PITCH DECK
A Venture Investor will spend 20 seconds to 120 seconds looking at your pitch deck.
There are 8 Pitch Deck Commandments that will make a VC interested in your company.
Engaging a Venture Capitalist or Angel Investor is a lot like filling out a March Madness bracket: conventional wisdom and logic rarely follow suit.
The first document you will ever make and put in front of a potential investor is an Investor Pitch Deck (or “Pitch Deck” or “Deck”).
There are 8 Pitch Deck Commandments, and they are proven to work, but they are COUNTERINTUITIVE.
The quicker you can learn and accept the 8 Commandments, the closer you’ll be to receiving equity funding.
Here we go.
COMMANDMENT #1: Your Pitch Deck is more important than your business plan.
Creditors and banks care about your business plan.
Equity investors do not care about your business plan that much, if at all.
They won’t skim your business plan until they are ready to negotiate a deal.
Seems illogical, right?
COMMANDMENT #2: You must send the Pitch Deck to a potential investor before he/she will ever take a meeting with you.
It will feel very uncomfortable for you to share your big idea with someone you may not know. You will fear that the Investor may try to take your idea.
But, an investor will never take a meeting with you without first reviewing your deck because the investor has something you want (capital) and you’re competing against many other startups for funds.
Try to get past the fear that an investor will take your idea (this rarely, rarely happens).
Also, NEVER ask for a confidentiality agreement before you send your deck to a potential investor — it is a rookie move, and you won’t get the meeting.
COMMANDMENT #3: When you do send your Pitch Deck to a potential investor, he/she will spend 20 seconds to 120 seconds reviewing it.
Investors will skim your pitch deck and make a decision on you faster than you can watch a commercial on TV.
In no more than 2 minutes, they’ll know whether to ask you for a meeting or send your email and deck to the trash.
COMMANDMENT #4: Your Deck should be 8 - 12 slides.
By now, you may be thinking, “If I only have 2 minutes maximum to impress the investors, then I need to cram as much about my idea, product and company as I can into the Deck…”
Nope.
Your Deck should be 8 to 12 slides. Do not, I repeat, do not make a deck larger than 12 slides. An investor will throw it in the trash.
This is the WRONG APPROACH and brings me to my next point…
Want to know Commandments 5 - 8?
Want to make a persuasive pitch deck that will increase your chances of landing that first meeting with your VC targets?
Let’s talk!
