Okay. Hey, everyone. Come in, gather, join us. So, so excited to be here with you all
to talk about this topic. I'm going to introduce myself to get us kicked off first. My name
is Shelly Prevost. I am I am an investor. I am also an entrepreneur, having started
a couple companies. And I'm a psychologist that has worked with startups. And so I have
seen a lot on the front lines of lots of founder struggles and successes. So I'm very excited
to be here with you all. I'm currently a general partner for the Jump Fund, based in
Chattanooga, Tennessee, right up the road from our Atlanta friends. And I've probably
taken, I think probably at this point, we're in the hundreds of pitches. As a founder,
I have probably given over 100 pitches as well. And I'm really fortunate to have earned
some money along the way and won some competitions. And so pitching is something that I think
is obviously really critical to our journey as founders. So I'm going to throw a lot at
you all tonight. And I'm very aware that it's a ton of information. Take notes. I'm
going to give you my email at the end. If you're just stuck and you need some more explanation,
please reach out to me. And then we're going to have a little bit of time at the end, we're
going to reserve for some questions. So please feel free to write your questions down. You
can put them in the chat box, and we'll get to as many as we possibly can in our time
together tonight. So here's what we're going to dig into a whole bunch of topics around pitching
to investors. The key of this whole thing, if you take nothing away, is to keep it simple. And I
say that from an investor perspective and a founder perspective. I want to start with this
quote from Paul Graham, who started Y Combinator. When you're faced when you're forced to be
simple, you're forced to face the real problem. When you can't deliver ornament, you have to
deliver substance. And nowhere is this more true than your pitch. So that's what we're going to
talk about today. I want you all to remember, you are always pitching, you are always
representing your company, you're always talking about your company. And that's going to look a
lot of different ways. But who you are and your reputation, the way you're talking about your
company, building your company, it follows you everywhere. And so be very mindful of the fact
that you are always pitching your company. So here's how we're going to break this down today.
Briefly talk about informal pitching, spending the most of our time today talking about formal
pitching, which is something I know you all want to get in front of investors. And so I want to
help you think about how to do that. Well, I'm going to have you think about your audience a
little bit. How do you craft a story? How do you craft your story? Not only your company's story,
but your story. And we're going to break it down the pitch deck for you. So you can really see
exactly what are the components of your pitch deck and what do you and I've really tried to keep it
into the essentials like what do you have to have in a pitch deck. And then I'm going to talk a
little bit about things to avoid. These are a little subjective, because these are things that
I've learned along the way, again, both as an investor and as an entrepreneur to avoid because
they, they can tend to backfire in unexpected ways. Okay, so informal pitching, this, you know,
when I say that you're pitching your company all the time, this is what I really, really want you
all to get into the habit of doing, which is talking about your company with energy, enthusiasm,
clarity, and simplicity. Energy, enthusiasm, clarity, and simplicity. And it really is, I think
that we founders get so in the weeds, that we forget, most people, they don't think about our
company as much as we are. And so when we
start talking in these informals.
It could be like to our friends at a cocktail party,
to our families at a reunion, or at a networking event,
or maybe you're at a pitch event
and you're listening to other founders
and you've met an investor.
So always thinking about how do you talk about your company
in these really simplified, enthusiastic ways?
Because that's where, honestly,
a lot of the connections happen
and the relationships are built,
is through what I call informal pitching.
I wanna give you all this not very pretty diagram,
but it's a very important diagram
and it has made a lot of sense to me along the way.
And there's an investor, Mark Suster is his name.
I believe he's in LA, but I'm not positive.
He says that investors invest in lines, not dots.
There is no leapfrogging when it comes to raising money.
So those dots are these kind of isolated moments
that you have when you're just in front of an investor.
So they have one moment in time
where they hear one thing you're talking about,
and then maybe fast forward six months later,
there's another moment in time,
they hear another thing you're talking about.
It is unlikely that investors will invest
in those kind of single moments.
What they're looking for is traction over time,
higher performance over time.
So you might meet someone today
that might invest in your company in 24 months.
And over the next 24 months, they're watching you,
they're observing, they're seeing your traction,
they're seeing your influence,
they really like what they're seeing.
Those are the people that are gonna be more likely
to invest in you because they've seen the line
of your growth, they're not just looking at these dots.
Okay, so let's talk a little bit about formal pitching.
Here's the high level with this.
Formal pitches, they're almost always five to 10 minutes.
It's rarely that you get over 10 minutes.
You might get 20 minutes for Q&A.
And this is pretty typical for institutional investors.
If you go into a fund, they'll say you've got five minutes,
and we're gonna do 15 minutes of Q&A
that you'll have with the investors.
