We see a lot of decks .
Decks are important and companies spend a ton of time on decks for their first round and then slightly update the deck over time. Below is feedback that I find myself constantly giving our entrepreneurs at The LegalTech Fund.
If you don’t know what a deck is or its importance, there are better posts by others you should check out.
My top five thoughts (take em or leave em 😀):
1/ Constant updates: Make sure that you are always taking credits for your wins. That could mean updates as frequently as weekly! Encourage your entire team to help contribute to ideas for how the company can tell its story.
2/ Big updates: Updating charts / graphs are important (especially for #1), but as your business progresses expect to throw out the entire slide as time advances, so should your slides.
3/ Order matters: in the beginning of a company it’s all about the team, as time goes by that shifts to the company / metrics, adjust accordingly. Your first few slides are prime time material.
4/ Summary first: If your audience only looks at one slide it should be the first slide and that should give them everything they need. When pitching you want the audience to have context and not trying to guess if you are raising a pre-seed or an A round, what your revenue is, how much capital you have raised, who your key partners are, etc. A killer one page summary will make the next 30 minutes a much more engaging dialog.
5/ Throw it all out: Every time you raise a new round, start fresh with a new outline. This ensures that you are capturing the essence of where you are at today vs. where you were at eight months ago.
Thoughts?
Also make sure you include a sales bridge as part of your simple deck!
