you in an existing market, a re-segmented market, a new market or a clone market? Figure it out.
don’t have past earnings, a significant financial history, or real insights into the issue - It’s a bullshit fantasy exercise wasting everybody’s time. Instead, include your current status and milestones for the next 1-3 quarters for product, team, marketing, sales with quarterly and cumulative burn rates. How are you going to burn the investor’s money in the next 12-16 months and what experiments do that cover and what do you expect to get out of (test & learn) those experiments?
what the company could do if these current plans are realised, how wonderful a place the world will be. Or just repeat a modified version of the “Summary” slide.
How much of your company are you ready to sell in this round “We believe we will create significantly more value with an investment of $X and we are prepared to sell up to Y% of our company.” Dates, amounts, and sources of money raised to date (Cap Table) If this is your first round, your valuation is based on thin air - so don’t sweat it: The more important and “real” valuations will come with later rounds Remember, you can give different ASK & GIVE to different investors (assume everybody talks to everybody) but once your deck is out the door, you’ll be surprised where it might end up Congratulations - The clock is ticking: You now have about 3 months to close the round
that is taking us there. Why? We discovered a large problem and solved it with a product that has this amazing technology inside. We’re going to market and sell it to these customers, with these advantages over our competitors. In particular, we’re working towards these milestones over the next few quarters. In conclusion, this is a great investment opportunity right now.”
plusandersen
dsalo
debug_mode
otsuki
signer
kzkmaeda
junhat6
hiroc_sk
cm_manaus
masakiokuda
georgeorge
yatabe
akiraasano
sugarenia
mfonobong
vanstee
codingconduct
coloredviolet
csswizardry
sarafernandez
panda_program
marktimemedia
lara
shpigford
ipullrank