And then you're literally out in 20 to 30 minutes.
And so that's pretty much the framework
that a lot of funds are looking for.
So five to 10 minutes with about 10 to 15 minutes of Q&A
is how I want you to think about a formal pitch.
I want you to really think before you go
into any formal pitch, who is your audience?
Who is gonna be there and what is their motivation?
So you might have a, let me go to them.
Here's my next slide, yeah.
You might be talking with a high net worth individual angel.
So somebody who's just an individual angel
who likes to invest in startups.
That is a very specific audience
that you need to think about.
They're gonna require a little bit more time from you.
They're gonna want to know about your company
at a deeper level.
They'll probably have some more questions.
And it really is the first of many conversations
in building a relationship with that person.
Institutional investors, they get requests
for pitches dozens and dozens a day
and depending on the size of the fund.
So they're hearing, they're getting asked
to come and pitch to them all the time.
And so most institutional investors
have what we call a pipeline process.
And so you would, depending on the fund,
you would get an introduction to apply.
So you would make an application usually on their website.
You would have to give some initial information,
pretty high level about your company,
the fundraising that you're looking at,
the kind of the life cycle that you're in with your company.
And if they like that, then they'll usually have you come in
and do this five to 10 minute pitch.
And then you think of it like dating.
You really are like you're building a relationship over time
and you want to kind of impress as you go.
This is the game you're playing.
You want them to ask you out on a second date.
And so you come in for that first pitch.
You've got your five, 10 minute elevator pitch ready to go.
You're ready to answer.
answer any questions they might have.
And then if you nail that,
then they usually bring you back for a committee review.
And so again, depending on the fund
and how much they're investing,
that process could last up to six months.
And then you usually go to a due diligence process
where they will do a lot of deep dive
into just a little bit more due diligence on your company.
So you really need to understand their motivation
and we'll get into this in just a little bit as well.
But what would a institutional investor look for
that's very specific to that pitch?
And again, they're quick.
They want you to get to questions pretty quickly.
They want to say yes.
They wanna say yes to bring you back for a second meeting.
And so that's really the goal of that initial pitch.
I think, I hope a lot of you all get the opportunity
to pitch at pitch competitions.
And so if you're doing that,
then your judges are who you're really pitching to.
And you need to understand like,
what are they looking for in a good pitch?
And we'll get to some of that in a minute.
And a lot of these pitch competitions come with checks.
And so if you can understand
what the judges are looking for in a good pitch,
then you're more likely to win, win that money.
Um, okay, I want you all to think about too,
what is the why for this particular investor
or investment group?
What is their thesis?
You really, this is where you just have to dig in
and do a lot of research.
And so the example I'll just give,
cause it's my example, is the Jump Fund.
So we have only invested in female led companies.
And so that has to have a female in the C-suite
who has significant equity in the company.
And I can't tell you how many all male teams
have applied to come pitch to us
just simply because they never read our thesis.
And the same is true if you're a healthcare company,
maybe don't go pitch to a product fund
who just really wants to invest in consumer products.
And so really try to understand
what they're wanting to invest in, but also their why.
Like, why is this important?
Why is this, why is healthcare important for them?
Dig into their stories a little bit,
try to understand the context for why they started this fund.
And if you, in my experience, a lot of them,
of course they want to make money,
but there's a lot of ways to make money in the world.
The fact that you're investing in startups is very specific.
And so really understanding that is important
if you want to deliver a good pitch.
Okay, time constraints,
we've talked about that a little bit,
really try to keep it to five minutes.
That would be my biggest suggestion
because they always go over.
So five minutes is a really good parameter
in terms of your time.
Okay, I'm gonna take a drink real quick.
All right, so let's talk about your story.
So I want you all to really own your story
and build the arc of your pitch.
You're talking to the investors.
Your slide deck, your deck is only supporting
what you're saying.
So too often I see founders come in and pitch
and they're relying on the data
or the words on their pitch deck.
And they forget that we're actually trying
to have a conversation with them about their company.
And the story is really, really important.
And I want you all to think right now,
why did you start your company?
Why did you start it?
There are so many other things that you could be doing
with your time, your resources,
but for some reason you felt compelled
to start this company.
And I want you all to really spend some time
writing that down, honing that story, crafting it.
And I want you to mix head and heart
and appeal to both the emotions
and the logic of the people that you're sharing it with.
And this is where I get a little soap boxy.
So too many founders get overly reliant
on their logic and their strategies and their tactics.
