Why do some startups get funded? What makes for the best pitch? How does the process work?
DocSend recently teamed up with Professor Tom Eisenmann from Harvard Business School. Together, we conducted research that gave us the answers to those questions. We studied the fundraising of 200 startup companies as they went through their Series Seed and Series A rounds. Altogether, these companies raised more than $360 million.
Why this data is awesome:
Fundraising is a historically opaque endeavor. There’s very little data available and most advice tends to be anecdotal. DocSend is in the unique position of being able to quantitatively analyze the interaction between founders and investors, and tie that to fundraising outcomes in a statistically meaningful way.
Why we built this report:
DocSend aims to help companies share documents in a smarter, safer, and more impactful way. We believe this research is in service of that mission and can help push the startup ecosystem forward as a whole.
Background on DocSend:
DocSend helps sales people track and control documents they send to clients. We’ve also become very popular amongst founders in the fundraising process. Hundreds of startups have used our platform to circulate pitch decks to investors.
Ready to ditch email attachments and put your pitch materials to work for you?
Sign up for a free plan at docsend.com
This was our final Series A deck. Read more about raising the round in this blog post:
https://medium.com/@DanielleMorrill/welcome-brad-feld-to-the-mattermark-team-announcing-our-6-5m-series-a-dd9532fc1b39
Presentation from Marc Phillips, Managing Partner of Arafura Ventures, and author of "Inside Silicon Valley: How the deals get done," with a slide-by-slide approach to developing your pitch deck -- using examples from real-life winning pitch decks.
Check out sample essential pitch deck slides for: .
- Mission/Vision
- Problem/Solution
- Market size
- IP
- Financial projections
- Management team
- and more!
Sponsored by Early Growth Financial Services and Cooley.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive function. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
This document summarizes a platform that allows users to create customized maps of communities and interests. It started with 20,000 unique users and 18,000 monthly alerts. The platform has since received many requests to build maps for different interests around the world. The document outlines the business model, which includes organizing map data and monetizing through advertising, premium listings, and a potential SAAS model. It provides a timeline showing past pilots and plans for future mobile and discovery features. The team is seeking $1M in funding to further develop their self-service platform.
Pemerintah mengumumkan rencana untuk membangun pusat perbelanjaan baru di pusat kota untuk mendukung pertumbuhan ekonomi. Rencana ini mendapat dukungan dari kalangan bisnis tetapi ditentang oleh kelompok lingkungan karena khawatir akan mengganggu ekosistem setempat. Perdebatan masih berlanjut mengenai dampak sosial ekonomi dan lingkungan dari rencana pembangunan tersebut.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive function. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
Y Combinator Pitch Deck Template For Startup FoundersAA BB
The document provides a template for how founders should structure their seed funding presentation decks. It recommends keeping the decks concise by focusing on the narrative and avoiding excessive detail. The template then provides a fictional example deck following the guidelines, with placeholder slides about the benefits of the deck template, metrics showing its impact, the business model, and future plans. It concludes asking for $1.5 million in funding to hire engineers and for marketing.
This was our final Series A deck. Read more about raising the round in this blog post:
https://medium.com/@DanielleMorrill/welcome-brad-feld-to-the-mattermark-team-announcing-our-6-5m-series-a-dd9532fc1b39
Presentation from Marc Phillips, Managing Partner of Arafura Ventures, and author of "Inside Silicon Valley: How the deals get done," with a slide-by-slide approach to developing your pitch deck -- using examples from real-life winning pitch decks.
Check out sample essential pitch deck slides for: .
- Mission/Vision
- Problem/Solution
- Market size
- IP
- Financial projections
- Management team
- and more!
Sponsored by Early Growth Financial Services and Cooley.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive function. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
This document summarizes a platform that allows users to create customized maps of communities and interests. It started with 20,000 unique users and 18,000 monthly alerts. The platform has since received many requests to build maps for different interests around the world. The document outlines the business model, which includes organizing map data and monetizing through advertising, premium listings, and a potential SAAS model. It provides a timeline showing past pilots and plans for future mobile and discovery features. The team is seeking $1M in funding to further develop their self-service platform.
Pemerintah mengumumkan rencana untuk membangun pusat perbelanjaan baru di pusat kota untuk mendukung pertumbuhan ekonomi. Rencana ini mendapat dukungan dari kalangan bisnis tetapi ditentang oleh kelompok lingkungan karena khawatir akan mengganggu ekosistem setempat. Perdebatan masih berlanjut mengenai dampak sosial ekonomi dan lingkungan dari rencana pembangunan tersebut.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive function. Exercise causes chemical changes in the brain that may help protect against mental illness and improve symptoms.
Y Combinator Pitch Deck Template For Startup FoundersAA BB
The document provides a template for how founders should structure their seed funding presentation decks. It recommends keeping the decks concise by focusing on the narrative and avoiding excessive detail. The template then provides a fictional example deck following the guidelines, with placeholder slides about the benefits of the deck template, metrics showing its impact, the business model, and future plans. It concludes asking for $1.5 million in funding to hire engineers and for marketing.
