DESIGN DOING

10 Topics To Know Cold for Your Perfect VC Investor Pitch

Fri, 10 May 2013 20:20:00 -0700

You’ve been slaving away, creating your product and company while bearing the weight of the world on your shoulders. Now it’s time to take your company to the next level. You’ve reached out to your network for investor contacts, and now the all-important meeting with investors is booked. You have three weeks to prep. What do you do?

Investors can be tough, and you want to make sure you can roll with everything that is asked during your pitch presentation. For the novice, investor questions may seem perplexing, challenging, and hard to predict. Eventually you’ll discover there is limited universe of questions to be asked.

I have been through four fundraises, through good times and bad (see my post: 25 Ways Investors Will Reject Your Startup). I have found that while no entrepreneur has the best answer to all of the questions below, having a good prepared responses and a firm understanding of the 10 topics below make all the difference. While all of the questions below may not tie perfectly to your business (it primarily focuses on web and mobile companies), most of this applies widely and should help you prepare effectively for that pitch session.

1. Know Your Company: What You Do

This one should be a no-brainer for most founders. You essentially are the company. You live it, breathe it, and like it or not, sleep it too. In spite of this, many founders don’t have their elevator pitch streamlined. They’re too in the weeds.

There is a short window to pique the investor’s attention and the company intro is the time to do it. If you don’t grab their attention at the get-go, it’s all over. So make sure you have succinct and compelling answers to the following questions:

What does your business/product do?
Who are your users?
What is your company’s mission?
What is your long-term company vision?
What is your exit strategy?

2. Know Your Team: Who You Have and Who You Need

Having a strong understanding of your team’s unique attributes, core strengths, and weaknesses will be critical to convey during your conversation. If you’re dealing with most smart investors, they will actually care more about the team than the technology (as strange as that sounds). In your conversation, it will be important to articulate a) why your team is uniquely positioned to win and b) that you have the self awareness to plan for hiring additional players (to fill voids in skill set and bandwidth) and c) have a sound plan of who you are going to hire, and how you are going to attract top talent. Here are some questions you should be prepared to answer:

What makes your team special? Give examples.
How have you and how are you going to out-recruit other startups? How about companies like Google and Facebook?
What is your hiring plan over the next year? Two years?

3. Differentiation and Competitive Landscape: What Makes You Stand Out?

You are building something amazing and unique, of course! But much as you might see it that way, you need to succinctly convey this uniqueness and demonstrate how you’re going to win amongst a sea of competitors (many who have 100-1000X the resources of your team) is a challenge, but will be required to get the attention of investors. And it will be important to discuss your unique advantages over the competition. Be aware that “Why couldn’t Google just do it?” is a classic question. Here is what you need to know:

Who are your top competitors?
What gives you a competitive advantage in a crowded market?
What are the barriers to entry?
What is special/unique about the technology?
Are there switching costs associated with moving to and from your product?

4. Product and Company Strategy: What You’re Building

Many founders are great at thinking big and have a clear vision of where their startup will be in five years and billions of dollars later. What makes the difference is whether you have a strong product/company strategy to tactically get there. One worthwhile exercise is to lay out a release roadmap of key initiatives (by quarter). Ask yourself, is there logic to the staging of the company and product initiatives? Are key metrics assumptions, resourcing, and value appreciation milestones baked into the plan? This will further substantiate your raise amount and your financial assumptions. Here are some more questions to challenge you on this subject:

How are you prioritizing efforts and initiatives over this year? Next?
How are these priorities laid out over time? What is your high-level release plan?
What initiatives/metrics are most critical to the success of the business?
What initiatives/metrics are not critical to the success of the business?

5. Acquisition and Activation: If You Build It, How Will They Come?

You may have the best product in the world, but unless you can convince people to use it, no one will care. Having a clear strategy for driving acquisition and activation is critical to getting users in an efficient manner. Don’t worry if you don’t know exactly how you plan to get to 10 million users. What’s important is that you have a clear sense of how you are chipping away at the challenge by showing metrics focusing on optimization of visits, then signups, then active users, and eventually monetize-able users.