And too many.
them completely miss the opportunity to connect to the
heartstrings, to create and cast a vision to appeal to these
investors imaginations of what could be that they're really
leaving a lot on the table. And so what I want you to think
about is, you know, is you're, you're going to start putting
your pitch together and building a case for why they should give
you money. That's what you're doing. You're building a case
for why they should give you money. And you're going to take
them on a journey through your pitch deck. They are much more
likely to want to go on that journey with you and be like,
you know, sitting at the on the seat of their chair here, the
edge of their chair waiting, if you've given them a reason to
care, and there's something about it that feel it feels it's
like this is interesting, I feel something. Her story's profound
or amazing, or they're doing something that's really changing
and, and disrupting the status quo, like there's something
about this, I want to go on this journey with them. So this is
how you set it up at the beginning, like really think
through why you started your company and how do you tell that
story from a lens of your heart, not just your head. The other
thing too, they are not just investing in you for a return. I
think that's the big thing. People think it's just
transactional. It's about it's about money. Yes, they want to
make a return. That's why they're doing this. But when
you're investing in startups, you're really investing in the
founders. When you believe in them, and you believe in their
capability to put together a team that can execute on this
vision. That's what we want to invest in. That's what we get
get excited about. It's not just, you know, putting in x and
getting out 10x. There's lots of ways to do that. So I think if
you can share your story in a compelling way, and these
investors see a reason why for them, they want to help you,
then they're much more likely to want to invest in your company.
Another thing I want to say to another way to tell the story of
your company is sharing customer stories. If you don't have or
don't want to share, although I really urge you to to share your
own personal story, you can talk about how your customers use your
product or your service, how their lives were, were changed
or were enhanced. Any kind of testimonials that they have, so
that is equally as powerful for investors who may not understand
the market as well as you do, when they start to hear that
customers are buying this, and this is how it's helping them.
It's quite compelling. Um, I want to talk, you see there the
elephant and the rider, I'm going to talk about this for
just a minute, this goes to the head and the heart, you all may
have heard this metaphor. You know, so much of us were telling
we're telling, you know, we're trying to craft these pitches
from our heads. That's, you know, from our prefrontal cortex,
we're giving all the data, we're telling you why the products
works and why it's great. And this is what it does. But we're
leaving out this large component, the elephant, you
know, that is the elephant is the emotion. And most humans,
all of us make the vast majority of our decisions from
an unconscious emotional level. So when you appeal to the
elephant, you motivate the elephant, then you build your
case to the rider. And that's how you direct the rider. That's
how you get people to follow you, whether you're raising
money, or you're getting them to sign up. If you motivate the
elephant and direct the rider with your logic, you're going to
be a lot more successful. Okay, so let's talk about your pitch
deck. These are the components we're going to break down and
talk about in detail. So the first thing you're going to do,
and I've had people forget this before, is introduce yourself.
Simply say who you are and what your company is. You're going to
talk about the problem you're solving the vision you see. So
really clarifying that vision, how you're going to solve it. So
they're going to get into your product or your service right
there, how you're going to make money. And this is, in my
opinion, it's the most
important slide. And I really, really, really want you all to spend a lot of time on your business
model slide. So this is you'll see the first half of these of your deck is really is building the
story, casting the vision, who are you? And how are you going to solve this? Your business model
slide is where you start to appeal to the writer. That's where if you've hooked them up to that
point, they're going to want to know, okay, how does this thing make money? Let's so that's a
really important kind of pivotal transitional slide. You're going to talk about traction and
milestones, milestones, you're going to talk about your market size. And we'll talk about what those
mean in a minute. Excuse me, your competition. You're gonna talk about how much money you're
raising, fundraising, and what you're going to use it to do. And then the last one is your your
team. I want to say this too. So your slide deck should be between 10 and 12 slides for an initial
pitch. So if you have like a cold, intro cold, you're, you're emailing a pitch, you're going to
do a first kind of pass with an investment fund. You're doing the five to 10 minute pitch that I
mentioned, you want to between 10 and 12 slides, slides, no more than 15. Because if you're getting
into that territory, investors, they get confused. And they start to think that if you're not if you
don't have brevity, either you're trying to do too much, or you don't really know what you're doing.
So really keeping it dialed in under 15 slides, preferably 10 to 12 is really important. Okay, so
let's talk about these. I've already said, you're going to introduce yourself, you're going to tell
your story a little bit, you're going to talk about your company, you can talk about your customer
stories, if you want to share some of those. But again, these are these are brief. So you just got
to get right to it. You know, and I started a company that was a parent, a problem I had as a
parent with my kids on the internet and wanting to keep them safe. And I told the story about when I
my son, I think at the time he was 10 or 11, and was going through a really rough, I mean, you know,
it's already hard anyway. But then when you're facing all this technology, kids really struggle.