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollarsMikael Cho
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollars for ooomf.com (now pickcrew.com)
View the online version here: https://pickcrew.com/investors/
This document summarizes Mint, a personal finance management tool. It allows users to track spending, savings goals, and net worth. Mint makes money through referral fees when users switch financial products based on Mint's recommendations. The document outlines Mint's market size and opportunity, competitors, value proposition, user and partner acquisition strategies, business model, and projected financials. It expects rapid user and revenue growth as it acquires users through viral and partnership channels and converts them through intelligent suggestions.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise boosts blood flow and levels of neurotransmitters and endorphins which elevate and stabilize mood.
The document summarizes the history and growth of SEOmoz, an SEO software company founded in 2001 by Rand Fishkin and his mother Gillian. It details how SEOmoz grew from a small consultancy into a profitable software company with over 10,000 subscribers. The document outlines SEOmoz's plans to raise $20-25 million in funding to expand its product suite, team, and marketing in order to serve a wider audience and become the leading software for organic marketers. The goal is for SEOmoz to become Seattle's next billion dollar company.
Looking to scale something up? Depending on how you're going after your market/ acquiring users, you may need to build a sales organization that's optimized for a top-down or bottom-up sales process (or perhaps both).
Watch the video overview at http://a16z.com/2015/03/06/go-to-market-bootcamp/ and then check out this slide deck, which shares some concrete tips and tools for accelerating time to market -- from the go-to-market experts at a16z, led by 'sales savant' Mark Cranney.
Because selling to enterprises is a lot like getting a bill passed through Congress: it can get stuck. And getting stuck -- or going down the wrong path -- can mean death to startups in a competitive market. Here's how to avoid that.
This document provides guidance on creating an effective investor pitch deck. It outlines common mistakes to avoid, such as including too many slides, wordy text-heavy slides, or false assumptions. The document recommends keeping the deck concise and telling a compelling story in 10-13 slides. It provides an outline for the pitch deck, including sections to describe the problem being solved, product/service, business model, team, financial projections, competition, and requesting investment. The purpose of the deck is to pique investors' interest and get them excited to learn more, rather than providing all the answers.
How to make an investor pitch deck that really worksDeck Rooster
In sales, a well established principle is, before one starts pitching to a customer, one should listen to what the customer has to say. That is because if you listen carefully he will lay out his needs in front of you, letting you present your solution in a way that fits into his needs perfectly.
The principle should be equally useful while pitching to an investor while raising funds. I can’t see a reason why it won’t be. But no one seems to be suggesting “you should listen more and talk less during an investor pitch”. Probably it is assumed that we already know what investors look for in a business. Is it a rockstar team; or may be a huge market size or is it traction or a break-through technology? Or may be different investors look for different combination of those things.
Actually all of those are means towards an end. They help investors figure out something more specific and quantitative that all investors look for in a startup before investing. But what is it?
A 10x return on their investment. That is it.
That number may vary from an early stage investor to a growth stage one, but you get the point, right? Not everyone says it out loud, because it makes them look money hungry, but that is what an investor business is all about.
But, now with that knowledge, how do you tweak your pitch and your pitch deck to make an investor feel that you are offering him an investment opportunity that could deliver a 10x return? And more importantly, can your business even deliver 10x return?
The above presentation by Deck Rooster answers those questions and offers a structure (not a template) for an investor pitch deck for startups. Check it out.
This impressive pitch deck helped Rewind AI founder Dan Siroker close a $350M Series A with top-tier VC investors in 2023. The deck provides a textbook example of a clear, concise, and compelling pitch deck. Every startup founder working on their pitch deck will learn something from this deck. Kudos to Rewind founder, Dan Siroker. Includes Dan's presentation transcript plus what's to love (and copy) for each slide.
REWIND PITCH DECK HIGHLIGHTS:
> 29 slides
> 7 mins 48s duration
> 443 words (transcript)
> 2nd Grade reading level
REWIND PITCH DECK SLIDES:
> Intro
> Founder Origin Story
> Problem (3 slides)
> Vision
> Team
> Solution (What it is)
> Solution (How it works)
> Demo
> What makes Rewind unique?
> Why now?
> Ideal Customer Profile
> Who uses Rewind?
> How do they use Rewind?
> Go To Market Strategy
> Product-Led Growth
> Pricing
> Metrics: Conversion & Retention
> Huge Market
> Traction
> Unit Economics
> Capital Efficiency
> Roadmap
> Problem Recap
> How to Invest
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THESE PITCH DECK EXAMPLES & TEMPLATES:
> Airbnb pitch deck @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/airbnb-pitch-deck
> Sequoia Capital pitch deck template @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/sequoia-capital-pitch-deck
> FREE pitch deck template download @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/free-pitch-deck-template
> Pitch deck guide with hints, tips, and a worked example @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/pitch-deck-template
NEED HELP WITH YOUR PITCH DECK?
See how I can help then book a free call @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/
MORE PITCH DECK RESOURCES @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/pitch-deck-template#resources
Evntr is a location-based app that allows users to connect locally, view live feeds of nearby events, and spontaneously create and share events. It aims to make meeting people locally quick, easy, and natural. Evntr addresses the problem of loneliness with current social apps by turning local conversations into instantly creatable events for a younger demographic, similar to Meetup. The founders are seeking $200k to further develop the app based on feedback and market it through their college ambassador program and social media targeting bored, lonely users interested in nearby events.
