#61: Two Decks To Share With Prospects And Investors

Investing criteria for VC's has radically changed


#61: Two Decks To Share With Prospects And Investors



Read Time: 2.5 min

Today, I will share two simple decks—one for investors and one for prospects to share when warranted. The landscape for raising money and investing criteria has radically changed over the last few years. It’s no longer about a good idea with a strong founding team.

You have to be able to discuss your GTM and how you can predictably acquire (lead gen), qualify (discovery), demo, and close prospects. The good ones (VCs) will ask you to walk them through the process. This used to be an optional exercise; it is now mandatory. If you don’t have a GTM that is somewhat fleshed out, it will be tough to secure capital or, at best, take a lot longer.

As you prospect and start pumping on outbound, prospects will ask you to send them some more information so they can evaluate your offer. I’ll share a deck here that you can send over to help move the needle.

When You Advertise Fire Extinguishers, Open With The Fire.

~ David Ogilvy

Let’s dive right in!


Here are the 15 slides you want to incorporate into an investor deck.

  • Slide 1:  Your logo + their logo

  • Slide 2: The problem(s) you see

  • Slide 3:  How you solve them

  • Slide 4:  Who we help (i.e., our ICP)

  • Slide 5:  The results your product will produce

  • Slide 6: Testimonials (i.e., social proof, case studies, or VC logos)

  • Slide 7: Brief bio on both you and your co-founder(s)

  • Slide 8: Go to market plan (GTM)

  • Slide 9: Lead generation = Customer acquisition channels you use

  • Slide 10: Qualification = BANT to qualify leads to opportunities

  • Slide 11: Demo = Showcasing how you can solve the unique use cases

  • Slide 12: Scoping = To drill down on the success criteria on a POC

  • Slide 13: Paid POC = Validate the tech will work for them

  • Slide 14: Closing = Close the deal once the tech has been validated

  • Slide 15: Next steps = Ask for the meeting


Here are the 8 slides you want to incorporate into a prospect deck.

  • Slide 1:  Your logo + their logo

  • Slide 2: The problem(s) you see

  • Slide 3:  How you solve them

  • Slide 4:  Who we help (i.e., our ICP)

  • Slide 5:  The results your product will produce

  • Slide 6: Testimonials (i.e., social proof, case studies, or VC logos)

  • Slide 7: Brief bio on both you and your co-founder(s)

  • Slide 8:  Next steps = Ask for the meeting



One very important note. Less is more. People want to quickly look at your deck and make a judgment call based on the meat and potatoes of what you offer. You should keep your deck plain vanilla, only discussing the things that are important. Anything that distracts them, like graphics, charts, graphs, photos, or any type of busyness, etc., will distract from them and cause people to lose interest. I don’t want to think too hard when I look at a deck. I just want the facts, and I can make a call from there. Also, each slide should not be more than 2-3 sentences explaining the context of the slide title. KEEP IT SIMPLE!


Here are two decks you can use as templates. (MAKE A COPY)




That’s it for today!


See you all next week.



Darren



P.S. If finding PMF and scaling to $1M in ARR through founder-led sales is on your radar, book a call with me here


💡 How We Can Help

Founder Led Sales Coaching: Teaching founders how to close their first million in revenue & establish PMF.

Self-Service / DIY:  Learn and implement step-by-step the playbook we use to scale over 350+ founding teams, ideally for bootstrapped startups.

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