And so I shared a story. And I think that a lot of the investors who were parents were like, yes, yes,
yes, we get it. And so I think it was easy for me to take them on that journey, because they connected
with me as a mom. And so that's the kind of the intro you want to think about doing something like
that anyway. Alright, so the problem you're solving, and I'm going to use Airbnb as an example.
And just frankly, because I like them and their pitch deck, this was their first one they ever used.
And it was really easy to find. And it was and they're very willing to let to let us use it. So
this is a great example. So very, very simply, what is the problem? Don't don't fluff it up, just talk
about it. You know, this is the problem we see. This is how we saw how we experienced it. Yeah, and
that's it. It doesn't have to be anything more than that. Just really talking about what is this problem
that you face or that your customers are facing? Okay, here's your vision, your solution, your
product, your service. So you're the guide on this journey. So you've talked about your story a little
bit, the problem you're solving. Now you get to kind of like set this compelling vision. This is what
you see. You're the guide, and the guide brings them these tools. So this is a problem. And here's these
tools that we're using. And again, why I love this slide, it's super simple. It tells you exactly a web
platform where users can rent out their space to host travelers to save money, make money, share
culture. I think that this in and of itself is intriguing enough that it makes you want to bring them back to
hear a little bit more like let's have a, you know, another round of conversations and go a little bit
deeper. Okay, here's their solution for their platform. So this is what this would be a great example. If you
have a demo, you have some wireframes, like something that you can put up here so that they can actually see
or begin to imagine what it could look like, like what the product
would look like this. Again, you're starting to make a little bit of a case
to the writer, not just the elephant. Because if they're interested in the
solution, you're probably getting them hooked at this point. Here's what I
don't want you to do. This is I don't even know Nutanix. This was their
product solution slide. And as you can tell, everything about this is bad. It
doesn't work. So it's confusing. There's anything but simplicity. I think it
badly needed a designer. Please have a designer look over your your deck. It is
important. People want to think it's not, but it is. It's very important. And again,
this isn't simple. So I think if if you've got a complicated product or a
complicated service, it's on you to simplify it. Especially for that first
pitch. Especially for those first couple of rounds of conversation. Because if
their brains go in overload, they're just gonna shut it all down. So you want to
get back into the third and fourth conversation so that you can get to this
nitty-gritty slide. And usually at that point, they're gonna put you to another
go see our engineering assistant to help us understand the mechanics of how
this works. But this is not kind of your first pass in a pitch deck. Keep it
really simple. This is another one. This was Squares, actually. Their very first
product slide, I guess. And it's same. Like this this circular kind of how how
does it work? Is it linear? Is it circular? That didn't make sense to me either.
You know, this these vertical boxes over here. Like how that how does that flow?
That's a little bit confusing. And the thing is about these these slides that
contain complicated information, the more simple design, visually, you can make it
the better. So simple design on your slide. Talk through as simply as you can
what the product or service actually is. But keeping it very simple on your slide
so that they can follow along what you're saying with the visual graphics
behind you. Okay. So and here's the slide I really, really, really want you all to
think about. Okay. Which, in my opinion, is your most important slide. Some others
might disagree, but this is what I really focus a lot on when I'm hearing
pitches. Because I want to hear that they're thinking through very simply how
are they going to make money. And I want to understand that they've thought
through some assumptions and that they're clear on those. So again, this is
very clear. We take a 10% commission on each transaction. And you literally could
pull your calculator up in a pitch and you could start to calculate how they
get to $200 million. So if I were to see this slide, I would want to know, okay, so
you got to $200 million. Let's reverse engineer that a little bit. Like walk me
through what some assumptions are. Some market assumptions. What do we assume we
know about the travel market, which I guess is what they consider themselves
to be in? Do we know that this is a really good transaction rate? How do we
know that? So really, this is compelling enough for me to want to ask
more questions. But I love the simplicity of it. That visually, it's just really
easy to grasp a lot of information from a little bit of design on the slide. So
this is why I really like this one. Okay, this is another, I actually debated to
put this one in here. So I actually do like it. It's a little confusing, I
think, because there's a lot of words that they put there underneath each of
these circles. But if you spend just, you know, a minute on your business model
slide, maybe a couple minutes, giving it the time that it needs to really help
people grasp how you're going to make money. I think it's okay to spend it on a
slide like this. Because if you read the words, they really do flow and make
sense. A freemium model with consistent 2% conversion from free to paid plans.