The slide deck we used to raise half a million dollarsBuffer
This is the pitchdeck we used to raise half a million dollars from Angel investors. More here:
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/98034/The-Pitch-Deck-We-Used-To-Raise-500-000-For-Our-Startup.aspx
This document provides guidelines for creating an effective startup pitch deck, including recommendations on slide content and structure. It outlines the core components that investors look for, such as the problem/solution, team, traction, business model, financials, and ask. Additional tips include keeping slides concise, demonstrating results, practicing delivery, and tailoring the pitch to the investors' focus areas. The goal is to concisely communicate the opportunity and convey why the company and solution are compelling within the limited time of a pitch presentation.
Ark Kapital is a data-driven precision financing company that helps early-stage startups thrive by providing long-term loans while keeping founders in control and lowering the risk for investors.
The Swedish-based startup, which was launched in 2021, analyses the financial health of early-stage tech businesses using AI and machine learning and provides precise loans based on their performance.
Ark Kapital announced that it has raised $182 million in a mix of debt and equity funding. The round was led by Local Globe, with participation from Creandum and angel investors including Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen, iZettle founder Jacob de Geer, and EQT Ventures founding partner Hjalmar Winbladh.
Read more: vip.graphics/ark-pitch-deck/
See the deck: bestpitchdeck.com/ark
Good Audience Fundraising Deck - Angel Roundsherm8n
This is the fundraising deck we used to raise money in London after Techstars.
While this almost killed our startup, (https://medium.com/good-audience/raising-money-in-london-almost-killed-our-startup-6ed9fca1ba88) we raised $182K total in an angel round.
Our total volume in sales is about to cross the total amount we raised =) Keep track of our progress here: http://goodaudience.baremetrics.com.
This document provides tips and guidance for creating an effective startup pitch deck. It discusses the purpose of a pitch deck, sample deck structure and slide content, tips for each slide, common mistakes to avoid, and next steps after completing the deck. The overall goals are to get meetings with investors, move forward in the fundraising process, and ultimately raise capital. Building an effective pitch deck is positioned as an important exercise that will help founders articulate their opportunity and address key questions.
Weekend Fund 3.0 - VC Pitch Deck ExamplesPitch Decks
Weekend Fund is a two-person team: Ryan Hoover (founder of Product Hunt) and Vedika Jain writing $100k-300k checks into early-stage startups around the world across consumer and B2B.
After raising an initial $3M angel fund in 2017, then a $10M early-stage fund in 2019, Weekend Fund used this pitch deck to raise a $21M Fund "3.0" in 2022.
Weekend Fund is backed by notable LPs like Naval Ravikant, Troy Carter, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Suzy Ryoo, Miyuki Matsumoto, Kevin Rose, Chris & Crystal Sacca. They have funded startups like Intercom, Faze Clan, Deel, VoiceFlow & more.
Pitch Deck-Format-NinzaBiz.com | investment Deck for Fund RaisingShibam Sarbswa 🚀
This fundraising pitch deck outlines the key components to include when pitching investors: the company purpose, the problem it solves for customers, the proposed solution, why the solution is needed now, the size of the target market, competitors, product details, business model, team, and financial projections. The presentation seeks funding to address a customer pain point and make their lives better through a new product or service.
Imagine a culture where the input of the whole organization turns an individual idea into a user story in just a couple of hours, where everybody's goal is to make the customer’s job easier and more effective, and where you work on projects you love instead of projects you loathe. A great coding culture concentrates on making developers productive and happy by removing unnecessary overhead, bringing autonomous teams together, helping the individual programmer to innovate, and raising awareness among developers about how to create better code.
I will talk about how to establish and foster a strong engineering-focused culture that scales from a small team to a huge organization with hundreds of developers. I'll give lots of examples from our experience at Atlassian to show that once you're working in a great coding culture, you won't want to work anywhere else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAk04-_M-JM&feature=youtu.be
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollarsMikael Cho
The investor presentation we used to raise 2 million dollars for ooomf.com (now pickcrew.com)
View the online version here: https://pickcrew.com/investors/
This document summarizes Mint, a personal finance management tool. It allows users to track spending, savings goals, and net worth. Mint makes money through referral fees when users switch financial products based on Mint's recommendations. The document outlines Mint's market size and opportunity, competitors, value proposition, user and partner acquisition strategies, business model, and projected financials. It expects rapid user and revenue growth as it acquires users through viral and partnership channels and converts them through intelligent suggestions.
The document discusses the benefits of exercise for mental health. Regular physical activity can help reduce anxiety and depression and improve mood and cognitive functioning. Exercise boosts blood flow and levels of neurotransmitters and endorphins which elevate and stabilize mood.
The document summarizes the history and growth of SEOmoz, an SEO software company founded in 2001 by Rand Fishkin and his mother Gillian. It details how SEOmoz grew from a small consultancy into a profitable software company with over 10,000 subscribers. The document outlines SEOmoz's plans to raise $20-25 million in funding to expand its product suite, team, and marketing in order to serve a wider audience and become the leading software for organic marketers. The goal is for SEOmoz to become Seattle's next billion dollar company.
Looking to scale something up? Depending on how you're going after your market/ acquiring users, you may need to build a sales organization that's optimized for a top-down or bottom-up sales process (or perhaps both).
