Pitching is maybe the one most necessary ability that any founder must hone, so not surprisingly, we kicked off our TechCrunch Early Stage 2023 — Advertising & Fundraising occasion with a deep dive on all the ideas and methods required to get essentially the most out of pitching and slide decks. Available was Adina Tecklu, a principal at Khosla Ventures, and who previously constructed out Canaan Beta, the buyer seed apply at Canaan Companions.
We talked concerning the significance of realizing your buyer (aka your potential investor), specializing in story, typical slides in a deck, the appendix slides, formatting, after which various codecs and which to keep away from in a pitch deck.
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Know your buyer, on this case, your investor
We kicked off our dialogue with recommendation that is still as helpful as it’s apparent. Even as we speak, regardless of the wealth of assets accessible on the web to background analysis potential traders, founders recurrently stroll into their pitch conferences like deer in headlights with no sense of that exact investor’s pursuits, tastes, stage of funding and extra. Don’t be that founder.
Key primary is know your viewers. The very best founders perceive their customers, whether or not that’s an finish shopper, or an enterprise buyer. They’ve completed the analysis to grasp what motivates their clients, how they make shopping for choices, and likewise what their clients like and don’t like as a lot about their very own product. When fundraising, your VC primarily turns into your buyer. And so earlier than you start pitching, and even constructing your deck, it’s actually necessary to do your analysis beforehand to grasp the companies and the companions that you just intend to pitch. (Timestamp: 2:25)
If you happen to try this proper,
That data means that you can proactively deal with any issues that they may have. And actually just remember to place your corporation in a method that’s each genuine, however in a method that can be properly acquired by the VC. (Timestamp: 3:20)
- Six issues enterprise capitalists are in search of in your pitch
- What to anticipate when pitching European VCs
- Must you pay $50K in your pitch deck? Sure, why the hell not?
Story-driven, not data-driven
Knowledge is a very powerful supply of knowledge in Silicon Valley, or so the assumption holds. However the actuality, significantly in early-stage investing, is that the information can solely paint a partial image of a startup and a founder’s ambition. Don’t let a dense copse of bushes occlude the broader forest, which is what traders are actually investing in.