Okay, I can get that 5% churn equates a lifetime value of $240. Okay, and allows
us to pay up to $5 to acquire each user each user.
those are questions I'm already thinking as an investor. So
they've already predicted that those would be questions I might
have. And then they've done the prediction for me, they
projected out at a million users, our projected revenue is
3.6 million. Okay, they've taken me through that, like, those are
questions I would ask, based on, you know, buffer as a SaaS model,
like, these are things I would want to know. And so they've
done the hard work for me. So I really do appreciate this slide
a lot. Even with all the words, I'm sorry, this is fuzzy, but I
did screenshot it. I wanted you all to see there's a couple ways
to think about milestones and tractions. For a lot of
startups, they're like, I don't really have any milestones. Like
we just we did this at a hackathon, or I just started,
you know, three months ago, you do, you do have milestones. So
here's, here's what I think is a very honest, legitimate
milestone chart. We started it as a weekend project, we did
some testing at a looks like a hackathon. You know what, we
went full time, we were in in January 2014. And so you show
here, the progression of your company. And I think that that
builds interest, and it builds momentum. And you can also do
think about it this way. So if you are pre revenue, pre revenue,
which a lot of you probably are, start thinking about users as
traction, impressions as traction, what are your other
non revenue metrics that you can start to build case and build a
story with? I think recruiting people to your team, that is a
huge traction piece that I look for, because if you're able to
influence people to join your team that says something about
you, that I would want to, I would want to know that. So
really think about any kind of milestones that that would be
interesting to show kind of the lifecycle of your company and
where you are right now. Okay, so let's talk about market a
little bit. So there's a couple ways to think about this as
well. So I think, I believe this is still the Airbnb slide, I
think so. So they gave 4.2 billion is their, their total
addressable market. So that's the big as big as their market
gets, that's if everything were included. And so and they're
breaking it down here for me, that 22% of all the total
revenue of their market goes to the top four players combined.
And so they're showing a little bit of like how the market might
be segmented a little bit. This is, this is interesting, but
it's not as interesting is when I start thinking about who, what
is your big market? And who are you going after? And so there's
a couple ways to think about this, your total addressable
market, that's, and you're going to have to dig into some market
research. So whatever your market is, really look at this
year, what were people spending in this market, everybody, so
all humans spending in this market, or you could do all
people in the US. But really looking at how big this market
is for you. You if you have different ways serving that
market, you can always break it down. Like they do here. Business
airport trips, retail airport trips, business, not airport
trips. So they're breaking down different market segments and
basically saying that they can serve all of them. So they're
showing they're giving a lot of information that can be kind of
complicated. In this slide, I think what I really want you all
to think about is when you're doing your market slide, this is
important, because I want to know that you've done your
research, I want to know that you know exactly how big your
market is. The second part of that, flip over here real quick.
So you've got your total addressable market, your total
serviceable market. So who are you going after? So like, for
example, my company was was all parents. So any parent, we could
we could feasibly include them in our market. We were really
going after parents of kids that were under the age of 12, really
between six and 12. That was our serviceable, who we felt like we
could kind of get in front of the serviceable, attainable
market. So your SOM are people that you really think about like
demographics and psychographics. So who are the people
that would buy our product. They're probably scared about what their kids can find on the
internet. They might be a little bit more conservative. You know, they do have the kids
that are under 12, like 6 to 12 starting to get online. So those are really what you want to be
thinking about. We call those persuadables. And so you've got your big, total addressable market,
excuse me, your serviceable market. So who are you like targeting? So not everybody,
you can't target everybody. Who are you targeting? And then who is your obtainable market? Who do
you really think you could go after and persuade to buy your product? And that's where you really
want to get into demographic and psychographic information. Sorry, I'm losing my voice a little
bit. So talking about your competitors, I have to go to the next slide, and then I'll back up.
But this is, I love this. This is another circle of confusion. So this is supposed to be
Buffer's competitor slide. And it, it just, it's, it's crazy. It makes no sense to me. Like,
I would go bonkers if I had to figure out how to interpret this slide. In fact, I would,
I would just be like, okay, they have a lot of competitors, but it tells me nothing
about what, what, what are the competitors doing? What is their traction? Like, investors really
just want the honest truth here. Don't make it sound like you're the only one that does everything,
because we all know that's not true. So really thinking about how do you talk about your
competitors? They're going to do some things better than you and they're going to do some
things worse than you. Just talk about that. And I actually love this slide. I found this
in a template, actually. I think it's really, just a really great way, if you changed out images,
competitor one, what's their name? What advantages do they have? Were they first to market?