Watch the video overview at http://a16z.com/2015/03/06/go-to-market-bootcamp/ and then check out this slide deck, which shares some concrete tips and tools for accelerating time to market -- from the go-to-market experts at a16z, led by 'sales savant' Mark Cranney.
Because selling to enterprises is a lot like getting a bill passed through Congress: it can get stuck. And getting stuck -- or going down the wrong path -- can mean death to startups in a competitive market. Here's how to avoid that.
This document provides guidance on creating an effective investor pitch deck. It outlines common mistakes to avoid, such as including too many slides, wordy text-heavy slides, or false assumptions. The document recommends keeping the deck concise and telling a compelling story in 10-13 slides. It provides an outline for the pitch deck, including sections to describe the problem being solved, product/service, business model, team, financial projections, competition, and requesting investment. The purpose of the deck is to pique investors' interest and get them excited to learn more, rather than providing all the answers.
How to make an investor pitch deck that really worksDeck Rooster
In sales, a well established principle is, before one starts pitching to a customer, one should listen to what the customer has to say. That is because if you listen carefully he will lay out his needs in front of you, letting you present your solution in a way that fits into his needs perfectly.
The principle should be equally useful while pitching to an investor while raising funds. I can’t see a reason why it won’t be. But no one seems to be suggesting “you should listen more and talk less during an investor pitch”. Probably it is assumed that we already know what investors look for in a business. Is it a rockstar team; or may be a huge market size or is it traction or a break-through technology? Or may be different investors look for different combination of those things.
Actually all of those are means towards an end. They help investors figure out something more specific and quantitative that all investors look for in a startup before investing. But what is it?
A 10x return on their investment. That is it.
That number may vary from an early stage investor to a growth stage one, but you get the point, right? Not everyone says it out loud, because it makes them look money hungry, but that is what an investor business is all about.
But, now with that knowledge, how do you tweak your pitch and your pitch deck to make an investor feel that you are offering him an investment opportunity that could deliver a 10x return? And more importantly, can your business even deliver 10x return?
The above presentation by Deck Rooster answers those questions and offers a structure (not a template) for an investor pitch deck for startups. Check it out.
This impressive pitch deck helped Rewind AI founder Dan Siroker close a $350M Series A with top-tier VC investors in 2023. The deck provides a textbook example of a clear, concise, and compelling pitch deck. Every startup founder working on their pitch deck will learn something from this deck. Kudos to Rewind founder, Dan Siroker. Includes Dan's presentation transcript plus what's to love (and copy) for each slide.
REWIND PITCH DECK HIGHLIGHTS:
> 29 slides
> 7 mins 48s duration
> 443 words (transcript)
> 2nd Grade reading level
REWIND PITCH DECK SLIDES:
> Intro
> Founder Origin Story
> Problem (3 slides)
> Vision
> Team
> Solution (What it is)
> Solution (How it works)
> Demo
> What makes Rewind unique?
> Why now?
> Ideal Customer Profile
> Who uses Rewind?
> How do they use Rewind?
> Go To Market Strategy
> Product-Led Growth
> Pricing
> Metrics: Conversion & Retention
> Huge Market
> Traction
> Unit Economics
> Capital Efficiency
> Roadmap
> Problem Recap
> How to Invest
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE THESE PITCH DECK EXAMPLES & TEMPLATES:
> Airbnb pitch deck @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/airbnb-pitch-deck
> Sequoia Capital pitch deck template @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/sequoia-capital-pitch-deck
> FREE pitch deck template download @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/free-pitch-deck-template
> Pitch deck guide with hints, tips, and a worked example @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/pitch-deck-template
NEED HELP WITH YOUR PITCH DECK?
See how I can help then book a free call @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/
MORE PITCH DECK RESOURCES @ https://pitchdeckcoach.com/pitch-deck-template#resources
Evntr is a location-based app that allows users to connect locally, view live feeds of nearby events, and spontaneously create and share events. It aims to make meeting people locally quick, easy, and natural. Evntr addresses the problem of loneliness with current social apps by turning local conversations into instantly creatable events for a younger demographic, similar to Meetup. The founders are seeking $200k to further develop the app based on feedback and market it through their college ambassador program and social media targeting bored, lonely users interested in nearby events.
The slide deck we used to raise half a million dollarsBuffer
This is the pitchdeck we used to raise half a million dollars from Angel investors. More here:
http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/98034/The-Pitch-Deck-We-Used-To-Raise-500-000-For-Our-Startup.aspx
This document provides guidelines for creating an effective startup pitch deck, including recommendations on slide content and structure. It outlines the core components that investors look for, such as the problem/solution, team, traction, business model, financials, and ask. Additional tips include keeping slides concise, demonstrating results, practicing delivery, and tailoring the pitch to the investors' focus areas. The goal is to concisely communicate the opportunity and convey why the company and solution are compelling within the limited time of a pitch presentation.
Ark Kapital is a data-driven precision financing company that helps early-stage startups thrive by providing long-term loans while keeping founders in control and lowering the risk for investors.
The Swedish-based startup, which was launched in 2021, analyses the financial health of early-stage tech businesses using AI and machine learning and provides precise loans based on their performance.