Be able to easily explain the logic of your process in order to reassure investors. And you should have your current metrics locked in your mind to show you are on top of your data. Here are some questions you will hear on the subject:

What is the % of traffic by each major source?
What is your registration rate?
What is the total number of registrations by month and all time?
What is the % traffic growth month over month? Year over year?
What are your current efforts to increase traffic diversity, registration rate, and growth?
What is the short-term (0-6 months) and mid-long term (6-18 months) impact on acquisition metrics?
Be able to speak to deliberate efforts to drive acquisition during the last year: What initiatives did you employ? What made you successful? Why can you apply this talent to further improve this metric?
How does platform expansion efforts play a part here? Is there risk of cannibalization? How will you mitigate?

6. Engagement: What Will People Do With Your Product Once They Arrive?

Do you have 5 million visitors who only visit one page and bounce, or do you have 10 thousand rabid users whose visits last more than 28 minutes per session? Each product/company has different ways they engage users and the optimization of your product can vary. Talk about how you engage your users to maximize value. Value can be calculated in a variety of ways (user utility, lifetime value, revenue/visit). Describe what engagement you are optimizing for, where you are today, and how you will continue to optimize this metric. Here are some questions you can expect:

What are your page views per visit broken down by source?
What are your current efforts to increase engagement + expected short-term (0-6 months) and mid-long term (6-18 months) impact?
Be able to speak to your deliberate efforts to drive engagement during the last year: What initiatives did you employ? What made you successful? Why can you apply your talent to further improve this metric?

7. Retention: After They Have Come and Gone, Will They Return?

Investors tend to have an interest in the lifetime value of your users. For many companies, the more the user visits, the more that can be made. If you are paying for users, ideally you can show that you make more per user than you spend to acquire them. Nonetheless, knowing how you measure retention and a grasp on your plans to improve this metric (in relation to your lifetime user value) will help you greatly on the topic of retention. Here are some questions to test your knowledge:

What is your daily active users / monthly active user ratio for both registered cohort and all visitors? – (many VCs have jumped on the bandwagon and ask this question because Andrew Chen mentioned it on Techcrunch)

For your registered user cohort, how often do people come back?
How many active users do you have?
How do you define “active users”?
Can you describe in detail the demographics/behavior of your active users?
What is the average lifetime pageviews/visitor? For active users?
What is your metric for retention? (Different companies measure this differently)
What are your current efforts to increase retention?
What is your expected short-term (0-6 months) and mid-long term (6-18 months) impact on retention?
Be able to speak to our deliberate efforts to drive retention during this year: What initiatives did you employ? What made you successful? Why can you apply your talent to further improve this metric?

8. Revenue: How are You Going to Create a $Billion Business?

Don’t stroll into an investor’s office without a monetization strategy. Most likely, you are not Instagram. Some of the largest value appreciation milestones you can plan for include initial substantive revenue, positive unit economics (making more per user than you spend to acquire them), and the holy grail - profitability. Separately, it will be good paint the picture of how big your business can be and where the revenue will come from (your customers). Here are the questions you will be asked:

How are you monetizing? What are your metrics for monetization?
Who are your customers and what is your sales strategy?
What is the addressable market size? How did you calculate?
What do you need to get right for your company to be successful? Is there a relationship with: Traffic growth? Active user growth? Team? Margins? Sales cycle? Market?
What is your average current and expected revenue per visitor and per active user?
What are your current efforts to increase monetization?
What is expected revenue for this year? Next year?