Can they raise more money? Do they have a different take on your product? You know,
are they hardware in your software? What is the advantage? And doing that for three to four
competitors. And again, the expectation isn't that you're the best or you've done everything
better than everybody, because we know that's not true. What we want to see in this slide is that
you're aware of who they are, you've thought about it, and you're incorporating that competitive
advantage, that competitive edge into your strategy. So that's really all. We know there's
competitors out there. There's always going to be competitors, but that you know who they are,
and you're thinking about it is important. That's what we want to know here. Okay.
So your financials. Another very important slide. All you're going to do in this slide is you're
going to say explicitly how much money, how much money you're looking to raise, how much do you
want? And what do you think you can make with that money? So right here, it's very on the nose.
We're looking for 12 months financing to reach 80,000 transactions on air bed and breakfast.
So for that, what they're looking for is $500,000. So this is the very first open angel round.
And here's what they think they can do with that. With 80,000 trips booked, with the $25 average,
I think it's supposed to be fee, maybe. I don't remember. They're going to generate $2 million
in revenue. That's interesting. That's an interesting thought process that they have
taken us through. So for 500,000 over 12 months, they're going to generate $2 million. Now,
that alone is not sufficient. If you do get investment, obviously investors are going to
dive into a lot of your pro forma. They're going to look at, okay, how do you think you're going
to get there? But this slide is sufficient for that first round of pitches in terms of getting
them interested in what you're thinking, how much money you want to raise and what you're looking
to do with it. And I know I think most, I think we're all women on this call. So I apologize for
using three white dudes. But this is really just a good slide. Very simply, again, like just your,
you know, your founders, maybe you want to put some advisors if they're influential in your
industry. And just very simply say what the title is and anything notable. Did you go to a notable
program? Have you started another company? Have you received an
or an award of some kind in your industry,
those are all the kinds of things
that we're looking for at this point.
If we like you, we're looking for reasons to like you
and sign up, we wanna be in this with you.
So this is, just kind of pulls it all together,
is letting them know who's the team
that's gonna pull this off.
And so this is where you get to toot your horn a little bit.
And please do, this is not the time
to be modest and humble.
I think you can say who your team is,
including yourself in a very humble way,
but being very direct about who you are
and what you've done and why you're proud
that you've started this company.
Okay, a few things to avoid.
And again, this is subjective,
because this is what I feel like is needing to be avoided.
Jargon is the first thing.
So a lot of us are in very, very deep in our industries.
I have a company that I've been working with for years,
who is in the military, she works with DOD,
she's killing it, but I all the time have to tell her
or ask her to not use acronyms,
because I don't know what any of them mean.
And so she's just so used to using all the military jargon
that when she's talking with investors,
it's hard to switch.
But she's, and she's learning to do that
and has learned to do that.
But you've got to, if you're trying to make this case,
this compelling kind of heart and head case,
jargon will get in your way.
So just try not to do that, if you at all.
If you're with industry investors, by all means go for it,
because I know they're there with you,
but otherwise leave it out.
Talking about other investors,
especially not a positive light.
So this is, I've seen this before,
and I know that the intention
is to kind of build rapport with me,
but saying something negative about another investor,
especially in this kind of ecosystem
that we're all swimming in is never a good thing.
And it's amazing how many people do that,
that even that I have to say that and put it in a slide,
I think is important.
Talking too much about how passionate you are.
So I've had a lot of pitches
where that seems to be kind of the thread through the pitch
and that lacks the substance.
And so we all assume that you're passionate
or you would not be putting your,
you know, your blood, sweat and tears into this.
So I don't, you don't need to say it at all,
much less repeatedly.
So just being aware of that,
it would tend to dilute your position.
And just to be aware that we all know
that we're all passionate about the work that we're doing.
There's a fine line between confidently selling your idea
and overhyping it.
I sniff that out real fast,
especially if there's not a lot to back up the claims
and kind of the vision.
So really being enthusiastic,
but backing it up with the data, the stories, the traction,
you know, that's really the key
to crafting a really good pitch.
Rambling is another thing.
I think if you practice a lot,
you'll get it down over time to five minutes.
So you really want to keep it brief, keep it clear.
And then the last thing I'll say is just arguing.
I've had not, this hasn't happened a whole lot,
but a few times we've had kind of back and forths
with founders who really, you know, got defensive
or really wanted to make us see what they were seeing.
And we couldn't get there.
And that's okay.
Like some people are not going to be for you.
They're not going to get it, just move on.
The thing that I've learned about both investing
and asking for money is that you're going to see,
again, hundreds potentially, if not dozens,
people and asking and pitching.
So just getting into the habit of constantly pitching,
the right people will begin to line up around your vision.
They really will.
And if they don't see it, then they're not for you.
And so it really is,
it's okay just to make peace with that and move on.
And it would save you a lot of heartache
and a lot of time in the process.
