Comments on: What should I send investors? Part 2: Deck

By: Ask the Angels » Blog Archive » AngelList - Santa Never Sleeps

Ask the Angels » Blog Archive » AngelList - Santa Never Sleeps — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:40:54 +0000

[...] Angels, some of the best advice on these sites includes how to create a great elevator pitch and pitch deck. There are also great write-ups on how not to do your pitch, including an example from Ali G (Sacha [...]

By: Medical Device VC Funding: Slide Deck – Part 1 « Jay Caplan on Medical Devices

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 21:07:50 +0000

[...] totally nails the deck template for tech companies. If you haven’t already read http://venturehacks.com/articles/deck, do it now. Read the comments too. Even better, read the whole VentureHacks archive, and buy [...]

By: Jonathan Chamberlin

Jonathan Chamberlin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:24:43 +0000

What are your thoughts on creating a non-linear pitch deck? For instance, Prezi.com.

It’s not as “simple” as linear pitch decks made in PowerPoint or Keynote, but it may be more effective in telling your startup’s story, and it’s very visual.

I’ll probably use Keynote, but the non-linear possibilities are appealing.

By: Moxe

Moxe — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 20:20:49 +0000

PowerPoint’s can be hard to distribute and boring to read. Make it interactive. Email only a link. Investors won’t complain. Adobe Captivate 4 helped me design a multimedia presentation — without Flash or HTML skills. I built credibility before a first meeting ever took place. (Although, I’m still looking for cash.)

Captivate will allow you to:
Maintain the visual integrity of PowerPoint
Be viewed the same way on computers w/ different operating platforms
Add voice narration, video, and flash animation
Obviate large email attachments

This is the process I used:
•Important; unless you want to purchase Captivate 4, develop your presentation in PowerPoint first. Get the layout, graphics, and script completed before moving to step two. You only get a 30 day trial before having to pay $700 to edit your presentation. (If you have a child in school, you can get it for $252)
•Download the free 30 day trial here: http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
•Copy and Paste one full page at a time from PPT to Captivate. I only needed a day to get comfortable with the software – even the “advanced” capabilities.
•Add voice over, video, other animation effects.
•I uploaded my presentation to both an FTP server, and to my computer for face-to-face meetings. Captivate automates all of these functions.

While not hosted on my website, this is me using it to its full capability: http://www.gowebx.com/moxe/ycpublic.htm

Thanks to all the posters! Venture Hacks is an apex resource!

P.S. Missouri is a desert island for a Web startup. I’ve applied to Y Combinator for W 2010. Their Q&A format is my new Exec. Summary. Highly recommended exercise.

By: mkeuntje

mkeuntje — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:31:17 +0000

comparing David Cowans mentioned article and your list I do like your effort to put his list into catchy terms. so I would like to sugest a minor change:
topic 7 appears to be better called ‘market entry (status)’ which you call marketing. that’s simplifying ‘marketing’ too much which I would define with ‘forming a product as to match technology with (suspected) demand’ thus going either to your topic 9 ‘marketing& competition’ or to 5 or 6 / ‘solution’ or ‘technology’. the selection here might show where you come from with your understanding of marketing (as you might be a techie a sales pro or a strategist by personal background)

By: Nav

Nav — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:27:35 +0000

Great follow-up post.

I’d also recommend How to Write a Great Business Plan by William Sahlman. Short read in the Harvard Business Review collection.

Also, been a fan of a short teaser deck, especially for early stage companies. 5 slides: Team, Problem, Competition, Solution (with screens), Agenda (next steps and contact).

Followup with Product Timeline, Numbers, Use of Proceeds and an Appendix with Market Research and Key Team Resumes. Walk potential investor through product prior to discussing this deck.

Thoughts?

By: Verbal Hedging « Alex J. Mann (.com)

Verbal Hedging « Alex J. Mann (.com) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 13:22:27 +0000

[...] If you are putting together an investor pitch, this Venture Hacks slide deck tutorial was incredibly helpful. Also, if you’d like to debate the future of Twitter with me, leave [...]

By: Find The Pulse » On Starting Up: The Pitch

Find The Pulse » On Starting Up: The Pitch — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:37:41 +0000

[...] No investor is going to write a (potentially big) check to an unknown or nonexistent company with nothing to show for itself except a few lines of code, a cute logo, and a few high scores on Rock Band. Every company needs a prepared investor presentation—ten to twenty slides of terse, easy-to-understand information. In start-up parlance, this slide show is called the “deck”. Standard decks include a summary of the idea, an introduction to the team, a slide about marketing, a slide about competition, one about financing, another about new technology, and finally, a slide explaining how your company plans to make money. For a typical deck template, and other useful advice, try this site. [...]

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:30:59 +0000

Great stuff. I wish these resources were available months ago. I’m wondering what the consensus is on writing full business plans. I have not written one, nor has a single VC asked me for it. I have a one page overview which acts as a very simple exec summary, a strong investor deck and full financials with 3 year projections. One VC recomended doing 5 years but he’s the only one.

For every VC I’ve met with, this has been more than enough.

What are your thoughts?

By: Trace

Trace — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:18:43 +0000

“If you want the meeting more than they do, provide what they want.

If they want the meeting more than you do, provide what you want.”

Beautifully said, I laughed out loud at the simplicity……