Ark Kapital announced that it has raised $182 million in a mix of debt and equity funding. The round was led by Local Globe, with participation from Creandum and angel investors including Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen, iZettle founder Jacob de Geer, and EQT Ventures founding partner Hjalmar Winbladh.
Read more: vip.graphics/ark-pitch-deck/
See the deck: bestpitchdeck.com/ark
Good Audience Fundraising Deck - Angel Roundsherm8n
This is the fundraising deck we used to raise money in London after Techstars.
While this almost killed our startup, (https://medium.com/good-audience/raising-money-in-london-almost-killed-our-startup-6ed9fca1ba88) we raised $182K total in an angel round.
Our total volume in sales is about to cross the total amount we raised =) Keep track of our progress here: http://goodaudience.baremetrics.com.
This document provides tips and guidance for creating an effective startup pitch deck. It discusses the purpose of a pitch deck, sample deck structure and slide content, tips for each slide, common mistakes to avoid, and next steps after completing the deck. The overall goals are to get meetings with investors, move forward in the fundraising process, and ultimately raise capital. Building an effective pitch deck is positioned as an important exercise that will help founders articulate their opportunity and address key questions.
Weekend Fund 3.0 - VC Pitch Deck ExamplesPitch Decks
Weekend Fund is a two-person team: Ryan Hoover (founder of Product Hunt) and Vedika Jain writing $100k-300k checks into early-stage startups around the world across consumer and B2B.
After raising an initial $3M angel fund in 2017, then a $10M early-stage fund in 2019, Weekend Fund used this pitch deck to raise a $21M Fund "3.0" in 2022.
Weekend Fund is backed by notable LPs like Naval Ravikant, Troy Carter, Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Suzy Ryoo, Miyuki Matsumoto, Kevin Rose, Chris & Crystal Sacca. They have funded startups like Intercom, Faze Clan, Deel, VoiceFlow & more.
Pitch Deck-Format-NinzaBiz.com | investment Deck for Fund RaisingShibam Sarbswa 🚀
This fundraising pitch deck outlines the key components to include when pitching investors: the company purpose, the problem it solves for customers, the proposed solution, why the solution is needed now, the size of the target market, competitors, product details, business model, team, and financial projections. The presentation seeks funding to address a customer pain point and make their lives better through a new product or service.
Imagine a culture where the input of the whole organization turns an individual idea into a user story in just a couple of hours, where everybody's goal is to make the customer’s job easier and more effective, and where you work on projects you love instead of projects you loathe. A great coding culture concentrates on making developers productive and happy by removing unnecessary overhead, bringing autonomous teams together, helping the individual programmer to innovate, and raising awareness among developers about how to create better code.
I will talk about how to establish and foster a strong engineering-focused culture that scales from a small team to a huge organization with hundreds of developers. I'll give lots of examples from our experience at Atlassian to show that once you're working in a great coding culture, you won't want to work anywhere else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAk04-_M-JM&feature=youtu.be
Have you ever felt trapped in a bad PowerPoint presentation? Ever listen to a speaker drone on like a zombie? Do boring uninspiring slides leave you feeling like the walking dead? Don’t be a PowerPoint zombie! Here are 6 tips to avoid Death by Powerpoint!
Last year, we presented the top, must-know, culturally relevant trends for 2015 and our predictions were 83% accurate!
To help the “curious class” stay relevant in 2016, we’ve assembled an A-Z glossary of what trends we predict to be 100 must-know terms and concepts of 2016.
We hope this cultural crib sheet will help prepare you for the year ahead!
In this webinar international bestselling author, Andrew Griffiths, talks with leading productivity authority, Sam Harrop, to share 101 simple but highly effective productivity hacks.
Nothing is off limits in this presentation - and if you want to see the video recording of the actual webinar - please visit www.andrewgriffithsblog.com.
Rand looks at Moz's 2015 analysis of ranking factors in Google's search engine and compares opinion data, correlation numbers, and experiments to give a picture of how modern SEO fits together.
Sass Code Reviews - How one code review changed my life #SassConf2015Stacy Kvernmo
After writing CSS for over 10 years you'd think you would know everything there is to know, right? I couldn't be more wrong and I found out the hard way. While my first formal code review session was painfully embarrassing it was also the most important lesson I have learned throughout my career. Code reviews force you to communicate on a different level which ultimately leads to more thoughtful coding practices. When writing Sass and other pre-processed languages it is even more important that you review your code continually, which even the more seasoned front end developers may neglect at times.
Bottom line: Code reviews will make you better.
Design has become a game changer in Silicon Valley. This #DesignInTech Report highlights the rising importance of design in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The report covers trends ranging from the record amounts of funding flowing into design-led startups to M&A activity with major tech corporations. Beyond designers and technologists, this report will appeal to a broad audience. For all of us who use a computer or mobile device, great design is changing how we live and work. This study helps explain why.
1) The venture capital outlook document discusses signs that private tech markets are overvalued due to an influx of new capital sources investing with less pricing discipline.
2) Late-stage valuations, median revenue multiples, and e-commerce multiples are much higher for private companies compared to historical levels and public market comparables.
3) Over 2/3 of mid-late stage deals now include non-VC investors like corporations, hedge funds, and mutual funds, and round sizes have increased with less consideration for price.
4) While some overpricing may occur, the document concludes that technology innovation will continue growing as a proportion of the economy, leading to returns for top venture capital firms.