9. Funding

Funding is one of the last topics discussed in a typical investor meeting. You are almost through. Having a firm grasp on what you want to raise (and how long it lasts), how you plan to use the money, and the key milestones you will achieve are very important. If you have done your homework elsewhere (financial model, hiring plan, company strategy) the numbers here should roll right onto the page. Here are the questions you will get from investors on the topic of funding:

What is your current burn per month?
What is your current revenue per month?
Speak to your funding history: Amount raised? Previous investors? Post valuation for last round? Size of total and remaining employee pool? High level cap table breakdown?
What is your expected cash-out date?
What is your expected valuation for this round? (Trick question…don’t answer with specifics. You will be bidding against yourself.)
What are your funding needs for the next 12 months? 18 months?

10. Know Yourself

I have seen countless Quora questions asking about what to wear, how to act, and what to do to impress investors. The most important thing you should know and be comfortable with is yourself. Know your strengths and also acknowledge your weaknesses. Note that nobody can do everything well, and you are most likely already extraordinary. Make sure to convey your infectious enthusiasm and passion. This will matter more than a perfectly polished “presentation.”

I end this post with my favorite presentation from Dave McClure (Master Chief at 500 Startups): Startup Viagra – How to Pitch a VC.Now that you know the questions you will be asked, this is a fantastic distillation of how to build your pitch deck.

Startup Viagra: How to Pitch a VC from Dave McClure

Photo

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:35:31 -0700

Check out my brand new Brian Witlin Artist Series V-MODA m-100...

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Check out my brand new Brian Witlin Artist Series V-MODA m-100 headphones. Let me know if if you would like to get a pair.

"Ask not what you can do for your Board – Ask what your Board of Directors can do for your company."

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“Ask not what you can do for your Board – Ask what your Board of Directors can do for your company.”

"It sure seems like everyone in finance I know all of a sudden wants to do a startup. They may miss..."

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“It sure seems like everyone in finance I know all of a sudden wants to do a startup. They may miss their pay once on this side of the grassy field.”

I deeply subscribe and seek to embody the attributes of the...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:45:54 -0700

I deeply subscribe and seek to embody the attributes of the Creative Leader. This leadership philosophy has proven to be the better long-term way to drive:

innovation
risk-taking
strong team moral and loyalty
trust in leadership
strong communication
open-ness
less egos
“we” versus “me” mentality
“build to learn” culture
a team that works well with uncertainty and ambiguity
forward thinking
success
strong product based on real world needs

Photo

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 22:37:39 -0700

"Being a startup founder ruins you. You can’t have a real job ever again."

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 21:04:10 -0700

“Being a startup founder ruins you. You can’t have a real job ever again.”

- Dave McClure

One of the best activities to counterbalance the stress and...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:30:27 -0700

One of the best activities to counterbalance the stress and uncertainty of startups is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

The following photos are from my first bout with my son Tyler. He seemed to do pretty well! Maybe he will be a great entrepreneur someday!

Photo

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 21:11:53 -0700

"Focusing on your core strength applies to both fitness and startups."

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“Focusing on your core strength applies to both fitness and startups.”

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“Utilize data, user feedback, and experts as tools to sharpen your gut reaction…but not to dictate your direction.”

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“Doing a startup is like running a marathon…a marathon with an unknown distance. Make sure to get the support from your fans and supporters along the way and pace yourself. Oh yeah, and you will most likely be running up-hill most of the time.”

"The more you have experienced, the more you can experience."

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 09:58:00 -0700

“The more you have experienced, the more you can experience.”

- Dan Goodwin, Entrepreneur in Residence at IDEO

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Fri, 29 Jun 2012 11:03:19 -0700

“Ideas are worthless. The art is in the execution. If you are worried about someone stealing your idea, what will be the barriers to entry once you launch?”

"There is a fine line between catastrophic failure and catastrophic success."

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:15:17 -0700

“There is a fine line between catastrophic failure and catastrophic success.”

"You can be so bad at so many things… and as long as you stay focused on how you’re providing value..."

