Founder's resilience & Pitch deck (Taboo #3)

Last week we talked about Founder Burnout. Only recently did I discover how your pitch deck can help you build personal resilience.

Rejection, not success, is the most common outcome of startup pitch decks being sent out. This is why resilience is synonymous with entrepreneurship. You need resilience to cope with the hundreds of “not now” or “too early” replies received. This is, if you even get a reply ?? ??.

You don’t just pass on a deck; you reject a founder

This is hard. Pitch decks represent a personal commitment of a founder to the recipient about what they will build. You don’t just pass on a deck; you reject a founder. As an entrepreneur, when you don’t have money, the only currency you have is your dedication to execute what you said.?

You will trade this currency, in exchange for a team that will work for you and not someone else, against a future product you will deliver to a client or in return of a larger financial gain for an investor.?

For the 1% that succeed with their deck. At first, they celebrated, of course. After that they enter the world of founders that can fail even after receiving the right resources. 20% of seed-stage startups will get to series A. After that 50% will fail to reach each subsequent fundraising stage.

Therefore your pitch deck can both be a source of frustrations if you fail to raise. Alternatively it can be a source of crushing responsibility, as you commit yourself to others if you are successful.

How can you manage these emotions? When building your pitch deck focus on your Mission, Vision and Team slides.?

It works for them, but not necessarily for you.?

Most of the time, these are not where investors will spend their focus. Instead, they will prefer analysing the business model, competitor, market and ask slides. To them, these provide the clearest path to identify the possibility for a financial return. It works for them, but not necessarily for you.?

For founders, the financial return of a start-up is often not the primary motivation behind their purpose. If it was, they would have a regular job. Therefore it's critical that you internalise and communicate externally about your purpose. This will create the long term resilience needed to avoid founder burnout.?

How should you (re)build your pitch deck to be a better leader?

Mission: Who’s paint point are you solving and why does it matter?

Very often the hardest thing for founders is the lack of feedback or external confirmation if what they do is good. Our whole life we’ve been wired to get rewarded if we do well. At school you get graded, at work you get a salary. At a startup, especially in the early days you have a total lack of feedback loop.?

Your mission needs to provide you with that positive energy feedback loop. The more you talk to your users, the more you understand their pain point, the more energy you have to solve it, the more users will come to you, the more energy you have to keep solving for an ever growing market.??

Vision: What will be the consequence of your success on the world??

This slide should be contagious. It needs to create a superordinate goal which people want to rally behind. It needs to become a north star which will guide you in moments of doubt of your startup, which you certainly will have.?

The vision slide is a snapshot of your utopic world. It defines that moonshot which you can reach because you know how to build this rocket. As Kennedy said, “we are not doing this because it's easy, but because it's hard”. Your commitment to this vision of the world is what will make other people dream. This is what will energise them to become your investors, your super users and your promoters.

Team: Do you have a founder & team market-fit??

Never treat this slide as an afterthought. Just like you should never treat your team last. For your customers, your team will work to make them successful. For your investor, your team will confirm that you have a team-market fit. For you as a founder, your team will take the weight off your shoulders. Your team slide is the foundation of your success.?

Spend time to clearly communicate why the people you’ve listed are the best to execute this mission. Explain how their experience can help in building that vision. But do not simply make a CV of what they’ve done in the past. For this you have linkedin!

In summary, your mission will bring you the daily motivation to wake up. Your vision will give you purpose and make you more resilient to burnout. Whilst your team will be caring for your users so you can care for yourself when you will need it the most.?

They act as a magic shield that protects you from the external pressure of building your rocket.

Invest time when making these slides. They act as a magic shield that protects you from the external pressure of building your rocket. Their contents are the ingredients to resilient founders and long term success. These slides will be your fuel for your growth, professionally but also personally.??

Often when founders collapse it is because a disconnect in one of these 3 slides occured. Building a startup is risky, only 5% will make it to series D. However don’t be reckless by forgetting to set the right foundation for your wellbeing. As we argue at Founders Taboo, better founders create a better world.?

It takes on average 10 years to build this overnight success.

The next time you look at your deck, ask yourself:?

• Am I willing to commit the next years of my life with these people in my team??
• Solve that mission every day without immediately being rewarded??
• Become an actor of change towards that vision of the world??

What did you answer?

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Next week I’ll explain the origin of Imposter Syndrome for founders and why it is a taboo badge of honour.?To stay updated you can subscribe here, it will help grow our movement.

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Edits by?Sofia Daley