Okay, I'm going to give you homework
and then we'll have some questions if you all have some.
So, I believe on May 27th, we're going to follow up with some Q&A,
and I want you all to do this between now and then.
So, if you have not already, you're going to write up your five-minute elevator pitch,
and I want it to be five minutes.
I want it to be clear, crisp, solid.
You've got it nailed down.
You've got your slides that accompany what you're saying and how you're communicating it.
I want you to pitch it to at least one person who does not know your company well.
So, they can be outside of your industry.
It can be a friend who's kind of like, what are you doing now?
It can be to your mom.
Like, somebody who does not understand the nuance of your company and what you're building,
because we want to give you a chance to get feedback from somebody with fresh eyes.
From somebody, and investors, they'll know a lot about investing,
but they may not know a lot about your industry.
And so, you really do have to help frame it for them, help them see what you're seeing and know what you know.
And the way to do that is to keep it very simple.
You're going to get feedback from the person or the people that you pitch it to,
and then you're going to revise your pitch as you need to.
And this is why I think getting in the habit of constantly pitching is so valuable,
because you're constantly getting feedback.
Like, okay, that part didn't land.
They looked really confused when I talked about my business model.
Or, oh, I left that out.
That didn't flow the way I needed it to.
So, really getting into this habit of telling as many people as possible about your company.
Okay, so here is my email that I promised to give you.
Let me know if you're stuck, or I'll be on the Q&A next Friday,
so we'll have a chance to answer questions at that point as well.
But I think at this point, we've got some questions.
So, I'm going to stop sharing my screen.
And I think we've got about 10 minutes left.
So, what questions do you all have that you would like to ask?
It's a lot of information, I realize.
Okay, let's see.
I mentioned that team and being able to talk about team growth is a way
of showing traction pre-revenue.
In my case, my team works part-time, because we're pre-revenue,
and that's what the company can afford at the moment.
Should that be something I address up front, or does it count that I've been able
to get people to sign up and come on board with the project?
Yes, all of that.
Like, yes, do not be ashamed that they're part-time.
That's hustling.
That's like getting people to help you build your vision before you have money
to really pay them to come full-time.
Like, that's legit.
So, definitely mention that, say they're part-time.
Maybe part of what you want to do with the money you're raising is
to get them to full-time.
And I would say that as well.
So, it is 100% impressive and legit that you've done that.
So, use it, for sure.
Okay, any other questions?
I hope that it wasn't too laggy there at the beginning and that everybody could catch
when I started.
I'm looking at my comments now.
Yeah, do you have any examples of non-unicorn companies?
Sometimes it is hard to frame my pitch deck when I think of Airbnb as the model.
Yeah, totally, fair.
I will say this, though, and it might be helpful to understand your industry
and your specific space a little bit.
I will say this, though.
Yes, they're unicorn.
They blew up.
The components are the same.
So, if you're planning on and talking with investors and asking for money,
regardless of the size of your company or regardless of how big you want to grow it,
these are the pieces that investors are going to want you to have thought about.
Yeah, so, I think, again, if it's a small business, and so it might be a bank,
you know?
that you're going in and you're looking for funding, or
financing and not funding necessarily, they're going to
want a business plan with very similar components. Obviously,
it's going to be when you're getting a bank loan, it's going
to be much more thorough than a five minute pitch, or even
pitch, you know, sitting down with a meeting with investors,
but the pieces are still the same. So you're going to want to
demonstrate that you've thought about those 10 or 12 elements of
of the pitch deck, regardless if it's a flower shop, a beauty
care company or a SaaS company. How do you recommend we find new
people to pitch to? Especially if our family and mutuals are
familiar with our company, networking events, I'm not sure
where you are. But that's the best way that I have found to
talk with people because you're all swimming in the same soup
together. And so maybe you find somebody, hey, let's meet for
coffee. I want to tell you about my company, I'd love to hear
about yours. So it doesn't have to be like, like an investor, or
you know, or any somebody in the space that you're talking with.
But I think getting out and networking, pitch events would
be a great way, any kind of business network, friends, you
know, people that are just, you know, interested in what you're
doing, or even like mentors, like I know, there's a lot of
incubators and accelerator spaces who do office hours,
those would be great to plug into, to find people that you
can practice doing this, your pitch with a little bit, like
our local incubator here in town, they have office hours,
and they have attorneys come in and accountants come in. That's
an opportunity for you to share what you're doing and pitching
to somebody. So get a stranger, get just get somebody that you
can tell about your company and walk them through your pitch.
What's the elevator pitch entail? So that is in how many
slides are too many. So the elevator pitch is what we walked
through. And so really, you're gonna it's like a five minute.