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“You can be so bad at so many things… and as long as you stay focused on how you’re providing value to your users and customers, and you have something that is unique and valuable… you get through all that stuff.”

- Mark Zuckerberg

What a VC is Really Thinking when Turning Down Your Startup

Tue, 29 May 2012 14:51:00 -0700

Yesterday, my post went live on VentureBeat discussing the top 25 ways your startup will be turned down during fundraising.

Most times, however, what an investor says is just scratching the surface of how he/she truly feels when declining to move forward with your company. Many more factors are inputs into their decision process (that have absolutely nothing to do with you or your company) including:

Past Experience
Their Partnership
The Market
Their Investors
The Fund
Industry Thesis
Potential Internal Politics
Personal Situation
Etc.

The VC job is incredibly hard one: being tasked with finding the diamond in the rough amongst many somewhat shiny rocks.

After receiving several messages from investors pouring into my ShopWell email, I got this wonderful summary from a Managing Partner from a very well respected firm (who asked to remain anonymous). He nicely summarized what a VC would love to say to entrepreneurs (based on a VCs internal dialogue). Below is his artful response:

It’s not that I don’t like you, your team, your idea, your technology, your deal terms, your stage, your positioning relative to your competition, or your exit prospects. To the extent I understand them. Which I don’t really yet as we have only spoken once. It is that our venture capital partnership is based on trust, and one of the deals that I had blow up on me in the past, which I had personally convinced my partners to do, had a similar trait as something in your company. I cannot tell you if it is similar to something with you, your team, your technology, your deal terms, your stage, your positioning relative to your competition, or your exit prospects, as then I would be revealing to you something about one of my failed investments of which I would rather repress the memory. But it was one of those. And the thing is, if I try to push your deal through my venture capital partnership, having already lost our investors’ money because of a similar issue as the one of the table, and if I lose their money again, then I will not have the credibility to bring other deals to the investment committee for approval. For ours is not a 3-strike business, it is a “fool me once, fool me twice” business. My ability to bring the next Facebook or Google to them will have been lost. Now I know this is not your fault, and in fact this situation might be completely different, but it is close enough that, in the scheme of things with respect to my entire firm and the way we do business, I just cannot take the added risk.

Entrepreneurs. Above is the real reason for 95% of the rejections. You should not take any rejection as a true rejection, just as an indication that there is a better fit out there somewhere else. Keep fighting the good fight and don’t stop your quest to change the world.

Business Attire Hack: Use Cotton Swabs as Shirt Stays

Mon, 28 May 2012 21:23:00 -0700

Okay, I don’t think that I’m alone here. I was just on a business trip to DC where I had to do an important pitch presentation about ShopWell at a big nutrition conference. I landed, got to my hotel, laid out my clothes (to iron in the morning), and went to bed.

When I got up, I brushed my teeth, took my shower, and began ironing. When I finished, I realized that I had no shirt stays for my shirt. I thought to myself, “Crap…Who needs those anyway, my shirt will be just fine.”

I put my shirt on, and the collar was all bent out of shape. Even after ironing, it didn’t look right. I took the shirt off and went into Macgyver mode.

I began digging through my stuff to find anything that could to do the trick to make me look somewhat professional. Here is what I came up with/steps to achieve a perfect collar without stays:

What You Need:

2 Cotton Swabs
Collared Shirt
Your Brain and Hands

Step 1: Lay out the collar and make sure the cotton swab is of similar length. If not, remove one of the cotton ends)

Step 2: Slide the cotton swab into each side of the collar as shown

Step 3: Fold the collar over and flatten the fabric to resemble actual stays (it should look better than the picture below)

Step 4: Go kill it on your presentation…and look like you actually mean business (sans crazy Trump hairdo).

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for spreading the word. This post was featured on LifeHacker here.

"Credit can only be given, not taken."

Mon, 28 May 2012 09:04:26 -0700

“Credit can only be given, not taken.”

- Jack Witlin