This is First Round's effort to provide an in-depth snapshot of what founders across the entire tech ecosystem are thinking and doing, what they're excited about and worried about, and how they're seeing the market. We surveyed venture-backed founders from everywhere — less than 25% from the First Round community — and received over 500 responses, volunteering their experience and opinions.
SpringOwl's 99 Page Presentation On How To Best Turnaround Yahoo!Eric Jackson
On Dec. 13, 2015, SpringOwl shared the attached 99 page presentation which had been sent to the Yahoo board. In it, we argue for why change is needed from the status quo at Yahoo, why selling the core business now at the lows isn't attractive for long-term shareholders and our 9 point plan for turning around the company.
The document discusses trends in consumer tech and media from 2015-2020. It predicts that the industry will grow by over $500 billion in that time period, with the average American spending more time on tech and media than on work or sleep. It also notes that messaging platforms will surpass social networks as the dominant media activity and that the next big winners in streaming audio are already gaining popularity quietly.
Let's talk about the job of a product manager and how to do it really well. Based off of this post: https://medium.com/@joshelman/a-product-managers-job-63c09a43d0ec#.v0kdyf816
We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. Yet for too many people, the experience of work is demotivating and dehumanizing.
I don’t think it has to be this way, and I’m willing to bet you don’t either.
At Google, we’ve learned a ton about what makes for an enjoyable and productive workplace. We’re not alone – lots of other companies, ranging from grocers (e.g., Wegmans) to textile companies (e.g., the Brandix Group) to Brooklyn delis (e.g., Russ & Daughters), as well as academics and scientists, have learned the same simple truth: there are straightforward things we can do to make work better.
My new book, "Work Rules!", is an attempt to bring this together and offer you practical tools to improve work, no matter what you do. Check out this visual preview of the book and visit www.workrules.net if you’d like to pick up a copy or learn more!
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DocSend Fundraising Research: What we Learned from 200 Startups Who Raised $360M
1. Why do some startups get
funded? What makes for the
best pitch? How does the
process work?
DocSend recently teamed up with Professor
Tom Eisenmann from Harvard Business School.
Together, we conducted research that gave
us the answers to those questions. We studied
the fundraising of 200 startup companies as
they went through their Series Seed and Series
A rounds. Altogether, these companies raised
more than $360 million.
from
$360M
Who Raised
200 Startups
What We Learned
$360M RAISED200 COMPANIES
$
2. DocSend is a sales enablement tool
that tracks per-page analytics on
document usage and is a popular
way for founders to send pitch decks
to investors. This put us in a unique
position to conduct this study.
All of the companies that we chose
through our selection process opted
into the research. In addition to
sending their decks to investors using
DocSend, they answered a detailed
questionnaire on what the overall
fundraising process was like. Some
of the companies that participated
include August Locks, Panjo, Shift
Cars, Back to the Roots, Wiser, Tiggly,
20twenty, Boomtrain, and mNectar.
2
3. Here are some of our main findings:
Stats From an Average Series Seed Raise
Starting a company is a brutal process. Getting outside funding is a necessary step for many tech
startups, but it’s an opaque and frustrating process for those doing it for the first time. With that in mind,
we wanted to shed some light on what a typical successful seed round looks like.
DeckFundraising Process
58Investors
Contacted
40Investor
Meetings
$1.3MCapital
Raised
12.5Weeks
to Close
19.2Page Avg
Deck Length
03:44Minute Avg
Visit Time
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$
$1.3M
0
3
4. 20 1
2
3
4
5
20-30
7
6
Seven Actionable Takeaways
If you’re thinking of raising a seed round for your
startup, here are seven take aways from hundreds
of companies who successfully raised.
Keep your deck to 20 pages or
fewer. Each visit will only be 3m
44sec on average.
More meetings does not equal
more money. Focus on getting
quality introductions to investors
who are likely to be a fit. Quality
over quantity.
You’ll likely need to contact 20-30
investors. But you won’t need to
contact hundreds.
Don’t list your deal terms in your
deck. Deliver them in person.
The terms can vary by investor.
Spend time on your deck.
Specifically, make sure your
team slide looks awesome. If you
include a financial slide, which is
optional, remember it’ll be your
most viewed.
Raising seed funding will take
longer than you think. Don’t start
to despair until you’ve been at it
for a few months.
Try to raise from a seed firm
before you go to angels. Firms
will give you more money in
less time with fewer meetings.
4
5. What to expect and how to manage the
fundraising process
Series A, the next step
The optimal pitch deck
11-15
16-17
6-10
Slides
Table of Contents
5
6. Designing a Successful Seed Deck
The average length of the seed decks we studied was roughly 19 pages, and most had a similar format.
The following table shows the types of pages used in the average order by the frequency in which
they occurred. This table also notes the average length for each section of the deck, if that figure was
included. We categorized pages according to Sequoia Capital’s list of recommended categories.
