What makes a good pitch

*To find out how to upgrade your pitch and make more impact - just drop me a message*

Knowing your stuff, unfortunately, isn’t good enough.

That’s because you’re not pitching in a vacuum - you’re competing with ‘000s of other founders.

They all want as much cash as they can get hold of.

And they all think their start up is the next Tesla.

So…with that in mind, I’m always, respectfully, surprised that far too many decks are pretty difficult to digest.?

And before you think that’s not you…that includes the ones where the founders are immensely proud of what they’re presenting.?

They might be poorly designed, overloading on information, or simply missing critical pieces of the investment pie.

So, when you have to sift through hundreds a year it can be pretty grueling…welcome to early-stage investing!

What’s frustrating is it doesn’t need to be that way. But I appreciate that’s frustrating to hear if you don’t have all the inside knowledge.?

So, today I want to debunk some of that, tell you what isn’t important and what is!

The Bad + the Ugly

• Founders don't get it: They assume you see things from their perspective, and that if only we were clever enough, we would get the proposition, whatever state its in. The problem is, we don’t have your expertise, experience or perspective so we’re trying to qualify opportunities very quickly, with limited knowledge - your deck is the tip of the spear to sharpen it as best you can, thrust it into your investors, and twist it until they sit up and take notice as if their life depends on it! Make it simple and accessible.
• The curse of knowledge: There is a syndrome we all suffer from, subconsiously, which we call the “curse of knowledge”. We know soo much about our venture that we forget that others don’t know a thing about what we’re devoting our life to. This means you know the kitchen sink, and the plumbing, at the reader of your pitch without appreciating that this is only the intro - and they just want to know what you do, whether you’re in a big market and have a great team. EVERYTHING else is skimmed past and hardly considered. You want them to read it quickly and give a quick yes/no email response because you’ve highlighted the key initial info with an abundance of clarity.?
• Too much copy: If you were a digital marketeer you would get it - a lot of your decks / intro emails are going to be skimmed, possible on a mobile device, maybe even whilst the reader is actually on a separate Zoom call at the same time. So…the worst thing to do, is to present them with a deck they actually HAVE TO READ! Investors don’t want that. Investors will bite when they see concise, compelling and catalytic ideas presented as such. So, don’t send a deck full of text, or even a page full of it.
• Buzz words: Often we see start ups do one of two things; stick a buzzword onto a generic idea in the hope fo making it exciting, they take a perfectly investable idea, and then add a completely superfluous buzzword onto it on the hope of making it differentiated or worse, give the founder the bragging rights that they are the CEO of an ‘x’ business. It’s basically bullshit and investors will see straight through it
• All brain dump, no story: Behind your start up is a founder’s vision, behind that vision is a founder, behind that founder is a lifetime of experiences and learnings that led you to this point. What led you to this point, and why do you want to devote your life to changing the world through your venture. Far too many times you see founders dump the obligatory slides, under the obligatory slide titles, that they have stolen from a pitch template somewhere -'problem, solution, why now...etc'. There is no story here. And humans are linguistic, story-telling beings - we’ve done it for millenia and we’re not suddenly just going to stop because of the rise of ‘data science’. You need to tell your story, your deck needs to your story, each slide needs to build the story, each slide title is an opportunity to build those pieces and hold the investors hand through the story.
• Not investable: If you are looking for growth capital, angel or VC investment…then make sure your business is encapsulates the sort of investment parameters those investors are looking for; impact focused, strong team (with founder market fit), large market, compelling, differentiated and defensible solution. A neat but niche business is still a great business…it’s just probably not going to get funded by investors who want a 10x return within a 10 year period so don’t waste your time.
• Not filling in the gaps: Sure - the idea is exciting as hell…but we still need to tell the story (beginning, middle and…what was the final bit?) - so don’t miss the obvious sections out. Tell investors who the customers are, how much money you need, how big the market is, what your roadmap is, who your competitors are. Obviously this is a balance - not overloading on any single point (remember the curse of knowledge) but not missing out any obvious bits either. (If you want a prompt of all the key stats and sections click here)

So what makes a good deck?

• An idea a slide: Each slide should be presented to an investor to enable them to digest the key idea that slide is presenting. Don’t over do it on any single slide, and try not to split an idea over multiple slides. If it’s too complex for one slide - make it simple!
• The perfect tasting menu: A good deck should cover all of the bases over the entirety of its menu…but no single course (or page) is too much to leave you feeling bloated. It’s just enough.?
• Not too much info: Evoking the spirit of the growth marketeer again, remember the initial intro email just needs to get them to open the deck, the deck needs to get the investor to want to meet, your meet just needs to get a second meeting. So don’t overload or overcook.
• A great shop window: A well designed deck is always thought to reflect the immaculately designed and administered start up beneath its glossy pages. So make the deck well designed, clean, clear, aesthetically pleasing so it’s professional and makes people take notice.
• Conscise, provoking text: Just enough to inform and provoke, but not enough to subdue the reader
• Support everything with stats: don’t just make big bold claims…back them all up with stats, metrics, case studies, learned experience.
• Appropriate graphics: A picture tells a story of a thousand words…as long as it’s the right picture. It adds rather than distracts, its in tune rather than abrupt, it’s relevant.?

Now…this might sound like quite a lot to consider, but really, it’s more of a mindset. You’re marketing your vision, not writing a research thesis. BUT - if you really wnat to break this down and go into it in detail…that’s exactly what my Funding Impact program covers to help the best and most impactful entrepreneurs and founders to elevate their pitching and storytelling. Ultimately we want you to deliver a knock out punch to investors…so if you want to find out more click here, or if you want to arrange a pre-pitch practice or appraisal session - just click here!

Go get ‘em tiger!

Jake

How I help founders?

I am a prolific and impact-focused venture capital investor and serial founder as well as a start-up sustainability and fundraising coach. I work with dozens of sustainability and cleantech founders and investors.

VC Investor: I am a professional impact investor at Vala Capital, where I lead their UK-orientated sustainability fund. I sit on a number of boards and advise countless more.

Coach: I’m a Venture and Leadership Coach to sustainability CEOs around the world and coaches clients from the Far East, Europe and North America in sectors as diverse as Hydrogen, Circularity, BatteryTech, Retail, Hospitality and Energy Storage, WaterTech and Media.

VC Adviser: I’m also an adviser and mentor to Third Derivative in the US, and Bethnal Green Ventures in the UK, as well as being on the steering committee at VentureESG.?

Serial-Founder: I am a serial founder and have raised multiple investment rounds from notable VC investors including Anthemis and Axa Venture Partners for my start ups Attis Ventures and Goji Investments

Corporate Finance: Prior to founding Goji, I worked for one of the UK's most prolific corporate finance firms, where I advised on several $bn of transactions across public and private markets for some of the world's leading investment groups.

Find out more about how my 1:1 Venture Coaching and Start-Up fundraising programmes for Sustainability-orientated CEOs at www.Jakewombwellpovey.com or www.planetfirst.ventures