Our most frequent comments on pitch decks

The situation… a founder reaches out cold to ask for pitch deck feedback (maybe you’ve heard the old “if you want money, ask for advice; if you want advice, ask for money” canard). We respond: “We avoid giving much advice without having spent time to understand what you’re building. Investors often treat their pitch deck advice as gospel — only you know what sells your startup.” This is also why we avoid judging pitch competitions or giving lightning-round advice in a public setting — and related to why it’s hard to give feedback on startup ideas — it just lacks much value for founders.

Still, we know that a good pitch memo or deck can be a critical factor in a fundraise. And we do see a lot of pitches (we considered more than 2,000 startups last year). While we only speak for ourselves (and what we’ve seen work on other investors) — and investors have wildly varying opinions on decks (including giving advice that backfires at their own firms! and disagreements on the below within our own team!), we can be transparent and share what we look for in written pitches. (If you want a general guide to writing a pitch deck, I like this guide by our friends at Designer Fund.)

We also talk more about pitch decks on #thisisnotadvice.

Some elements are table stakes for (almost) every investor.

Focus on investors who understand your problem space. Investors who “get it” won’t need much selling. “Search, don’t sell,” as they say. If you have to explain the basics of your market, more often than not, they’re the wrong investor.

Show those investors that you’ve done your research and that your startup fits within their investment criteria (ours are public).

Highlight the single reason to believe your startup is (potentially) extraordinary. Someone at Facebook once said there were 26 college social networks that started around the same time as Facebook, but nobody remembers CollegeTonight, CampusBuddy, CampusHook…

And a few tips from what we’ve seen:

(1) What we wish we saw more of…

• The deck itself! — don’t wait until the meeting to share your deck. The best conversations happen after an initial review so you can focus on questions rather than slides.
• A “suitcase” — this is our word for the simple idea that carries in it the most important thing to convince an investor. Startup investors need a reason to believe you could become one of the greatest companies ever, ideally stated on the very first page, even the title page. (“We’re the first/best/only company to ______” is often a good frame for your suitcase.)
• Clarity about what you’ve proven, and want to prove next — we measure startup progress in risks they overcome (and how much capital it takes).
• Focus — are you really growing in three markets simultaneously as a company with three people? Or are you just comparing options to find your ideal customer profile?
• Relevant detail about traction to date — If you have revenue, how did you sell those customers? Are the customers representative of who you want to sell going forward? A headline traction number is fine, but if it’s the reason to believe you could be great, we always want more.
• Relevant detail about what you’re trying to prove next — if you need to sell your first customer, how will you do that? If you’re building, how will you know you’re ready?
• Current burn rate, and where you plan to take burn after the raise — we’re betting on your judgment, so showing us what’s next helps us decide if we want to work for you.
• Something to get excited about — What’s the possible profound impact of your efforts, if they work?

(2) What we’ve seen enough of…

• Making the case “in general” — We don’t need to the HBR article proving your point. We’re usually sold on the market already (or else we wouldn’t even review what you’re sending, or would ask you); what are you doing differently?
• Team slides without a message — A slide of headshots tells us nothing. Highlight what your team offers that’s a particular fit in the context of this startup — Is it that you’ve worked in the right industries? That you have personal stories that compel you? Something else?
• Cumulative metrics — If you reached 200 customers over eight years of painfully trying to sell a product that lacks PMF, that’s different than if you started selling last week.
• Generic visuals — if you use the same stock photos as everyone else, then you sound like everyone else. We want founders to only as much time on the deck as you need.
• Financials with a “budget breakdown” — yes, we know the money almost always goes to headcount. You’ll need more money long before you’ve spent this round, so thinking of it as a budget is a broken metaphor. We care most about burn (our tips on building a startup financial model).
• “Aggregate metric” milestones for the future — show us growth rates, unit metrics (like price or viral coefficient) or what you’ll prove (e.g. a product customers love enough to create NRR of X%).

(3) What we wish we’d (almost) never see again…

• Explicit consideration of exit — we’re early investors who plan to hold for a decade or more, so you can almost always skip the acquirer options. (Exception: addressing a specific worry that a business like this has no exit scenario, for example if you’re doing something with a negative public perception.)
• Weak thinking about paid marketing — most early stage startups haven’t spent a dime on paid marketing. When you put that in your deck, we wonder why you even considered it?
• Market size — At our early stage, either the market is obviously big or obviously small. If it’s the latter, explain what you’ll do after you take a first market. In general, avoid any slides you don’t care about that feel “required” to include. (Exception: If you have some special insight in how you understand the market, because that wisdom may make us more likely to invest in you.)
• Competitors — Those tired 2x2’s rarely show anything (though some members of our own team have asked for them before… again, investors disagree). We’re more interested in why you will be the bird that emerges from the flock.

We want founders who only spend as much time on the deck as you need to deliver the result, which sometimes requires investing a lot of time, including on things like design. But most of the time, it means skipping slides you’ve heard are “required” even if you think they’re pointless, focusing on the few things that matter in your story, sending out the DocSend… and getting back to work.

If this post sparked more questions for you, try this chatbot some friends made (on my work, and Bloomberg Beta and #thisisnotadvice content).

Some complete nonsense that DALL-E generated based on the beginning of this blog post as a prompt.

Thank you to lori berenberg, bethanye McKinney Blount, and Gordon Wintrob for the edits.