Company
Purpose
73%
Category
% decks
including
Smart
Key
If included,
# of pages
Product
96%
Problem
88%
Team
100%
Solution
69%
Business
Model
81%
Why Now
46%
Competition
65%
Market
Size
73%
Financials
58%
1.8 2 1.2 1.7 1.4
5 1.2 3.4 1.4 2.3
6
7. The ordering for DocSend and Sequoia differed only in a few places:
SEQUOIA
RECOMMENDED ORDER
OBSERVED ORDER
Company
Purpose
Problem Solution Why Now Market Size
Product Team Business
Model
Competition Financials
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
Company
Purpose
Problem Solution Why Now Market Size
Competition Product Business
Model
Team Financials
6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5
Recommended Deck Ordering
The ordering of the sections was fairly standard, except for the team page. This page appeared either
at the beginning or the end, but never in the middle. Within the 200 companies we studied, more
companies placed the page at the end and not the beginning. This practice is in line with advice from
Reid Hoffman, who advises companies to lead with their investment thesis, not a team page.
7
8. Mobile
Views
100%
0
12%
investors
of
Viewers studied the average successful
deck for 3 minutes, 44 seconds. This time
might not sound like much, but the length
was more than we expected. Compare that
time to DocSend’s own pitch deck, viewed
on average for a little more than two
minutes. Twelve percent of investors read
the pitch decks from their mobile phones
as well, so make sure your deck looks OK
on a tiny screen.
The Average Pitch Deck View
8
9. Which Pages Matter the Most
A few questions arise: Where was this view time spent within the pitch? If you spend extra time fixing up
your deck, which pages should you focus on? Where should you anticipate questions? The following
table shows the average time spent per page in each category.
Interestingly, although the financial category takes the place, only 57 percent of successful decks
have this section. The low rate of inclusion is mostly due to the fact that many seed stage firms do not
yet have financial results on projections. Almost all of the seed decks, and many of the A decks, don’t
contain any significant financials to discuss.
If you include financials, be very thoughtful with the content, as viewers will spend the most time on this
section. Ensure your team slide, whether at the end or the beginning, also looks amazing.
One thing that’s important to note is that almost no decks listed the amount they were raising and the
terms of their fundraise. This information is always better delivered in person, and can vary from investor
to investor.
0 5s 10s 15s 20s 25s
Solution
Problem
Market Size
Product
Business Model
Company Purpose
Why Now
Competition
Team
Financials
10.6
11.3
13.3
13.9
14.9
15.3
16.3
16.6
22.8
23.2
Categories Time / Page View in Seconds
9
10. Example Pitch Decks
Some of the companies in our data set agreed to share their decks publicly. If you’d like to see some
pitch decks to get ideas to create your own, these samples are great.
Boomtrain Panjo Shift Cars Yoga Trail
Smart Host Sunshine Dineserve DocSend
10
11. Surviving the Fundraising Process
A Matter of Time
How long does a typical seed round take to raise? Within DocSend’s data set, on average, the round
took 12 1/2 weeks. However, we saw much variation around this average. One-fifth of the companies
took 20 weeks or longer, and another one-fifth took six weeks or fewer. The longest successful round
took 40 weeks to close.
Companies that failed to successfully raise funds gave up after an average of 6.7 weeks. These
companies may have failed simply for lack of patience: the companies that had successful rounds
reported that the process took longer than expected. We asked the research participants to rate the
actual length of their fundraising round against their expectations. On a scale of one to five, where three
was “as expected” and five was “waaaaay longer,” the average response for seed rounds was 3.6.
Certainly, while patience is beneficial for startups, knowing when to give up, take a step back, and
take a fresh look at the situation is important. Three-fourths of the companies that failed to raise
seed funding planned to try again, and the average time until they plan to restart their efforts is 8.9
weeks—plenty of time to make progress on their business and incorporate feedback.
0 - 5
15% 6 - 10
26% 11 - 15
42% 16 and up
17%Seed Round in Weeks
11
12. Strive for Quality, Not Quantity, of Investors
It’s tempting to think that the more investors
you contact, the better your chances of raising
money. Unfortunately, this situation isn’t the
case. Certainly, the more investors you contact,
the more meetings you’ll get, up to a point.
Note: in the data reported here, an entrepreneur
could have multiple meetings with one investor,
making it possible to have more meetings than
investors contacted.
Contacting more investors will get you more
meetings, but it won’t necessarily get you more
money. Focus on the quality of your connection
to the investors you contact. In this graph, we
compare the number of investors contacted
and the amount of funding raised. There
isn’t much correlation, and if anything, the
impression is a bit negative.
Investors contacted vs meetings
Investors contacted
Investormeetings
0
0
50
200
150
100
100 200 300
Contacted vs money
Moneyoffered
Investors contacted
0
0
1.5M
6M
4.5M
3M
100 200 300
Contacting more investors will get you
more meetings, up to a point.
Contacting more investors won't help
raise more money.
12
13. How Much and From Whom to Raise
Earlier, we noted the average seed round in DocSend’s data set was $1.3 million. The amount and
the process, however, varied widely depending on whether the entrepreneur raised from angels or
a seed firm.
Angel investors are wealthy individuals who give their own money to a project; they typically give
between $25,000 and $100,000. Seed firms are small venture capital funds that pursue investments
on a full-time basis. These firms usually invest between $250,000 and $1 million in a project.
Angels
Seed firms
0
$25,000
$100,000
$250,000 $1,000,000
What to Do and When to Give Up
Create a list of 30 investors you feel would be particularly passionate about your pitch. Most of the
startups in our data set had to contact only 20 to 30 investors to close their round.
