VC Pitch Tip #11
by Healy Jones
Onto my 11th tip for the entrepreneur pitching his/her startup to venture capitalists!
Keep the actual slide deck short but sweet
A 50 page PowerPoint presentation is too much. There are plenty of resources online that can point you to good examples of fund raising presentation (I like the CommonAngels one here); but it's important to note that these presentations are all 10 to 20 slides long. If you have additional information that you MAY need to present, put it into an appendix that you can skip if that particular subject doesn't come up.
Too long of a presentation causes several potential problems:
- You risk running out of time, and thus missing important aspects of your business. VCs are pretty judgemental, and if you don't get to a particular part of the presentation due to time constraints the natural instinct is for a VC to assume that you don’t have a strategy for that part of your business! This is crazy but true. I saw this happen several times when I was a VC - a CEO I had invited in to pitch to partner didn't make it all the way through their presentation. Whatever section that was missed by the CEO is what the partner thought was the major flaw in the startup's business model. You have to hit all the important parts of your business. Do not run out of time because you have too many slides!
- You will look disorganized. It's hard to navigate through a huge presentation if you are jumping around answering different questions. A simple presentation makes it easy to find the slide that you are looking for.
- VC's value brevity. They don't want to sit in long board meetings with a management team that can't get their point across quickly. Your pitch is the first chance to help the VC imagine what life would be like if they sat on your board of directors. Make them think you'll manage the board efficiently.
- You'll look like a novice. Experienced fund raisers know to keep their pitch short to leave plenty of time for questions. Even if you're not experienced, fake it 'till you make it!
Keep your pitch deck short and impactful. If a slide isn't getting across a major point in the business plan or strategy it probably doesn't belong there.