I'll give you some wiggle room, you can go up to 10 minutes, five
to 10 minute walking someone through your company. And you're
going to do 10 to 12 slides, no more than 15. But it's, and I
think we might be able to give you a little bit more of a
I think we might be able to give you all this pitch deck so that
you have the examples that walk you through that. So that's what
I want you to do. Like literally, you can take the cop,
not not necessarily copy and paste, but just take your your
business, your company. And the first slide is introducing who
you are and talking about your company telling your story why
you started it. Second slide is here's the problem we're
solving. And you may just have to write it out in a Google Doc
first just to get it out of your head. And then you can start
thinking about, okay, how would I put this on a slide to
visually represent the problem I'm solving? There's lots of
examples, if you just, you know, Google that putting together a
pitch deck, but it's the components that we just walked
through. And then the five to 10 minutes of how you're going to
talk about your company. That's your elevator pitch. This might
be slightly tangential. But during my pitches, I have
received feedback that the story is very compelling, but we are
too small for them. What can we add to our pitch deck to give
investors more confidence in our business? That's a fantastic
question. And too small or too early? That would be one of the
things I think most of the feedback I give or have given is
that they're just a little bit too early for institutional
funding. And so a lot of times we'll have them go back and do
pitch competitions, or raise a family and friends round or can
they network with some individual angels in their
community who just have a lot of money and they want to invest in
startups. So there's things that they can do to get ready for
institutional investors. If they're saying too small, I
would wonder is the market too small? And so really maybe
thinking more about showing them illustrating how big your market
could be. Or is the team too small? And if that's the case,
then I might think about walking them through your ideas for
building the team. Like you're the whole point of this is you're walking them through with head and
heart, the vision for this problem you're trying to solve. What is your vision? And so if you can
help them see maybe we're small now, but here's the vision. Here's how I want to build this.
Here's the market we're trying to break into. This is how we're going to do that.
That may be what they mean by too small. So I think thinking about it those two ways may be
helpful. Okay. I hope that's helpful with those questions or those answers and I'm happy
if you have further questions for me and then I'll be back next Friday for you all
and we can dive into this a little bit more. But thank you all.
But I think I answered that one. Do you have any examples of non-unicorn companies? I think
it's going to be the same components even no matter if you're a small business or you're
have high growth potential. Do investors prefer you to have employees versus contractors?
Not at the beginning. I mean I think investors always know that you've got to start somewhere
and so like my company now we have all freelancers and contractors that we work with.
So that's just part of the growth. I think ideally you would show how you could get full-time
employees as a part of your fundraising because that's certainly desirable over contractors but
I think it's fine. Shelly that was awesome. Thank you. It was super helpful. I always find it
helpful when you teach this class because you have so much knowledge around pitching. So I am
super grateful for you being here. I am excited that we were able to have this class because
pitching is something that is not always easy. It's something that I think that a lot of founders
once they get it they got it but it takes a little bit of work. So I'm happy that you were able to
teach. Just letting you all know that this powerpoint and the replay will be available. So
the powerpoint will be in the Mighty Network platform and this presentation will be available
for you to watch. Two things I wanted to note. So Shelly will be doing one of our coaching classes.
As I mentioned so we have our cohort is set up of 50 women and we for the coaching calls we are
splitting them into two groups of 25. They can sign up for your coaching call and then we actually
have Kim Seals and she'll be doing the other coaching call. And so they'll be able to sign up
but I wanted to let you all know that if you aren't able to get into Shelly's coaching call
it's perfectly fine. Send me your questions. If you have something you want her to look at
send it to me because I don't want to bombard Shelly's emails. Send it to me so I can make
sure I can compile it and I can get it back to you. I'm in a really organized way so if you do
not get into her coaching call and say you know you do the homework which I want everyone to do
the homework and you're not in her coaching call to go over that send it over to me. I will make
sure that you all get feedback on it. So do not worry you will definitely be able to do that.
Second I have posted the link for you all to sign in. Make sure that you sign in before
we finish up the the master class. So I will leave the sign in link open until about 8 15.
Make sure that you take the link that's in the chat you have to copy it copy it and paste it
into your browser and sign in. All you have to do is sign your name it'll capture your email and
that's how we capture your attendance. That is what we're going off of on attendance. So make
sure that you capture that and those are all of the things that I have for you. If you had questions
that you did not get answered I tried to get through as many as I could and send them over to
Shelly. We have the coaching call we also have the you can also post questions in the Mighty
Network group and I can make sure those get to Shelly too. So all is not lost there is still time
for you to do that. So thank you all so much for joining the master class and participating
and we are going to end tonight's call.
Bye.