If none of them agree to invest, something may be off about what or how you’re pitching. Take their
feedback seriously and make some changes to your pitch before contacting more investors. If you still
haven’t closed investors after contacting 100 of them, you should seriously rethink either your timing in
the market or the project. A few companies raise money after contacting more than 100 investors, but
that scenario is rare and a big drain on your time.
13
14. The following are a few of the key trade-offs:
Angels are typically operators,
so they can relate and have a
personal interest in your
project. Because you'll have a
few angels in your round, you'll
have a sizable support group
behind you.
Seed FirmsAngels
These firms have professional,
savvy investors. The firms
invest more, so they have a
greater financial interest in
seeing you succeed. Firms also
have more money to give you
later if you need it.
Pros
Angels have busy lives and
fluctuating funds, so you may
not always be able to rely on
them for the money and
support you need. You also
need to sell to more of them for
a round.
Firms may try to control your
business decisions, and they
aren't always qualified to give
you the best advice. Firms also
see a lot of deals, so it's hard to
get their attention.
Cons
Angels vs Seed Firms
14
15. The following summarizes the differences:
Firm Rounds: Rarer but Better
In general, angel-led seed rounds are much more common than firm-led seed rounds. According to
David S. Rose, an angel investor, seed firms fund about 1,500 startups each year while angels fund
roughly 50,000. This discrepancy is partially because seed firms invest in about one of every 400
companies they consider, while angels choose one out of every 40. Those numbers are by no means
exact, but they do illustrate that if you wish to get a firm’s attention, you need to have an outstanding
pitch deck and know the selling points of your business inside and out.
According to DocSend’s data, although angel-led seed rounds are more common, firm-led rounds have
much more favorable characteristics. If you are able to raise funds from a firm, you’ll get twice as much
money in 30 percent less time. You’ll also need to contact only 40 percent as many investors.
Our recommendation is to try raising from a Seed Fund first.
Firm Angel
9.6
29
27
13.5
68
45
Firm
Firm
Angel
Angel
$1,995,952
36.8%
$989,118
18.9%
Avg time to fundraise (weeks)
Avg investors contacted
Avg investor meetings
Avg money raised
% oversubscribed
$per contact
0 $100k
$91,830
$17,210
15
16. Series A vs Series Seed Rounds
Series A rounds are much less common than seed rounds. In DocSend’s data set, nine seed rounds
existed for every series A round. It appears that the Series A Crunch is still in effect. Although we have
fewer data points, we managed to collect some statistics on the differences between seed and A rounds.
If you are able to raise a Series A round, the process is easier than for a seed round. A rounds take less
time, yield more money, and require fewer investors than seed rounds.
Series A rounds
took an average
of 9.6 weeks, 24
percent less time
than the time given
for the average
seed round.
During A rounds,
companies contacted
an average of 26
investors, versus 58
investors contacted
for seed rounds.
During A rounds,
companies had on
average 30 investor
meetings, versus 40
investor meetings for
seed rounds.
The average money
raised during seed
rounds was just
under $1.3 million,
where the money
raised during A
rounds was more
than $8 million.
Here are some of the key facts we gathered:
9.6weeks
26investors
30investor meetings
$1.3million
16
17. Easiest Markets for Seed Funding
Consumers’ needs and other
economic conditions impact which
business models receive the
greatest success during fundraising.
While trends are always fluctuating,
in the past 12 months, four types of
companies stood out as having the
most success during seed rounds:
consumer, business, marketplace,
and hardware.
On average, marketplace
companies raised the most money
in their seed rounds. Successful
marketplace businesses are quite
rare, but when they work, they’re
also much bigger, like Uber or
Airbnb. Raising money for a
marketplace startup takes a long
time. Although there’s a lot of money
for companies in these categories,
convincing investors that your
startup is going to win takes longer.
The following are some of the key statistics on the fundraising
efforts of the four types of business models:
Consumer
32%
Business
32%
Marketplace
22%
Hardware
14%
avg $ raised
% deals
$1,330,000$1,738,750$1,245,435$945,870
$2M
17
18. 20 1
2
3
4
5
20-30
7
6
To Recap, Seven Key Takeaways
Fundraising for your startup can be an opaque and
frustrating process when the future of your business
is on the line. Keep these take aways in mind to
maximize your chances of successfully raising a
seed round.
Keep your deck to 20 pages or
fewer. Each visit will only be 3m
44sec on average.
More meetings does not equal
more money. Focus on getting
quality introductions to investors
who are likely to be a fit. Quality
over quantity.
You’ll likely need to contact 20-30
investors. But you won’t need to
contact hundreds.
Spend time on your deck.
Specifically, make sure your
team slide looks awesome. If you
include a financial slide, which is
optional, remember it’ll be your
most viewed.
Raising seed funding will take
longer than you think. Don’t start
to despair until you’ve been at it
for a few months.
Try to raise from a seed firm
before you go to angels. Firms
will give you more money in
less time with fewer meetings.
Don’t list your deal terms in your
deck. Deliver them in person.
The terms can vary by investor.
18
19. Wondering what happens
after you raise a seed
round of funding?
See what DocSend did on our blog
Want to see who reads your
pitch deck and where they
spend time?
Sign up for a free DocSend account